PDA

View Full Version : Are you using an aquarium?



WurlyBird
01-01-2015, 05:45 PM
I am trying to find people who are using an aquarium as their fish tank. I want to use a 40 to 60 gallon tank at a relatively normal display height, maybe a little higher to gravity feed water to my system. I am trying to figure out the best way to do this so if you are using an aquarium please upload a picture, I would love to see it. Specifically I would like to see how water is getting out of the tank. I want to avoid running two pumps if possible and I am planning on having a sump tank under the aquarium with a pump feeding the fish tank.

WurlyBird
01-01-2015, 06:06 PM
Here are some google sketchup images of what I am thinking of. The pump in the sump is not depicted. If I have some time later I will sketch up another of the ideas I have involving a seperate container next to the tank with a water bridge and the bulkhead fittings in it. I feel it would be best to keep the overflow drain hard mounted to the tank though.
http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag34/jamestrizzino/fish/aquaponics3_zpsc7687db4.jpg (http://s1297.photobucket.com/user/jamestrizzino/media/fish/aquaponics3_zpsc7687db4.jpg.html)
http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag34/jamestrizzino/fish/aquaponics2_zps1fef2fda.jpg (http://s1297.photobucket.com/user/jamestrizzino/media/fish/aquaponics2_zps1fef2fda.jpg.html)
http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag34/jamestrizzino/fish/aquaponics1_zps9bb096c4.jpg (http://s1297.photobucket.com/user/jamestrizzino/media/fish/aquaponics1_zps9bb096c4.jpg.html)

JCO
01-01-2015, 08:48 PM
SOOOoooo we are a CAD ilac user. Great illistratioins :mrgreen:

WurlyBird
01-02-2015, 12:06 AM
It's more that I am, what we call in my family, a giant nerd. It's google sketch up which I recommend to anyone who wants to make diagrams and pictures like that. It's easy to learn and fully 3D. For example, a few years ago i was away from family for a school for three months and while I was gone we decided we were gonna have chickens. You might see a theme in my life developing here. So I sketched up this coop from which we made our shopping list and a lot of measurements.
http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag34/jamestrizzino/fish/coop_zpsd2a056c6.jpg (http://s1297.photobucket.com/user/jamestrizzino/media/fish/coop_zpsd2a056c6.jpg.html)
A few months later I came home and a couple weekends after that, this was in my backyard.
http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag34/jamestrizzino/fish/photo3_zps3a5d69f1.jpg (http://s1297.photobucket.com/user/jamestrizzino/media/fish/photo3_zps3a5d69f1.jpg.html)
It's a pretty useful tool. You, by the way, are looking at the most overbuilt coop in Tennessee. When we moved my buddy took it off my hands. We lifted it with hi-lift jacks and drove a trailer under it. At his house we tied the coop to a tree and he drove away.

Blizzard
01-02-2015, 03:58 AM
Yes. But not in that way. The main fish I am trying to grow are tropical. They grow better at 28c. They are in the IBC. Now. The fat goldfish are indoors until winter here. I may need to send them off to Jenny Craig first. I am using my indoor system as a raising tank. Plus it gives good nitrate levels each week to my outdoor system. During water changes. the fish I am growing will get to over 1.8mtrs or six feet long. But not this season. I expect them to be 600mm or two feet long by Autumn, which is the month of May over here. I am growing Barramundi.

badflash
01-02-2015, 10:43 AM
I posted this on youtube a couple of years ago. Hope it gives you some ideas:

dhDZxRNCAKo

JCO
01-02-2015, 03:54 PM
You use a cad simulator to turn your ideas and thoughts into a design, I use my mind's eye.

I know...sounds crazy....but I can and do....I do all the designing and creation of everything I build or want to build whether it is a greenhouse or a website in my head without ever putting it on paper or anywhere else.

I isolate myself from all other distractions and listen to music, mostly piano boogie woogie, and picture what I am wanting to accomplish in my head. I visually see it all in my head then go about doing what I see there.

I've had that ability since I was a very young child...needless to say I did well in school.

Yes, I'm an 'ole "Twlight Zone" fan :mrgreen:

WurlyBird
01-03-2015, 04:17 AM
I will admit that if it works out perfectly the first time you put saw to wood or key stroke to web code that is most certainly impressive. When I use only my minds eye I recognize problem areas of a design and when I arrive at them I work them out individually. The biggest problems is the sometimes unnecessary additional trips to the hardware store and the fact that it drives my wife crazy because she has no idea what the end state is, and so can not figure out how to contribute to the end state with out step by step directions. So after our last deck project that was initially constructed in my head took a few months longer than anticipated (it was 200 sf covered stepping down to 250 sf uncovered cascading down to a 300 sf wrap around paver patio supported by a 3 ft retainer wall) because I had to do it all myself, I decided it would be best to use a little pencil and paper and the occasional digits. It has worked out so far and I couldn't fathom a project like this next deck I'm building without something drawn somewhere.
http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag34/jamestrizzino/fish/deck_zps7a3624d1.jpg (http://s1297.photobucket.com/user/jamestrizzino/media/fish/deck_zps7a3624d1.jpg.html)
But admittedly I am a mortal half way around the world from my family with nothing else to do with my time.

WurlyBird
01-03-2015, 04:42 AM
Badflash, I really enjoy your setup. I spent very little time considering putting an aquarium at the bottom of the setup. Not sure why but to me an aquarium would go up top and a stock tank would go down low. I didn't consider anything else. If I could keep my dogs away a setup like yours could work and keep my boys interested in whats going on with the fish. Thank you.