I'm looking for a recomdation for a pump for a new system im thinking about setting up.
So far i've decided on a 24-29G (about 100L) cube nano with bow front.
I was thinking one of those all in one systems, I like the look of them and have used them in the past (although, i generally mod them).
What i'm thinking about doing, is adding a CL system for water circulation (instead of Power Heads) as thers not so much room in a nano and personally i hate the look of them, no matter how much coriline they have growing on them.
So I'm thinking I will get 5 holes drilled into the tank, 3 across the back (one in the middle for the intake of the pump) and one on each side of the centre hole to direct the water forwards into the tank, and also 1 on each of the sides of the tank, to direct waterflow Left and Right (alternating direction with a similar device as a scwd (own idea) for changing current direction.
What i want is something quiet, im thinking maybe 2400LPH (i think its about 800GPH) for water flow.
I was thinking maybe a external canister filter, as i have used them for this purpose before, but im always open for any ideas.
I am bad with plumbing but I think that using a pump rather than a cannister filter might be preferable. I think that with a cannister filter you would waste some flow with additional tubing, bends where the water goes into and out of the cannister and head loss. I also think that a pump would be more economical to purchase than a cannister filter.
lol, when was the last time you looked at the priced for a good external pump :P
mainly the only reason i was thinking canister, is because i'm also thinking about removing the little trickle filter thats built into the hood (in the all in one nano thingies) because i think there noisy and ugly.so i think i need at least one source of mechanical filtration, and it also ads a teiny bit of water for the overall volume of the tank :P
Canister filters for mechanical, chemical (carbon, etc) filtration, are fine. They even do an acceptable job of eliminating Ammonia and Nitrite. The problem is they cannot eliminate Nitrate, therefore Nitrate will build up to toxic levels. Even if you do massive water changes, eventually you will have elevated Nitrate problems. You want to avoid that situation. A DSB in the tank or sump would help eliminate the Nitrate.
Dick
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
In my nano I have a bag of carbon in the first back compartment, chunks of LR (completely submerged) in the second and my heater and return are in the last. I don't have any trickle filter or mechanical filtration. I only have a shallow sand bed but am going to change it over to DSB.
of course, of course.
i would like to have a sump or a fuge, but i dunno yet, i really want to leave this unit as a one piece package, tank and thats it, no extra tanks, maybe a hang on fuge or something but even that im not really happy about.
an option i have been thinking about however is putting a piece of glass in the tank to section off the back, divide the tank in 2, for a small DSB and fuge, and possibly somewhere to put a little skimmer,
like the red sea max's, and put maybe a DSB in there.
See the problem is i have never really used a nano by itself before. I've always had them plummed into my system.
which has 3 square meters of DSB at about 8" deep. and was approx 350G.
i never once registered a nitrate problem
I think that idea would work in any of the all in one tanks. My NC24 has a false wall and behind there are the compartments I am talking about. You can even fit a nano skimmer in.