My 1000 Gallon Glass Aquarium (1000+ Gallons for Dummies)
- Thread starter Albertan
- Start date
Now this thing could very well be a work of artMODERATORS: If you could please copy this post to post #4 on the first page of this thread, it would be greatly appreciated. I am no longer able to edit the posts I left at the outset to fill in later. Thanks.
I want to state at the outset that while I received input from several members on the site with large tanks (especially my Cichla-keeping brothers), 90% of the credit for the design of this filtration system goes to kendragon. Thanks for taking the time to respond to me several times a night over the past two weeks to answer my questions, make recommendations, and politely point out my faulty logic when necessary. I printed off our conversation for future reference, and it's over 20 pages long! You are one of the site's most knowledgable assets in this area. Basically, you rock!
In the final design, the external filter boxes were changed to internal trapezoidal boxes and the sump was deleted in favor of a full closed loop system. In shooting for 10X turnover on the tank for the Cichla (10,000 gph), it quickly became apparent that a sump was not going to be capable of enough throughput to contribute significantly to the goal. Several members with large tanks also expressed to me a level of maintenance with their sumps that I wanted to try to avoid. Even with the two-tier sock system proposed in the initial design, a sump on a tank this size simply had too many logistical problems.
Starting with my 10,000 gph filtration goal, I then worked backwards to establish my filtration needs. The Ultima filters really appealed to me for their ease of use and low maintenance/backwashing capabilities. But these filters do have some limitations in terms of their mechanical filtration capabilities, so I started looking elsewhere to meet my mechanical needs. Several modified pool filter systems were explored. While I think they work well, they still involved a level of maintenance I wanted to avoid. Trying to hose down filters in my garage in the winter was a messy proposition. A few members like kendragon have started using glass bead filters on their Cichla tanks to handle the bulk of their mechanical filtration. As I learned about these filters, I came to believe I had hit pay dirt in terms of meeting my goals. The BioWave glass bead filter works similar to the Ultimas in terms of its ability to be backwashed for easy maintenance. As a bonus, it also uses a lot less water to backwash...something that became a consideration with the Ultimas late in the design (more on that below). Due to the nature of its filter media the BioWave excels at mechanical filtration, taking a lot of the mechanical load off the Ultimas and leaving them to handle more of the biological filtration.
I went with a 1/4hp Wave I Series pump (6228gph) to handle the 22" BioWave. That left approximately 4000gph left to allocate. An Ultima 4000 was the easy answer. But then I found out that filter would need more than half the water in my tank to backwash, causing problems with the design of my filter boxes. So, for the benefits of redundancy and to keep the backwash to a more manageable 3-400 or so gallons, I decided to run two Ultima 2000's instead. Each Ultima is plumbed separately with a 1/15" Wave I Series pump (3000gph). So in the end, I wound up closer to 12X turnover. I'm happy with that outcome. The picture below is an early concept drawing showing the pumps required. I've since decided to run all the lines over the top of the tank into the boxes to avoid drilling the tank at all...
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With the filtration finalized, I had to decide how to integrate everything into the tank. External overflow boxes are of no use without the sump and were discarded. Knowing I wanted to use a 3D background on the tank, I decided to use trapezoidal boxes so that I could adapt the background around them with the least amount of problems. I also wanted to try to have some sort of a bottom sucking design to keep the bottom clean, as well as to retain the surface skimming abilities of a conventional box for a sump. Grates were incorporated into the boxes to allow both goals to be met. A close to scale Paint picture of the back wall is included below...
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All three filters will draw from within the boxes, and all will have outflows on the face of the boxes pointing at the front wall. The idea is that the outflows will agitate the surface, sending water across the top of the water column towards the front of the tank. The water will then hit the front wall and curl down and then back along the bottom of the tank towards the bottom intake grates on the boxes. The intake for the BioWave will be near the bottom of the box so that it draws most of the crap off the bottom before it gets to the Ultimas. The intakes for the Ultimas are as high in the box as the water necessary to backwash them will allow...probably somewhere around the middle based on a 3-400 gallon backwash and a safety margin. The Ultimas will get some water from the bottom and some from the surface. A side view of the box is shown below. The returns have since been moved inside the boxes to keep everything clean looking.
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With the bulk of the filtration system addressed, I had only a few odds and ends left to deal with. I went with a 2kW Aqua Logic titanium in-line heater and a 116W single chamber high output dual bulb UV system, both sourced from wlim products.
and all glass OOOOOH!!!
Dam.. Sweet set up.. I remember when it was just a bowl and a airstone.. The game has changed!
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Looks awesome!
I might be off base with this question, but since the plan is to run the intakes in from the top of the tank so that you don't have to drill the tank, are the W Lim pumps self priming or are you planning on plumbing in a T fitting with a removable plug so that you can prime them?
I might be off base with this question, but since the plan is to run the intakes in from the top of the tank so that you don't have to drill the tank, are the W Lim pumps self priming or are you planning on plumbing in a T fitting with a removable plug so that you can prime them?
High speed pool pumps (3600rpm) are self priming. The Wave I are designed for low amp so are at (1725rpm) which is not self priming. As I suggested to masterb on his build with a Reeflo and Ultima, the initial priming can be done by shop vac-ing the filter backwash outlet to start the syphon into the pump and filter. Or as you suggested, install tee fittings.