Designing a Barracks - Filtration ideas?

[Shannonbjs]

Ok i currently have a quote to have my own barracks made how i want but im just after some ideas on filtration.

Basically i will have 6 sections in the front with about 10 to 12cm section in the back to house a heater - now we are looking at placing the dividers up off the ground about 2cm with gravel base about 3cm gravel. Now we were looking at filtering through the back of the tank having an overflow at one end with a hole drilled then a flow back at the other end where the filter will pump the water back out - sorry if that doesn’t make sense but im wondering if anyone has anything like this and if it works?

The other think we were thinking was undergravel filter but not sure how they work or how well they filter? Sorry im very new to this whole creating a tank thing hahaha??

[Anasfire]

2cm up off the bottom is HEAPS, and 3cm of gravel WAYYY over kill.

Here are some photo's of the barracks my ex made (against my advice but he wanted to his own thing) The dividers and back panel are 1cm up off the bottom, and with those river stones the fish easily made it under and into each other's chambers. lol. We took 2 small $8 filters available at Big W and modified the spray bar by adding tubing that fed directly into the chambers. Each filter did 4 chambers. The heater was also kept back with the filters. It worked really well but we found that as soon as one fish got sick, they all got sick because of the shared water. In the end it was a case of fin rot that wiped out all the tank's inhabitants. He hasn't used it since. Just sits at his place, empty.

Just a photo of the cabinet he made to house the barracks in

[Shannonbjs]

Ahhhh - I like the idea individual filter/dripper system...

It will be a display tank hence the 3cm of Gravel I love the look of deep gravel - medium sized stuff that will be a polished black colour

Each section will be 20cm long by 24cm deep by 35cm high so all up will be 1.20m long and 35cm deep with 6 sections.

Im thinking i dont want the back section to be up off the base as i dont want the gravel to flow into the back section - OR maybe i could do that but only raise it 1cm off the ground....Hmmmmm

Thankyou for posting those pics Cassi - gives me something else to think about :D

[Anasfire]

Ok, so each chamber is going to hold almost 17L and be just over 100L total. With chambers that big you could set up individual sponge filters in each, plant them up and not worry about shared water at all.

Sorry, I'm so against the shared water barracks. Have had nothing but dramas with them. Each to their own though.

After making that first tank my ex now has enough glass to make another, but this time he's listened to me and is making it all enclosed chambers.

He's had that glass for over a year, should really tell him to get his ass in gear and make it, it's meant to be for me.

[Shannonbjs]

Hmmmmm Interesting, I didnt think of that but something else to look into.....

Could i run more than one sponge filters from the same pump??? As you can see im very new with this whole designing a tank thing.

Shan

[paul]

Yes you can run more than one sponge filter from one air pump... you just have to get connectors/ "splitters" which allow you to run one air line into two or more air lines. I don't know if you need to buy a more powerful air pump though...but likely that you would.

Don't forget to think about ensuring adequate heating in the individual chambers if the water doesn't flow through each chamber.