New Goldfish tank/7 foot combined tank system.

[le0p 8]

Hey all, just wanted to post an update on my goldfish and tanks. My previous tank was this guy:

http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/forum/index.php?/topic/107530-my-grow-out-tank-20h-potted/?hl=le0p#entry1405603

I had to upgrade with 4 goldies in there and only 20 gallons so I set out on a journey. I decided to do something different and came up with this: A two tank sump system with a 55 gallon goldie tank and my 40 breeder African Clawed Frog tank.

The tanks are connected via HOB overflow and drains to the 29 gallon sump via HOB overflow, powered by a reeflo blowhole 1100 pump. The lights are all home made, I bought all the parts and wired everything, built the stands and painted the shades. It took me a lot longer and cost a lot more than I wanted but I'm happy with the ending. I will probably upgrade one of the overflows soon as it's limiting the system to around 800 gph and the pump can easily do 1000. This is the goldfish tank:

And the whole system together:

The tanks have a lot of growing to do as I pulled almost everything from the previous tanks and weeded out the algae covered stuff, or things I didn't want, and replaced with new plants. The frog tank has an especially long way to go but it was in bad shape when I redid it. I am considering trying to carpet the goldfish tank, but I'll need to do research to see if that will be possible, given the goldies taste for vegetation.

Since they weren't being very photogenic, I'll list my goldifsh friends. There are two comets that I saved from froggie dinner that have been with me the whole way (they're so big now!). There's a telescope, a ryukin and a brand new grey and gold oranda.

Sadly, my old oranda "Kenny Powers" died tragically in a tank accident. I had a screen top to keep my frogs in and it fell in overnight knocking the spraybar into the water and suffocating all the fish in the tank.

[great_kahn 109]

Impressive setup, goldfish must be loving it. Not a fan of frogs though, eeep lol.

[koko 14,340]

Wow what a cool looking tanks... wow. Impressive

[Moucho+Moncho 402]

lovely setup!

[le0p 8]

Thanks! I made all the stands too, I forgot to mention that... first time I made anything!

[dnalex 13,633]

I love your setup! Excellent!

[yafashelli 9,540]

Very cool setup! Everything looks great.

I'm sorry about the fish that you lost.

[shellbell4ever 1,381]

Nice!

[tithra 4,917]

very nice setup!

[le0p 8]

Thanks!

[le0p 8]

Some more photos:

The whole deal:

The 55:

The 40:

Some plumbing and some pics:

Sump:

Connection from 55 to 40:

Overflow to sump:

Pump to tank connections:

[Daniel 5,668]

Wow, that's seriously impressive!

How long did it take you to set up?

[le0p 8]

Thanks!

The stands took the longest. Each stand took one day to put together the frames then it took a couple weekends to cut all the plywood, stain everything, then do the same for the molding since I got busy during the week. Once the stands were finished, I got the whole system in place and supposed to be functioning.in a couple hours. However, I had a problem with the pump. The instructions were vague and I had to call them to figure out why the pump wasn't pumping. Turns out, if the pump isn't pulling from a bulkhead under the water line, the plumbing has to be done a certain way. So, I had to re-do all the plumbing for the pump which took another day. All together, about a month start to finish, but less if I didn't have a stupid job

Once it started working though everything was easy.. I played with the pump a little to get the most out of the overflows but other than that it's worked flawlessly.

Going to post some Fish pics today!

[le0p 8]

The fishies!

[4prettyfish 2,702]

You have some beautiful fish. I love your Oranda.

I am sorry for the loss of Kenny P.

Your setup looks great and so does your stands. Pretty neat building them yourself.

[le0p 8]

Update!

I upgraded the overflow from tank to tank. Now running dual overflows tank to tank and have both overflows draining to the sump. I turned the pump to max and it's hard to say for sure but I'm guessing the flow is now little less than 1100 gph, based on head pressure.

here's a pic of the new set up:

[koko 14,340]

[Ele 40]

The tanks are amazing! I love the lighting it looks so cool, and unique