fry and grow out tanks

[Donny Brasco]

Hey guys just need some clarification on a few things.
Im setting up a new breeding rack and just trying to sort out how i want to put everything and what size, but what i need to know is with filtration.

for a 24" x 12" x 12" tank to put fry in to grow them up a bit at the start is it ok to just run a small tank like that with 1 x sponge filter and just a 50% water change once a week, or maybe even 2 if needed?

I have a 3ft tanks 14 x 20 to use for grow out tanks once they start to get around 2-3cm and then another 3ft x 14 x 20 to use when they get to 4-5cm sort of size, and both of those tanks have nautilus 800 filters on them, so thats not really an issue i was more so wondering if sponge filters are good enough on there own to do the job of a small fry tank.

I will be using 50% cycled water and 50% fresh water with the gh and kh boosters and de-chlorination and a heater obviously.

Doing a sump set up is not an option and i dont really want to have to buy more canister filters and no room for hobs style.

I guess i could add in like a small intank power head with sponge style filter if its needed?

[LithoMan]

side drops and run air

or just sponge filter if doing regular water changes

[Donny Brasco]

sorry whats a side drop?

how regular, is once a week ok or maybe twice a week?
and would i do say a 50% change with fresh water with addititives or would a 50% change with half fresh water and half cycled water from one of the grow out tanks be ok?

[mjoconr]

A side drop is like a sump but inside of the tank, generally this glass area is at the end of a tank which is why its called a side drop.

Another form of filter you should look is a Matten Filter http://www.swisstropicals.com/library/mattenfilter/

[Ged]

Donny have a read of this thread.

http://www.aceforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=37985

[Donny Brasco]

Ah yeah awesome I'm really liking the idea of a side drop now over a sump, one hiccup I came across was finding a pump powerful enough to flow up 2m head height with descent flow, where as if I put the side drop in the mid tank then it only has to push about 1m.

My nest issue is trying to work out the best way to build it on a 6ft tank as I need to split the middle for 2 separate tanks.

Maybe doing one big long side drop along the back of the tank?

[rosco]

Hey donny,

I am a little confused as to what your breeding setup will look like. If you can give us a run down or a plan on what your breeding setup will contain for example are you having a multi teir system, the tank sizes etc. The main differences between sumps and side drops are setup, regular maintenence, heating the water and Water conditions.

With sumps they are more expensive to setup because of the plumbing (especially if you plan to have the ability to quarantine tanks off) and water pump costs but water changes are easier, easier to heat, constant water conditions are easier maintain but you do lose the lowest level tanks to a sump and it is difficult to join a ground level tank into the system.i used laguna 7500 pumps and they worked a treat and easily pumped enough water for a rack of 4 4x18x18's that hit a height of 2.1 metres.

Side drops are very effective are reasonably cheap to setup but unless you setup it up correctly, water changes are troublesome, time consuming and you have to maintain the tanks separately.

I have used both and prefer sumps but I used to 40 tanks so maintenance over cost was my priority. I had 2 4x18x18 side drop filtered tanks for 2-3cm fry growout tanks and they cranked out the fry and the growth rate was excellent as well.

Cheers

Rosco