flygja said:Better buy your friends a few big dinners!
In-laws actually...I've already pinched their daughter, think I owe them more than a few good meals!
Spent the past week designing the sump for this bad boy. Since I don't want ANY equipment upstairs apart from the tank lighting (obviously ) I'll be sticking the filter, pump, controllers, auto-top-up, dosing pumps, etc. etc. in the cellar below.
Despite buying the two most well regarded filters for this project I've found in the fine print that neither handle a large difference in height between the top of the tank's water surface and the bottom of the filter. In the FX5 manual for instance it states:
The filter lid must be at least 7.8 in. (20 cm) below your aquarium’s water level but never more than 4.9 ft. (150 cm).
Bummer
That said, in preparation for the project I've been running the temporary tank where I'm keeping all my fish using this arrangement. Tank in the study, pumps and equipment in the basement. However whilst the canister filter is able to handle the higher pressure of being placed about 6' below the tank the in-built pump is woefully inadequate. I've had to stick a very large Iwaki pump on to maintain the same flow as the Eheim maintained when used as normal (600 l/h):
I'm using 22mm John Guest pipework and fittings although something tells me I should be using at least 30mm if not 40mm pipe for a tank as large as the final project. Can anyone recommend a good supplier for 40mm fittings, valves, etc.?