Need advice on sump for breeding rack

So I'm planning a breeding rack and need some advice on the sump size.
Question 1: All the tanks together will be 200 liters. Is a 50 liters sump big enough to circulate the water.

Question 2: I will be using to pumps to return the water back into the tanks.1 pump for every shell. How much water will each pump need to circulate per/h. My tanks will drain water into a overflow into my sump.

 

@Ladysphinx there are few considerations before choosing sump filtration for a breeding setup. Are these tanks for breeding, ie. spawning tanks, or are they grow out tanks? Do you have a quarantine setup to separately quarantine all new fish that you get? Do the species that you want to breed have similar water parameters requirements for breeding and grow out?

Personally, for breeding I would use individual filtration and heating per tank. A simple sponge filter will be adequate for most species. For grow out, considering that it is only 200 litres I would do the same. Sponge filters are great for grow out and provide gentle filtration.

Question 1. Yes. But double this size provides room for error and more overall water volume which is better.
Question 2. Two pumps is not a good idea. Rather use one and setup your plumbing correctly. Either have the top tank(s) drain into the bottom and then from the bottom tank(s) to the sump OR using valves split the return between both shelves adjusting the return rate with the valve.

 

Dolphin thank you for the advice so.e great thoughts. I'm breeding with guppies and want all the water in the tanks to have the same parameters so that I don't have to climate my guppies when moving them from tank to tank. I will also have quarantine tank as always which is on its own filtration system.

Also my overflows will be protected with sponge cover so that the guppy fry won't be sucked into the overflow.

 

Ok... I have absolutly no experience setting up breeding setups so this is just a 'think out loud' question..

I understand the advatage of being able to move them around without having to climatize but, in the same principal, if something goes wrong in one tank, theyn all tanks will have a problem or is this nothing to worry about?
Like i said, never done this before so just asking...

 

This is a major concern, especially with breeding stock. I don't run any central systems because of this risk.

 

Thanks @Dolphin ... I also dont think I would take a chance...

 

Good advice from Dolphin. Rather safe than sorry.

 

OK here is my view.

If you have a big commercial breeding setup with new fish coming in all the time a central sump is an issue.

A small breeding setup for guppies where you breed your own stock not that much.
Yes one thing will influence all the fish but is that not the same for a bug community tank?
Do anybody have seperate cleaning equipment and nets for each of there tanks or do they get used all over?

300 L split in smaller volumes carry the same risk as one big 300L community tank.

You can minimize exposure by not having a central sump for everything and only for each tank.
What I mean is a 3ft split in 3 can share water. The next 3 ft the same etc.

Quarantine new fish coming in.

So more confusion

 

Vis I agree with you. My guppy breeding rack will have way more pros than cons. I'm also doing a drip system which will definitely make wc less frequent. At this point in time I need to carry buckets of water to and thro from the room my fish is in to the bathroom or outside and it's exhausting.

I plan to do a dripping system on each breeding rack I build. And to be honest since I always quarantine new fish for atleast 2weeks I have never had any problems with sickness in my tanks.

Right now I'm struggling for space to plug in all my tank equipment an the wires are driving me nuts

 

What I did is use a 3ft tank and devided it in 3 with open cell sponge.

This way you only need one heater and pump for 3 devisions.

I could also change the size of the compartments as I needed them at the time, it's a slep however.

 

Maybe slightly OT but in same direction - would love input from guys that have many tanks / breeding.
Nets, pipes for syphoning during water changes, even your hands when working with many tanks...... how long does it take for nasties to die on nets, in the pipes? Do you wash your hands before working with each tank? Moving fish between your tanks?

 

@Ladysphinx please describe the dripping system?

 

@lennard use it quite well, maybe he can give some input.

 

These are illustrations of a drip system. One can make a drip system as simple or complex as one wants depending on your needs



these

 

I have looked through a lot of breeding rack plans but this one is the principle of what I have in mind. I'm planning on doing a few changes to it in order to implement the drip system and will add failure save measurements in case something goes wrong. I will also add a U.V sterilizer I got from someone which will also help a lot, just need to get a new U.V tube

 

I will also be making my own breeding traps because the ones that are available in LFS have let me down to many times by the fry getting into the female chamber and being eaten. I saw these traps but they are too expensive to buy so I decided I will make my own.

 

@Ladysphinx thanks for posting the info. Looks like the drip system you refer to is a flow through of freshwater going through a tank once and then drains to waste?

Regarding UV, for it to assist in controlling disease please check that it's designed as a UV steriliser and that the bulb burns at 40 degrees Celsius.

Consider using a micron sock at the drain outlet into the sump.

 

Or just use individual sponge filters as suggested by dolphin, there's a lot to be said for keeping it simple

 

@Jwh it's true but I already have 5 individual tanks running and I want to keep enjoy my hobby once keeping you tanks clean and keeping them up becomes a chore it's not fun anymore. I have 11 tanks I need to maintain once the breeding rack is up and running and I'm planning more breeding racks in the future. There comes a time when cleaning each individual tank just isn't a viable option anymore. I spoke to someone who does fish breeding and he advised me to setup my tank to be as low maintenance as possible if I plan to expand in the future he said that he made that mistake in the beginning of keeping it as simple as possible and it ended up costing he way more. As mentioned right now I have to haul my buckets of water down the hallway to the bath room or outside and I plan to change that too.

I plan to have separate equipment for each breeding rack such as nets, syphones, breeding traps(if used) and what ever other equipment need per breeding rack to prevent cross contamination.

This isn't something I thought out in one day, I did a lot of research and planning before decided on what would work best for me. I know the advice you guys are offering is really well meaning but I have drawn up the cons and pros of the setups and this setup will be best. As I have mention I will use a U.V sterilizer with I have also researched and this will help a lot to prevent illnesses in breeding racks, I am aware this isn't fool proof though but it does make a difference.

Sadly my question have not been answered which would really help me as I need to decide if I will have to enlarge my sump or not which would make a bit of a difference in my design. Also I need to know what size pumps I'm looking at so I can finish calculating the cost of my rack.