navyscuba

Planning to get about 6 to 8 10 gal tanks to use them for breeding African Cichlids. Any one have an idea how to connect the tanks together into a sump filter? Do I need to drill the tanks or not? Anyone with input will help.
Thanks.

pepetj

You don't need to drill the tank. What you need is an overflow assembly that uses gravity to siphon water from the main tank into your filter, and a powerhead or waterpump with enough head to bring the water, against gravity, back into your tank.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

FishMagnet

Personally, I'd drill them. I didn't find it too hard to do and the bits are cheap enough. Especially when you compare them to the cost of buying that many overflows. 10gal tanks aren't that expensive either in case you mess one up. Also, you won't be running the risks of the overflows failing and emptying your water out over the floor.

Tavel

a 10 gal costs about $10...i'd drill 'em.

pepetj

FishMagnet and Tavel: could you elaborate (better with drawings or pics) on how drill tanks work? I have no idea on the principles behind drilled tanks, so please...

Pepe
Santo Domingo

navyscuba

I need some help too. I'm kinda new in the drilling glass thing. I want to do about 6 10 gals and 2 20 gal or 30 gals at the bottom all running with one filter. I imagine that the PVC pipe size has a lot to do with flow. Right?

FishMagnet

Hey guys.
Sumps are really fairly easy to work when you do your research. I spent hours combing the net looking at pics, diagrams, reading forums. Nothing to really be afraid of, but I know I wouldn't have wanted to start by drilling into my main tank. I don't think I can give you any great help here as I'm no expert at it but maybe some pointers.

Drilling:
First, I'd check around and see if any LFS will do it for you. Sometimes glass supply places will do it too. Its hit or miss.

Second, a search will come up with a few youtube vids showing how. I'd guess a drill press would work best but I've never had access to one. Two important things to know if doing it with a hand drill is to be very slow, and start at an angle and when you have a good groove going slowly move it up. The first video I saw showed it. (wish youtube had been out when I started doing it) Oh, and be carefull when you "punch through"...if your pushing hard it will crack/chip/break out on the way through. It may anyway.

Third, you need a good bit. I got mine from www.diamond-drill-bit-and-tool.com. They even have some nifty how-to instructions.

As for diagrams/pictures. I have to again tell you to do a search. There are so many out there. A quick search here on Fish Lore came up with a few.
(its not letting me attach pictures so I can't show you the ones I have saved to my pc)


The hardest part was the piping. I can't really tell you how to pipe yours. At its most basic you will have gravity pulling water from your tank into the sump, and a pump pumping it back up. I flooded my place a few times while learning. Hopefully you won't. Just remember your overflow should be able to handle more water than you're pumping into it, and if the power goes out your sump should be able to hold whatever drains into it.

After all is said and done, I'd recommend just buying a sump set up. Unless of course your into the DIY and have specific need...as in wanting to maintain multiple breeding tanks. Which leads to a whole other set of problems. When you keep multiple tanks on one sump, it only takes one bad fish to ruin the whole bunch. I used to breed seahorses and to keep disease risk lower I only kept three breeding tanks to each sump. 3 15gal tall tanks to one 20gal sump. Each grow out tank, had its own sump. Anyway,
www.Wetwebmedia.com has some pretty extensive info on all this. Maybe check that out if you can't find anything promising.
Good luck!

navyscuba

So I found this in closed Threat here on the forum. How close is this to reality? Do you guys think this pipe size would work. thinking the 12mm would be a 1/2" inside diameter and the 22 a 1" pipe? Sorry about the pic is not mine I save it from the threat.

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pepetj

I see several problem with this design: it has three different intake and output heights. I don't say one pump won't handle it, but it will need at least the following modifications:

All intakes (from the tank to the sump) must use separate pipes and use some sort of manifold to merge their output at the prefilter tray of the wet Dry. That is three separate pipes on each side (left and right of the cabinet/rack) for a total of six pipes. I figure check valves (preventing reverse flow) are needed to avoid water from the uppermost tanks going into the lower levels if the manifold output to the tray is clogged. I don't know if there are all plastic flow check valves available since using metallic parts is as far as I know, not a good idea in fishkeeping.

For one pump to return water to three different heights... maybe using ball check valves to reduce output on the lower leveled tanks to compensate for against gravity losses... I don't know but it looks like this design has very little margin of error for something going awfully wrong.

Also, as FishMagnet said, it takes one sick fish to compromise the health of all tanks. Recirculating systems are usually discouraged in fishkeeping.

I believe it would be easier, more practical, if you divide a bigger tank into six segments. Say a tank with a footprint of 48"L x18"W. Using five perforated panels (e.g. eggcrate) and DIY-PVC frames. Say you end up with six sections each with around 6"Lx18"W footprint (say we loose six inches to the total width of the dividers). If your 4 footer is at least 21"H, then you have six sections of 10gals each.

Filtration should be easier to do, even with a Wet/Dry sump this way.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

FishMagnet

I don't find the idea too terrible. You would have to play with it to make it work for you. I wouldn't stack the system 3 high like that though. At the most I would only do 2 levels and spread them out horizontally. But, it really all depends on how you want to do it.

My setup was all horizontal. At the most 6 tanks across a shelf, all the overflows were 1in into a 2in ...manifold. Which drained directly to the sump. I can't say that my pipe size was correct, but it worked well enough for me. The math is pretty complex and I'm not very good at it. There is also a concern of noise with overflows and sumps. All that water makes quiet the noise rushing down the pipes.

PepeTJ is correct about the check valves, and yes they do make them in plastic. I had problems with them sticking shut though.

The return is the tricky part. Too much water and you'll overflow your tanks. Too small of drains/overflows and its a waste of time.

The right pump can and will pump back to all the tanks, but you have to do the math to get it correct. (internet search) Or just buy a pump larger than what you think you'll need. Or two of them. Ball valves will allow you to play with the amount of water flow to each tank. But it does leave little room for error when playing with height, distance, and that number of tanks.

The diagram I've attached is the one I used as a starting point. Note on the return line the first tee with a valve that flows right back into the sump. Thats kind of your "master" valve. Allowing you to control the flow up to your tank/tanks before it leaves the sump.

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