monster sump

This looks around awesome setup, the filtration will be excellent

 

Have you considered adding a deep sand bed for anaerobic bacteria? It won't need to be big, just enough to hold about 12cm or more of play sand. The marine guys will know best about that though.

 

This should be nice to see develop :blink1: GOOD LUCK

 

As far as I knew, deep sand bed's don't establish themselves in tropical tanks...?

 

yes dont want go with DSB just 3 layers of gravel and a.c as a final polishing stage.about 3cm thick in stocking
looked at lights today think im gonna go with 3 150w pendant metal halides for when im at home and 2 4ft 6500 white tubes in front for during the day

 

pic of lights Im looing at putting in worked out if at 40cm above water level 3 will give awsome coverage and still penetrate to the bottom of the tank ...just ^%% expesive

 

Metal Halides aren't cheap. I have 2x 150watt MH lights in my canopy. Probably not the best place for them, but heck, they work. Are you going to be planting the tank with difficult plants? Are you going to run Co2? If not, then the MH lights will be overkill. You can get away with the T5's instead.

 

nope and nope .i like overkill .after all this will be my no1 tank. MH give the best light and effect by far. i love the glimmer mh give on the bottom and a 50 cm arowana will look f%&*% awsome under it nevermind the big Os and terrors.
no plants the silver dollars and oscars will destroy them
and the mh will hang +_ 40cm above the tank .instead of glass sliders im planing on spaning a clear net over the top :1 it wont interfere with the light and trap heat like glass .2 the arowana can jump as much as he wants and he wont hit glass or break lights hanging in the middle of tank.
just getting stingy and am thinking of keeping my 1.6 as another marine and just letting derik @ffw include a 1.5 sump >>>

 

And the masses of algae that you going to be cleaning on a continual basis?

 

well im hoping the plants in the sump will prevent most of the algae but the idea is to only run the MH when im home from about 7 at night till bout 11 and will have 2 4ft whites globes during the day in the tank on the edge where the bracing gos so the monsters cant break em.

 

Are there not a few species of plant that the oscars and silver dollars won't eat?
I've heard of success in Malawi tanks with Java Fern and Anubias and sometimes giant vallis.

 

will try those when tank is setup

 

Stormbringer,

You earlier asked if there was a disadvantage if one added too many chambers. Each chamber that you add reduces water flow. My advice would be to keep it simple and to reduce the number of chambers. You must also ensure that the water flows through the whole medium and not just through the part closest to the gap between the glass. You should install a preforated perspex plate on a support at the bottom of each segment to ensure better water flow.

I also want to warn you about a sump with a large surface area. You will get massive evaporation from it which is summer will lead to water loss in the tank and in winter this will lead to condensation on the windows of the room in which this tank is to be kept. You will not be popular with the missus if her curtains rot or fungus.... I am talking from experience....

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

thanks prof .
derek@ffw whos building the tank also rekons keep it simple and will be placing cut crate between the compartments.
as for the large surface area it seems like a catch 21 situation as surley the goal of any system is to have as large a filtration system as possible ? .the sump will be in a cabinet and has glass sliders and a light box above it. the room is huge +_100m2
and has underfloor heating and aircon in it so the temp is constant. will I still have problems with evaporation and condensation and do you think having aplanted section in the sump would have any bennefit as apposed to larger compartments. ?