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Need advice on equipment for 500 gal cichlid tank

7K views 55 replies 8 participants last post by  willow 
#1 ·
Hi all. I recently picked up a 500 gal tank and I'm starting to plan a cichlid tank. the tank came with a 50 gal sump but I feel that's not enough. I also have an empty 90 gal tank I could make into another wet dry sump but not sure what the best design would be. Looking for any and all suggestions as I'm not all that familiar with what is out there now.
 
#2 ·
Welcome to the forum

Boy a 50 and 90 gallon sump/wetdry will be good filtration! There are designs and stuff available online - you can probably find a tutorial on youtube.

500 gallons! what are the dimensions of such a tank - 8 feet long? 10?
 
#4 ·
4 feet tall? Wow! Does it sit on a stand? Acrylic?
 
#10 ·
Yes, submersibles in the sumps.

They don't make chillers large enough for a tank that big, and if they did it would cost thousands of dollars, cost a ton to run and will make more than a little noise.

Fish stores use bioballs in their central filtration systems.
 
#9 ·
That sounds awesome. What do you intend to keep in it? Guppies?
 
#11 ·
Ha yeah really big guppies! No not sure on the fish list yet but looking into lots of colorful cichlids. always liked the arrowanas . Whats the deal with the plastic brilo pads I see in some sump setups online? are they the new bioball?
 
#12 ·
Arowana is certainly an option. While it is a massive tank, the fact that it's only 2 feet wide is somewhat limiting though. You can keep some big fish in there though.

I don't know about the Brillo pads. I run canisters, not sumps.
 
#15 ·
No, not for your tank. You'd have to run at least 3-4 filters. IMO a 180 is the limit for canisters.
 
#16 ·
I would look at running both the sumps on a tank that size and look at probably 2000w of heaters, 4 x 500w would be good, 2 in the tank and 1 in each sump.

Make a massive wet dry out of both the sump tanks, cram it full of pot scrubbers, either that or you are looking at 2 x Fluval FX5's for a tank that size.

Fish, you are actually limited believe it or not on some of the big species, simple reason the tank is not very wide, 24" is not a lot of room for a 20" fish to be able to turn around in.

I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND, you place a piece of 1" thick styrofoam sheet under that tank before it goes on the stand. A tank that size, the water pressure on the sides is immense and it MUST be ABSOLUTELY LEVEL, 1-2mm off can easily cause the seam to give way. Have you had a structural engineer check the area you are going to put the tank? You are looking at nearly 4000lbs of water weight alone and if you want to keep cichlids, add another probably 200-300lbs if not more of rocks to make them happy.

I would love to see a picture of that tank, you can add pictures, by clicking "go advanced" in the message window, on the top of the box which will appear, there is a "smiley face" next to that is a paper clip, you can use that to attach pictures. If you have the pictures stored on something like photobucket, you can use the insert link option (green under the smiley face), use the direct link to the picture.

Welcome to the forum and am looking forward to seeing this tank come into reality.
 
#19 ·
You might want to consider running a second pump inline, to help the water along. Head height for many pumps is 4-6 feet, though the bigger pumps you;ll need likely have a higher head height.
 
#20 ·
You can get pumps with 15-20ft head height but they are not cheap and not very quiet either.

Pot scrubbers are the cheapest option for a massive wet dry system, although bioballs will do as well. The pot scrubbers you can either submerge or have dry with a trickle over them.

How are getting the water from the tank to the sumps, are you drilling the tank or using an overflow system?
 
#21 ·
Just to give you an idea.

Supreme Mag Drive 1800 Pump (10' Cord) // Aquarium Supplies Canada - Pond Supplies Canada - Reptile Supplies Canada // Pets & Ponds
Pan World 50PX-X Magnetic Water Pump (1100gph) // Aquarium Supplies Canada - Pond Supplies Canada - Reptile Supplies Canada // Pets & Ponds

These pumps are the sort of ones you are looking at, although before you get a pump, you need to know the TOTAL flow rate coming from the overflow, return pump needs to be able to handle that amount of water going back to the display tank. I would also consider using two overflows if you go DIY or a very high gph one (1000gph+) if you go for a store bought, cichlids are messy and need a lot of filtration.
 
#22 ·
If the pump is down in the basement then noise may not be that big of an issue. Of course I have no idea how loud such pumps are...
 
#24 ·
Thanks for the help I'm going to draw up some ideas for the sumps and see what will work best. keep the ideas coming. I want this thing to run top notch. so if there is anything else you think I should consider please let me know.

And again thanks for you time.
 
#25 · (Edited)
Just wanted to drop in and say...Wow! That's one h of a nice tank. Will you please post photos as you get it up and running? I would love to follow your project and see what goes into setting up and running such a big tank .
Were you planning on south american or african cichlids?
Thanks and best wishes for a beautiful and healthy aquarium.
 
#26 ·
Not quite sure on the stock for the tank yet concentrating on equipment first. One thing I've learned the hard way is buy good equipment if you like your fish to live!

So putting a lot of thought in it. So far I have decided to run a 140 gal sump and a 2000 gph pump 2000w of heaters. trying to decide what media to use.

I like this stuff called bio home ultimate don't know if anyone has seen it or used it saw it on you tube. It's not cheap but then good stuff usually isn't
 
#29 ·
What do you guys think about this setup. It uses both the 50gal sump that came with the tank and a 90 gal tank I had. the 2 " drain drops from the tank and splits to 2- 1" pipes to the drip trays of the 50 gal sump through the media and into sump area that could be filled with chemical filter media. then through another 2" drain into the 90 gal through filter socks and over onto drip tray through about 20 lbs of bio home ultimate ceramic media then into pump chamber and back to tank at 2000 gph. oh and a uv sterilizer.

Your thoughts?
 

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#30 ·
It takes four 1" pipes to carry the same amount of water as a 2" (Pie really are square)
Max flow on a 2" is 2700 gallon per hour so pump sizing is good as long as you don't have a lot of flow lost in the filter you have to make sure the pump stays wet that all times, of course there will be head loose so that 2000 GPH pump won't pump 2000 gallons. Unfortunately no single recommendation will be correct for all possible circumstances so it something you have to think out and some trail and error.

R
 
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