225 Gallon Questions

FishForums.net Pet of the Month
🐶 POTM Poll is Open! 🦎 Click here to Vote! 🐰

Hamsnacks

Fish Fanatic
Joined
Dec 26, 2017
Messages
181
Reaction score
16
Having the front Glass replaced on the 225 Gallon next week then will start getting to work on it.

Just had a few questions:

1) It was previously used for saltwater, so I have to make sure the cleaning is on point. It currently has a background of a thin piece of black acrylic glued to the back of it, from inside, any way to remove it to clean any salt that may be behind? Or too risky, might chip the back side of the glass?

2) It currently sits on a 3/8 thick piece of plywood glued to the bottom of it, the guy coming to replace the glass says I should put a piece of plywood on the stand, then a piece of foam and then the tank with the glued plywood on top. Do you guys agree?
If so, should I go with 3/8 thick OSB or Spruce Plywood or thicker?
Is 3/4 thick durafoam suitable or too thick?

3) Any recommendations for a return pump, the tank has an overflow box attached to the back, with a 90-gallon sump. The tank will most likely be filled with rummynose tetras and cardinals, what's the recommended return flow I should be aiming for?

Haven't started researching how to properly remove and replace water from a tank with a sump or how to prevent overflows if the electricity shuts off, so it's not fair to ask how before I do some work on my own but if anyone has a good site or video that really helped them that would be great!

Sorry for the long post, thanks in advance!
 
Why the hell do you keep buying big tanks for?
Go and get some counselling, your MTS is out of control :)

A bit of salt is not going to affect anything. Just rinse the tank out with fresh water and it's fine.

Who the *&^% sticks a piece of wood to the bottom of a tank. Normally (if you want a piece of wood under a tank), you put the wood on the stand and then a thick piece of polystyrene foam between the wood and the bottom of the tank. The foam cushions the base and gives a bit in the middle where the glass sags.

-----------------------
Return pumps need to be able to turn the tank volume over about 4-6 times per hours in freshwater tanks, and a bit more for Rift Lake or marine tanks, but it must be able to do that volume at the head height. The head height is the height the water must be pumped up from the sump to the tank. Basically you measure the height from the base of the sump to the top of the tank and that is the head height. You need a pump that can turn the tank volume (about 900-1000 litres) at x number of feet. You will need something that does about 5000 litre per hour at about x feet head height.

Eheim hobby pumps and any decent brand of pond pump should be fine to use. If in doubt, get a pump that can do more water than you need and you can bleed some off with a T-piece & tap if it's too strong. Make sure the pump has a reasonable warranty. Have a sponge filter/ prefilter on the pump and clean it regularly. Use pvc pipe with screw on fittings to join the pump to the return hose/ pipe.

Tanks with sumps usually have an auto syphon so when the water level in the tank gets to a certain point, the water automatically starts draining out of the main tank and into the sump. When the power is turned off, the water in the main tank should drain down to the level of the outlet pipe/ overflow point. When the water level gets to that point it should stop draining and the tank will sit at that level (unless there is a leak somewhere).

When the power is turned off the excess water in the main tank drains into the sump. The sump will fill up. If the sump has too much water in it to begin with, the sump will overflow.

To set the sump up you fill the main tank with water and let it start to overflow, then stop filling the main tank. When the water is no longer draining out of the main tank, you fill up the sump until it is about 1 inch below the top. Then you turn the pump on and the water in the sump will be pumped up to the tank and the system will start to run.

After the pump has been running for a few minutes and water is flowing from the tank into the sump, you get a permanent marker/ paint marker and make a thick line on the glass of the sump at its current water level. This is the maximum water level you can have in the sump.

You must keep the sump's water level above the pump so it doesn't burn out, but do not add too much water to the sump so it goes above the mark on the glass. If you have too much water in the sump while it is running, and there is a power failure, the tank water will cause the sump to overflow and you get water everywhere.

If you need to top up the sump due to evaporation, only fill it up to the line/ mark you made on the glass.

Sumps should have glass or Perspex covers to reduce evaporation and stop mould growing under the main tank.

-----------------------
To do a water change on a tank with a sump you turn off the pump and let the tank drain. If you only want to do a small water change, you can drain the sump and refill it with dechlorinated water. Make sure you dechlorinate the water before adding it to the sump because the filter media is normally kept in the sump. After the sump has been refilled with dechlorinated water, turn the pump back on.

If you want to do a bigger water change, turn off the pump and let the sump fill up. Then gravel clean and drain the main tank like any other tank. Refill it with clean dechlorinated water and then turn the pump back on.
 
Last edited:
Awesome information @Colin_T very helpful! Very easy to understand and makes sense!

So what do you think you'd do in my situation, would you remove the glued on plywood off the tank and then just do non-glued plywood and foam. Or should I keep it as is, and do, plywood, foam and then the tank with the glued plywood on top?
I want to remove it so the tank sits on the foam instead but at the same time, don't want to risk breaking anything.

Thanks
 
It depends on how well the wood is glued to the base of the tank. If there is a little drop of silicon on each corner you should be able to remove the wood quite easily. However, if there is lots of silicon, or the wood has been glued to the tank for a few years, I would leave it be.

The glass base will sag/ warp downwards over time and the wood and glass will become almost one piece. Removing the wood could cause the base to crack.

Unless you can easily remove the wood, I would probably leave it attached.
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Members online

Back
Top