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Filter For 750 Litre Tank


Silverdollarboy2

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+1 for sump if you're willing to do the research into building it to suit your needs. Otherwise any of the above suggestions would work, two of the 2080 that Hovmoller suggested with the built-in heaters to reduce the clutter in your tank would be my pick, but you could set up a very good sump for a lot less...

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Silverdollarboy is probably our youngest forum participant at 10 years old. Is there anyone living in his neck of the woods who might be able to assist him or if someone is able to draw up what he needs, if he went to a sump, and post it on here so he can see? Or even point him to the better links on the internet?

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I've been meaning to write an article on the subject for yonks now, but always seem to find something easier to do... :lol:

If you want a sump, then;

Is your tank already built, and is it drilled?

How much noise can you tolerate?

How much room do you have under/beside/behind the tank?

Can you (or anyone you know) DIY stuff, like cutting, measuring and gluing pipes?

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I'm not sure

That's going to be the biggest thing, there's a bit of a learning curve and a few different concepts to understand if you want to design a good sump for your set up, but if you're not comfortable with measuring/cutting/gluing pipes then you're probably best to stick with canister filters. It's not really that difficult though, just remember the old adage of 'measure three times, cut once'!

In it's simplest form, all you need is a suitable-sized old aquarium, a couple of filter socks, some ceramic media (or pond matrix is better again if you want to spend more) in laundry bags, and a suitable return pump.

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As big as you can get away with really, for 750L you would want at least 100L I think. That is close to the bare minimum for a tank that size to fit in all your bits and bobs and not have it horribly cramped.

I think you may struggle with a sump if you aren't DIY-inclined.

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Yeah I think 100L would be bare minimum, but it also depends on the shape of the tank and how you set the sump up. You need to have enough water in there while it's running to keep the pump from sucking air, while leaving enough empty volume to hold the "skim" that flows down from the main tank when the pump is switched off. If you have an inch of water above the weir in the tank based on your footprint of 180x70cm you'll have at least 30L of water plus what is in the plumbing and overflow. I'd budget on 50L spare at the very least, so bigger than 100L would be advisable.

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When I was 10 years old I'm pretty sure my mom wouldn't have allowed me to build a sump serving a 750L tank.

2 large canister filters is my recommendation for this young chap :wave:

Thank you for this information. I am looking at buying 2 cannister filters today. We thought we would get 2 Aqua One Nautilus filters.
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Thank you for this information. I am looking at buying 2 cannister filters today. We thought we would get 2 Aqua One Nautilus filters.

Your allowance must be much bigger than mine was when I was 10.

Actually bigger than my allowance is now. :slfg:

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  • 4 weeks later...

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This is an ideal freshwater sump. I'd recommend around 100 litres for your sump, but larger is always better.

That triple baffle is called a "bubble trap", basically after an overflow small bubbles are often formed and the bubble traps prevent bubbles from passing through the sump and into the return pump. They work because water has to flow deep under the surface to get to the next chamber, and bubbles float up so generally do not go to the next chamber.

As the image shows, you first want filter floss, then you want coarse media such as bio balls, and finally you want fine media such as ceramic noodles. Final chamber has return pump and heaters.

Alternatively instead of filter floss you can use filter socks on the drain.

When designing it, keep in mind the ease of cleaning the media (recommended to do every 6 months or less).

For draining, you can either drill or use an overflow. Drilling is harder but safer, overflow is easy but can fail.

These overflows are very good if you don't mind the cost: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=18358. With some minor modifications it can be very silent.

An extremely good return pump for you will be the Eheim 1260.

Heaters, you will need at least 2x 300W, maybe 3 depending on how cold it gets.

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There's nothing wrong with the above design, but IMO it is over-complicated for the average FW set up. I would use two 100 micron filter socks suspended over an old aquarium (100L+), then use ceramic rings stacked up in laundry bags (for easy cleaning) then heaters and return pumps. Baffles aren't really needed, and bubble traps are more for marine tanks.

Is your tank drilled? If not, I would look into drilling it and setting it up with a herbie-type overflow.

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