3x352 liter Panaque setups

[Haavard Stoere]

Quite recently I have made an aquarium stand for 3x353 liter tanks specifically for keeping large amounts of panaque plecos. Each tank has an individual sump driven ba an Aquamedic OR 3500.

The main tanks measures 110X80x40. the pipes from the sumps are 20mm, and return pipes are 40mm. Sumps are 100mm lower than the main tanks. The reason for the very special filtersystem is the enourmous amount of waste Panaques produce. The front part of each 75x40x40cm sump works as settling chamber for particles. Normal filters work by filtering out particles, and will get clogged in a short time by large number of panaques.

My Panaque rack has now been running for about a month. The top one is inhabited by 18 Panaque sp. L204.
The middle tank has 3 L417, 3 Hyposomus sp. "Huallaga", 10 Lasiancistrus heterachantus and one L206
The lowest tank is inhabited by 4 L417 and 4 L426.

Because of the very clean water these tanks are very pleasant to photograph Panaques in. There will be a lot of photographs when I find the time

Please study the drawings. They took me a week to create using Google Sketchup:

[andy75]

Wow, thats looks amazing, wish i had the room and patience to do that. Really looking forward for the photos.


Andy

[matthewfaulkner]

Nice pictures and looking forward to pictures. Do you mean L418? L417 is listed on the clog as Ogliancistrus.

I can understand your thinking about the settlement chamber but I think you may potentially have two flaws. The first being the intake for sumps will be high in the water column where IME there is very little of the waste/detritus produced from the panaque which (unless your tanks will be very turbulent) will settle on the floor. Second, I think the flow in the settlement chamber will be too high, preventing settlement (based on the 3500lph sump pump). I have found that the waste/detritus can easily be kicked up into the water column from a flick of fish tail. You could reduce the turbidity in the settlement chamber by using a wide aperture on the sump inflow and by using baffles. I say all this like I have experience with sumps and settlement chambers, just my observation.

[2wheelsx2]

Very interesting setup. Just curious since you have the tanks in a rack, why you didn't try to have one individual large sump vs. the 3 small ones? Was it concern with disease, or ease of cleaning, or differing water parameter requirements?

[Haavard Stoere]

Nice pictures and looking forward to pictures. Do you mean L418? L417 is listed on the clog as Ogliancistrus..

Yes, I meant L418

I can understand your thinking about the settlement chamber but I think you may potentially have two flaws. The first being the intake for sumps will be high in the water column where IME there is very little of the waste/detritus produced from the panaque which (unless your tanks will be very turbulent) will settle on the floor.

With the enormous amount of waste they produce there will always be detritus on the sand. The point is to reduce it with very high current and high turnover between the tank and the filter. The movement of the plecos helps a lot.The height of the intake starts 10cm above the glass bottom. This is to reduce the amount of sand being pulled in, but it is 100% adjustable as the pvc parts inside the tank are not glued.

Second, I think the flow in the settlement chamber will be too high, preventing settlement (based on the 3500lph sump pump). I have found that the waste/detritus can easily be kicked up into the water column from a flick of fish tail. You could reduce the turbidity in the settlement chamber by using a wide aperture on the sump inflow and by using baffles. I say all this like I have experience with sumps and settlement chambers, just my observation

The sump inflow is a 50 mm pvc pipe with 5mm openings every 10mm, so the aperture is quite large. To make them even more efficient (the settling chamber has already collected 2 cm of dtritus) I will make something similar out of 100mm pvc to reduce the turbulence even more. This is just to keep the filtermats even cleaner. You are definetely on to something because the turbulence should be even lower.

This is with the 50mm as today:

Very interesting setup. Just curious since you have the tanks in a rack, why you didn't try to have one individual large sump vs. the 3 small ones? Was it concern with disease, or ease of cleaning, or differing water parameter requirements?

The top tank is for L204 held at around 28 degrees c. The two on the bottom are exlusively for self cought fish from Rio Huallaga. They need to be kept considerably cooler at only 23-26 degrees c.
Also I needed to make use of the corner of my fishroom where I can`t have any display tanks. Therefore I used the vacant space for the sumps. The three sumps with the 6 filter mats gives me large enough settle area for the detrius instead of it getting pulled into the filter mats.

[Haavard Stoere]

The flow pattern is the same as in all my tanks. The whole idea is to produce the strongest current possible with the least amaount of pump wattage. Both inlets push the water in the same clockwise direction. This amplifies the effect of both:

[Haavard Stoere]

These are my first photographs of the middle tank. To show the clarity of the water I have not removed any dust in photoshop.

The first and last picture was taken when the fish were on along the backside of the tank. The tank is 80 cm deep, so the fish are a whole 70cm from the front glass.







This one is very clean indeed:

[Coco]

Nice fishs, very beautifull . The instalation is amazing. Do you have more pics

[Haavard Stoere]

Nice fishs, very beautifull . The instalation is amazing. Do you have more pics

Lots more, but I have not made them yet Thank you

[matthewfaulkner]

Its obviously working! I understand more about what you are doing, especially the tall sump inflow, I think thats a very good idea. Isnt the sump intake too low (10cm above the bottom)? Id of thought there was a risk of overflowing in the sump tank if the pump were to fail.

[Haavard Stoere]

Its obviously working! I understand more about what you are doing, especially the tall sump inflow, I think thats a very good idea. Isnt the sump intake too low (10cm above the bottom)? Id of thought there was a risk of overflowing in the sump tank if the pump were to fail.

If the power (or pump) fails the sump runs into the drains through 32 mm pipes (not shown in the drawings). It was a major issue since I had all three tanks going into a single 32 pipe. To fix the problem I had to run the two tanks on top into a 32mm Y connection at the bottom. The tank on the botton has a totally separate piping for itself together with another "low" sump.

[andywoolloo]

in****ingcredible, as always ..we need a bowing emoticon (bow)




the fish and tanks look amazing.

[Shane]

Incredible (as always) Haarvard!
-Shane

[Martin S]

Incredible (as always) Haarvard!
-Shane

Ditto
Martin

[DJ-don]

you must have a really high paying job to afford all this!!

[Haavard Stoere]

you must have a really high paying job to afford all this!!

Far from it. I work in a petstore (In Norway this is considered to be low pay) and spend almost everything on my hobby. I travel on the bus and I am not married.

[2wheelsx2]

you must have a really high paying job to afford all this!!

Far from it. I work in a petstore (In Norway this is considered to be low pay) and spend almost everything on my hobby. I travel on the bus and I am not married.

That makes your setups even more awesome. I applaud you for doing what you want with what you have!

[Farid]

hey havaard,
stunning set up again i like the huge filter chamber.
could you please show a photo of the pipe outlet part on the tank? (how it is sealed) i guess with a O-ring and screwed together as fas i know the system.

i would also like to see a photo where i can see the two waterlevels during the pumps are running and maybe one pic where the pump is off...to see how the waterlevel rises in the filtertank... the idea is great. this is the size of a real filter.
to get it originally measured. the filtervolume should even be the double of the fishtank. but with this fish the room would soon be full

what is the constrution made out of...aluminium ot steel? if i look well the tanks are carried only be the back and the front poles of the construction? is there no problem with the width of 80cm??? (i think about the silicone connection-bottom glass and side glass)

regards to norway
farid

[wrasse]

As they say - 'the proof is in the pudding.'

You can see how well-conditioned your fish are. They love it. Its all very well done.

Maybe you should copyright and market your ideas.

[Haavard Stoere]

hey havaard,
stunning set up again i like the huge filter chamber.
could you please show a photo of the pipe outlet part on the tank? (how it is sealed) i guess with a O-ring and screwed together as fas i know the system.

It is a standard pvc system glued with tangit:
http://www.aquaristikshop.com/cgi-bin/n ... UxqOCKep7W

i would also like to see a photo where i can see the two waterlevels during the pumps are running and maybe one pic where the pump is off...to see how the waterlevel rises in the filtertank... the idea is great. this is the size of a real filter.

The aquariums have a water level around 14 cm higher than the sumps. When the pumps are off the water spills from the sumps to the drains through 32mm pipes.

what is the constrution made out of...aluminium ot steel? if i look well the tanks are carried only be the back and the front poles of the construction? is there no problem with the width of 80cm??? (i think about the silicone connection-bottom glass and side glass)

The construction is 25mm porsa system aluminium. It is anchored to the wall.
The tanks are only supported in the four corners, where they rest on 1mm rubber. The tanks are made from 10mm glass with 12mm bottom.
I can intend to photograph more, but my fishroom is a mess and I work a lot these days.

[Farid]

hi havaard,
thanks so far ...i'd like to see the mess your talking about. it will be harmless if compared to mine....
i'm curious...

so if the pumps are off the outflow-pipe level spills back to the sump and also the waterlevel + a few millimeters of higner lever also spills back into the sump...is that right? or are you working with the waterlevels of both tanks ans soon as the water from the bigger tank reaches the same level as the sump the waterflow stops???

farid

[2wheelsx2]

It's been a while now, Havaard. Any updated pics to show how well the filtration systems are working? I'm curious how the accumulation of detritus is being dealt with.

[Haavard Stoere]

Sorry, but I don`t have much time to photograph and update threads these days as I am getting increasingly busy.

[2wheelsx2]

That's ok, we're patient (sometimes) and will wait for when you have time.

[Farid]

havaard,
you are worse then my plecos...they lay eggs even before you post new pics...

smiles
farid

[nvcichlids]

10 Lasiancistrus heterachantus .

Wow, I have only found 1 in the US and its in my tank... I wish I could find more!

[apistomaster]

Hi Haavard,

Few outside of aquaculture are aware of how useful and effective the use of settlement basins are.
I wish I could use these types of filter designs on all my tanks but it just is not possible.
However, I do use very large sumps in both designs of my DIY high capacity wet/dry filters built for my 2 largest Discus tanks and they make the removal of sediment a very easy part of every water change. Ideally, a settlement basin should be the first stage of any filter system but I could not incorporate that into my designs. I have to rely on the first stage being a large surface area mechanical filtration pad.
Still, due to the end result of biological filtration being mineralization, I still get a lot of settlement which I siphon out the door just like the water from the tanks when making my water changes.
Every filter system utilizing sumps should have by design, fail safe provisions in case of power outages and pump failures. These should be passive in nature so there are no possibilities of mechanical malfunctions. I know you have designed for these issues but I mentioned it for the benefit of any readers who choose to build their own high capacity filtration systems. Something as simple as drilling a 1/8 inch hole in the water intake line at or nearly below the water line will break the back siphon tendencies of these systems. A small, no cost, design feature such as this can prevent a catastrophic flood in your house.