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Some time next year I hope to purchase a new tank that has 700-1000l capacity, obviously the exact size will depend on money and space at the time.
The tank will be used to raise and hopefully breed plecs. I will probably start with L333s and L14s as these are the plecs I currently have. From my research it appears that even the biggest external filters are only really recommended for up to 600l (Ex2400 says 1000l!! Is this BS?). Examples of some of the larger filters are below. The Eheim (1250l/h) and Tetra (2400l/h really?!?!)
Obviously this means I would probably want 2 of these, which means about 2500-4800l/h (I still don't believe the EX2400 produces 2400l/h!!!) turnover. I would also wants 1-2 additional internal filters/powerheads to increase water flow. If anyone has advice on the best filters and how to set up multiple filters in large tanks it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Q) Why are dead fish harder to 'wind up' than live fish?
A) Because dead fish never take the bait! ;)
Personally, with 4 tanks over 1000 liters, I decided to go for pond filtration.
The problem with this is, in pond technology the pump is placed before the filter, but this means the pump is placed in the tank, which means all excess heat will heat the water (saving on heating expenses)
In a 1000 liter tank, one can hide a 20 * 20 cm pump
Personally i would go with eheim 2260 or two of those and two 2252 internals. And add a powerhead if more current is preferred. The 2260 circulates around 2400l/h and has filter capacity of 18 litres. 2252 has worked great (at least for me) at collecting that small debris in the water and producing more circulation. I had in my sadly long-gone 800l tank one 2260 and two 2252, current was nice but somewhat modest for some species. Anyhow this filtration kept the water chemistry (ie nitrates, nitrites) and amount of small particles in the water in good level. (It was a community tank with some tetras, african cats and loaches)
Last edited by JEK on 17 Dec 2009, 11:27, edited 1 time in total.
ideally you want to use a large Sump & then a powerful returns pump.
My 8' tank is filtered by a sump that is 3'x2' x2'.
Failing this i know of several people that use large Pond filters & to good use, only difficulty's lie in hiding the pump in the tank itself & the filter has to be above the aquarium which is never particualry attractive.
On my other large tanks & my Indoor Pond I use a mixture of Eheim 2260 "Bucket" filters & Fluval FX5's coupled with large & regular water changes.
I agree with all of the above:
1. Pump in water whenever possible.
2. Either pump water into a pond-system, or use a sump under the tank, with the pump in the sump. Sump system means drilled tank, but since you are certainly not buying an off-the-shelf tank, it's no big deal to add a few quid to get it drilled.
Next time you are round this way, I'll show you my small DIY sumps - which could easily be made larger using a different types of container/pump.
Multiple external aquarium? filters? Sump? Fluisided sand bed and DIY trickle filter? OR a small swimming pool/pond filter with an external pump fed from a bottom or side drilled hole in the main aquarium? Or like everyone else said go for a pond filter and just hide the pond filter Make sure you insulate it with something polystyrene/rubber too because they can be a little more noisy than your aquarium filters.
Personally I would tend to go for a sump, trickle filter AND a small swimming pool filter (Fluidised sand/bubble bead) with an external pump but they can be pretty noisy. Might seen excessive but the smallest systems we have at work are 1000L and 2 that are 2000L (Including sump) and they each a medium sized swimming pool filter and a huge trickle tower about 8ft tall! Needless to say we have NO water quality problems and you could easilly scale this down and still get very effective filtration for your aquarium.
