Ed R

quick followup, short answer: It's complicated. Has to do with the length of the longest drop in the run , or something. When I can explain it to myself, I will let you know.

I only have 2 tanks running on the LA-45C, a 75 gallon that has two over-sized sponge filters, and a 55-gallon drum as a cistern/reservoir with a 4 inch airstone in it to keep the water fresh.. Without any back pressure relief this system is holding about 4.5 pounds of back pressure. How much back pressure do you think this pump should have to deal with? 1.5 is the lowest i can go without the output to the tank and the bubble production being greatly reduced. My pvc isn't a loop, it's a 5 foot long piece of 2 inch pvc. I figured that running a loop system here would probably not be worthwhile. I've also got a 22-tank fish room under construction, and have an LA-80BN to run that. Should I be looking at the same amount of back pressure, around 1.5? I will only have tanks on one side of the room, but I can run a loop here if it's been shown that it helps even out the pressure across all tanks. Is there a video or an article or some data I could look at to compare the performance of the pressure at the tank in a loop system vs a single-run system?

I've thought about multiple cisterns, but it greatly complicates the water supply system. right now I just have a water line to the RO unit, and the output from that goes to 55 gallon barrel, and from there I have a pump on a relay that runs on whenever a sprinkler zone on the cheap RainBird turns on a zone, and it opens the valve to that zone and pumps until time runs out. If I have multiple barrels, I need to split the water line outside the RO filter to feed whichever barrel needs it, and that's too much for my brain and budget right now. I've gone from only needing 35 gallons per water change to needing 135 gallons per water change, so I guess I've painted myself into a corner.

Plumber wanted to charge me $2300 for running a drain and a water line -outside the wall- about 8 feet. I bought 30 dollars in parts at Lowes and did the same exact job in an hour and a half. Now I just need to not spend $450 on a vertical 200 gallon cistern. I may have to bite the bullet.

I am in need of a 200 gallon above-ground vertical cistern, cheap. Can anyone recommend such a beast somewhere? I'm near Callas TX i that helps any...

Heavy sigh...

Dimensions must have changed on either the tank or the filter, because a Tidal 75 I have from a few years ago will not fit the Aqueon 75 gallon tank I bought in June. But that's ok, It'll fit a 40 or likely a 60 just fine. I have been an Aquaclear user for decades, I don't remember why I bought th eTidal instead of the Aquaclear, but I did. That's ok, though, my 240 is almost 20 years old , it's been up and running since January of 2004, and my 125 has been going strong for years, too. I'm moving to air-driven sponges in all my breeding and growth tanks, and keeping the display tanks as they are.

I'm not planning on buying a Tidal just to modify it, especially not for this newish Aqueon 75 that won't fit it unless I notch the rim, which I'm not going to do. The tank's well established now, using a Matten filter with two airlift pipes and a spare fx6 for chemical and mechanical , plus lots of flow. It ought to be fine for years;) I wish the Tidal did fit without cutting, but the reason I bought that air pump was because the matten filter thing and the sponge filter setup are both amazingly effective and cheap and easy to set up. My plans are to increase the number of tanks and start breeding certain species, but most of the species I've picked to breed ( L046, L333, CW111, and the panda cory just for fun) take FOREVER to reach sexual maturity, so it's a waiting game for now....

I was wondering if this filter would fit on an Aqeuon 75 gallon, as I know from experience that the Tidal 75 will not.

ok great, I was thinking aquarium rooms would be a lot lewss stressful an environment than a septic tabj;) Thanks for the response!

I just ordered one of these, hoping it'll take me where I need to go, but I wanted to ask about its service life. According to the manufacturer, it was designed for pumping air into septic systems to improve the bio-breakdown going on in there. The specs say it has a 6 year service life. Has anyone run this pump for more than 6 years?