Breeding setup log

[Aaron-Betta]

Right, so after deciding to seriously get back into the hobby, i've started constructing a new breeding setup to hold 15 tanks.

Scored some pellet racking from work after moving factories and combining with 2 other print companies :thup: so i thought they'd make a great new stand.

Only problem is that my old tanks are a little too small to fill the shelves. (will have to upgrade again later )

So my first of many questions is:

knowing its easier to hold temperature in a larger volume of water, would it be better to insulate each tank with poly (including underneath, not shown in the pic) or to have the tanks all touching each other to share the warmth?

[Adrienne]

Welcome back Aaron. Have wondered how you were getting on and if you still had fish. Hows that hand of yours?

[Aaron-Betta]

Hi Adrienne, took about 4 weeks to heal up and come right. So fully functional now. Just been moving around Auckland too often lately and havent settled down anywhere but I'm living with my brother at the moment while I find my own place and he happens to have a large basement I can have tanks in

[#!CrunchBang]

If you put poly between them all they would be insulated from each other. You could have all the tanks in contact and they can share the heat, just insulate the exposed ends, below and behind

[Aaron-Betta]

Ok, so next step on the agenda was designing and making overflow boxes for the tanks so i can run them through a central filtration system. I will be running sponge filters in each tank, but over filtering wont hurt, lol.

So I knocked one up this arvo to suss out a pattern to be cut from acrylic.

I'm hoping this will work.

[Zayne]

wouldnt it be cheaper and easier to drill the tanks and have an overflow that way?

[diver21]

wouldnt it be cheaper and easier to drill the tanks and have an overflow that way?

+1

but if you want to go through with the siphon design i would remove the top part of your design and run 2-3 'u' shaped tubes to act as the siphon hoses. lsimilar to these ones here but with more siphon pipes for redundancy

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Eshopps-Overflow-Box-PF-800-Aquarium-Reef-Tanks-/350187624239

also think about what could happen if it fails

[Aaron-Betta]

fair comments

I dont like the idea of drilling my tanks because if they crack, its a wasted tank.

Also the two ways that i've seen them drilled-

From the bottom- with a pipe coming up through the tank setting the water height, means i need to drill holes in the shelves also under the tank for the pipe to drain

From the side- has to be the correct water height.

So I sorta steered away from that idea because of the possible cracked tanks and also, once its drilled, it cant be filled if the tank needs to run on its own.

I opted for the overflow option as it doesn't need any work done to the tank and to isolate the tank i'd just need to remove the overflows. Overflows will be going from tank to tank across each shelf to a common sump tank with UV filter and then a pump to push the water back up to the top of the shelves.

I agree that the pipes would be easier, I just opted for the look I have because it looks clean etc, you can easily see through it etc. got the idea from here

If there was a power outage or something, the idea is that the overflows would settle the water at the same heaight in all tanks as the water is not being sucked from the tank, its being pushed out by however much water is entering the tank. If a pump was to fail, there would be no water entering the first tank. The last tank will overflow into the sump, and stop overflowing at the set height. Thats the idea in theory anyway.

Liking the different ideas and input as it really gets me thinking about my options.

Thanks heaps and please keep them coming, nothing is set in concrete yet.

Aaron

[ryanjury]

You can make those overflows (or ones using the same principle) out of PVC pipes as well..