# CAN ANYONE HELP ME WITH MY DIY PROBLEM?:(



## cichliddd (Jun 29, 2010)

Hey everyone!,

I have a long term plan over the next 2 years of building a few aquariums and shelving to turn a poolside octaganal gazebo in to a full enclosed aquarium room......

the plan is to have 2 shelves, 1 on each side of the room holding 3 48x20x20 Inch tanks each. I am contemplating building a single sump for each shelf of 3 to help with any disease managment problems that may 1 day occur, i was also going to attempt to design the sumps so each tank can be turn off from the sump individualy at any time with out having to stop water supply to the remainding tanks.

Ontop of that i was going to build approx 2 8ft tanks 96x30x25Inches(Length,Depth,Hieght)following the shape of the gazebo along the walls to fill up the gaps between the 2 shelves.....Unfortunatly i am stuck......

I have drawn up designs for the shelves already including doors and cupboards for each level,tanks,and everything i need bar the sump and piping......
these tanks will all be used for various fresh water cichlids and was wondering if any one could help me in the design of the sump,sump size and piping to do so or email me some photo's to get ideas off or other links to sites that may help.

Thanks heaps for your help guys!!!


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Are you in the nothern, warmer, part of Australia. It's hard to imagine insulating a gazebo to any degree. Most have raised floors and no real crawl space to install insulation. Blown in insulation would absorb moisture from the ground. Unless you are in a very dry area, of which, Australia seems to have more than its share. In the summer, insulation will be needed, maybe even more than the winter.

Perhaps for your sump, or series of sumps, you could dig deep holes near the gazebo, line them with pond liner, and plumb them underground (trenches) into the gazebo. Then put a deck with removeable hatches over ths sumps. Being down four feet in the ground with the shallowest two feet of the walls insulated as well as the top, these sumps would help moderate the temperature in the tanks.

This would simplify the plumbing in the fish house. Only two pipes would be in the fish house from each sump. The pumps, heaters, and UV sterilizer and filters could all be under the deck below a hatch or two. Use stand pipes in each tank Overflow could fall into plastic rain gutter capped on the ends and feeding into the plumbing to the sumps. Filtered return water would spray from the top back into each tank and be adjustable with a gate valve. If you want to isolate a tank from it's system, you simply shut off the gate valve completely. Without water flowing in, the standpipes in that tank will stop draining water.


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## cichliddd (Jun 29, 2010)

Firstly THANK YOU SO MUCH Mcdaphnia!!!

i live in Brisbane along the East coast of Australia near bush land, as far as heat goes the spots ok, its located under trees and shade during summer
But what i shall do is this weekend im starting to messure up and finalise drawing of plans, i shall take photo's of the space im using, along with drawn up plans, send them to you and get your feedback and imput if thats ok?,


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

cichliddd said:


> Firstly THANK YOU SO MUCH Mcdaphnia!!!
> 
> i live in Brisbane along the East coast of Australia near bush land, as far as heat goes the spots ok, its located under trees and shade during summer
> But what i shall do is this weekend im starting to messure up and finalise drawing of plans, i shall take photo's of the space im using, along with drawn up plans, send them to you and get your feedback and imput if thats ok?,


Simply send them here so everyone else can see and comment too. If you use photobucket or some other photo service it's easy to add photos and drawings to your post. I will put this thread on my Watch list.

My cousin and her family live in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane. I'm not sure when I'll be up to that 24 hour flight to Australia from the mideast US again. We laid over in New Zealand on the way back and I picked up some flu-like thing to take home. Maybe it's not true, but it sure seems like you are breathing recycled air for hours.


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## cichliddd (Jun 29, 2010)

gotta love that flu, gets ya every time, thanks again very much appreciated


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## mthom211 (Dec 22, 2009)

If your in near me It will be much to cold outside. Unless your inland. I'm right on the water front and it is so cold. But apperently it is 5 degrees cooler near the water. What if you converted your pool to a ponjd and ran the heater on that nd had your tanks connected to that :lol: :lol: That would be really cool.


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## cichliddd (Jun 29, 2010)

yea that would be cool, but my dad refuses to let me unleash beats into his pool.lol

so instead im enclosing a gazebo area with walls, put in power points, windows and doors, get solar pannels to warm up the water, attached to a thermostat and a submergable heater to make up the difference.


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## mthom211 (Dec 22, 2009)

What are you getting? My dad only lets me have a 15 gallon tank a 55 gallon tank. Are you on QLDAF?


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## cichliddd (Jun 29, 2010)

WELL IT JUST GOT MORE EXCITING!!!!, my dad let me start putting crayfish into his un maintained 110,000L pool!!!, need some help with diy pond bio filter and goood idea on what sized filter set up i should start looking at......any ideas? HELP!!!!


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## pistolpete (Dec 28, 2009)

A good place to start is with a large plastic garbage can or 50 gallon plastic drum. fill it with pot scrubbers and get a submersible pump to circulate water through it. There a are a number of ways to set up the pump. I think the best is to have the pump feeding the water into the bottom of the container via a hose and then being returned to the pool via an overflow. The whole thing can be floated in the pool or set up beside it.

the pump should be fairly large, a UV sterilizer spliced into the system will help with algae.


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## cichliddd (Jun 29, 2010)

thats a good idea.....if i wanted to go hard out with filtration should i get 3 diff coloured bins next to eachother 1 for sponge medium then pumped into a 2nd bin containing bioballs or c harcole, pumped into a 3rd bin from the bottom half filled with gravel with plants, then back to pond through a UV sterilizor.......recon that woiuld work if planned well enough?


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## pistolpete (Dec 28, 2009)

The main objective of biological filters is to provide maximum surface area for nitifying bacteia to live on. It does not really matter what the medium is. The hurdle that one has to overcome with large bin filters is that water follows the path of least resistance and there tend to be areas that don't get enough flow to support bacterial colonies. The bacteria need a steady flow of oxygenated water to thrive.

This makes bio balls a bit more effective than say pot scrubbers. Bio balls tend to disperse water flow, where pot scrubbers tend to channel it. having said that, pot scrubbers or good old fashioned filter floss are way cheaper.

Anyway, if you want to go a step up from a simple canister, then go for a large rectangular container with a series of divider baffels that force the water to take a long meandering path through. The first part can be a sponge to take out particulates and the rest bio-media.

Charcoal is a waste of time for pond filters. It needs to be replaced every two to three weeks.

I'd recommend you go to a fish store and have a look at some manufactured pond filters to get some ideas.


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## cichliddd (Jun 29, 2010)

ah ok thank pistol, i have asked around and due to its size i keep being reffered to irrigation companies........ what about converting the old pool filter somehow to work for a pond?


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

cichliddd said:


> ah ok thank pistol, i have asked around and due to its size i keep being reffered to irrigation companies........ what about converting the old pool filter somehow to work for a pond?


I think something like this.

http://www.pondsupplies.com.au/pondshop ... 16177.html

A pond filter is more suited than the swimming pool filter, which has different objectives. It also often costs more to run and is not always suited to continuous running. A pond pump to go with the filter would be more electrically wise. They also have ones that can go in the ground if this one doesn't.


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## cichliddd (Jun 29, 2010)

yea i looked into those kinds of filters but cant find 1 that could handel 100Thousand Litres of water medium to heav=y stocked with fish, i shall upload pics this week so you can all see what im messing around with size wise


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## pistolpete (Dec 28, 2009)

The usual problem with ponds is that the nitrate input from the fish and the plentiful sunlight combine into the perfect storm of algae blooms. The fish generally don't mind at all swimming in the green murk, but it rather spoils it for snorcheling  
Rather than massive filtration you should be aiming at a light bioload and minimal feeding.

If you are into DIY projects and your dad agrees, you could build a fake stream around the perimeter of the pool. With a bit of creativity, some concrete, rocks and plastic liner you could make the ultimate natural biofilter.


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

pistolpete said:


> The usual problem with ponds is that the nitrate input from the fish and the plentiful sunlight combine into the perfect storm of algae blooms. The fish generally don't mind at all swimming in the green murk, but it rather spoils it for snorcheling
> Rather than massive filtration you should be aiming at a light bioload and minimal feeding.
> 
> If you are into DIY projects and your dad agrees, you could build a fake stream around the perimeter of the pool. With a bit of creativity, some concrete, rocks and plastic liner you could make the ultimate natural biofilter.


A swimming pool filter clears the water but relies on chlorine or ozone to to keep algae and bacteria out. It's not suitable for fish, unless modified somehow if possible.

The pond filters are going to handle your large volume. You can supplement them with a bio- or veggie filter as pete proposed. One is a pond liner filled with pea gravel and the pool water is circuclated through it. Fast growing plants, even terrestrial ones like lettuce, grow hydroponically in the gravel. Or the veggie filter can be filled with water hyacinth or water lettuce and the water is filtered by the hanging roots of these plants. Water hyacinth in the pool itself will do a lot to shade excess light, and remove nutrients, although some cichlids will trim the roots and slow the growth of the plants.


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## cichliddd (Jun 29, 2010)

dead set i dont know what i would do without you guys hahahaha 
thank you all so much for the help and feedback i think the stream idea would be epic if i can draw it in the plans to fit the pool


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## cichliddd (Jun 29, 2010)

YAY FINALY!, i got the photo's of the pool im turning into a pond,gazebo grow room, and pool area im going to transform into my pond and rainforest escape
have a look and give some feed back!

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad22 ... 180536.jpg

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad22 ... 180535.jpg

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad22 ... 180532.jpg

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad22 ... 180521.jpg

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/ad22 ... 180519.jpg

sorry it took so long, will take photo's as i go along and work through it


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## pistolpete (Dec 28, 2009)

That has tonnes of potential. I'd start by introducing daphnia, or some equivalent copepod to clean up a bit. you could just stick a couple of salties in there


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