Originally Posted By: highflyer
Farnallsc,

Sorry I missed the question, I have been very busy lately.

Here is the basics.

We have two 275 gallon IBCs as the habitat ring. The two tanks allow us to have fish of different size classes. From the bottom of each tank, there is a drain. That water travels to a blue plastic barrel and enters from the center of the bottom of that tank. I use the first blue barrel as a reverse flow settling tank. From that tank, the water travels to the bottom of the next blue barrel and enters from the center of the bottom of that tank. This tank has the plastic media which "houses" the bacteria that reduces the ammonia to nitrite and then nitrate. This tank has six air stones which adds O2 allowing the bacteria to do their work. From this tank, they travel to the top of the third blue barrel. This barrel houses the Airlift return and the solar powered heaters. The heaters are powered by two banks of four solar panels. The airlift is powered by two 40LPM aquarium pumps. The heaters are installed in the bottom of the tank and heat the water to around 80 degrees F. The airlift draw water from the bottom of the tank and return it to the habitat ring.

I built the Airlift return system using several models and created my own version. I used a 1/32 inch drill bit to drill 120 holes in a 2 inch PVC pipe. I then added a three inch pipe over the two inch pipe to create an air chamber around the holes. I use some of the air from the two 40LPM pumps to supply the needed air to lift the water and return it to the habitat ring. My "up" pipe is 32 inches tall and I can lift water as much as 13 inches above water line using this pump. When I lift water the 4 to 5 inches needed to return the water to the habitat ring, I am moving around eight gallons a minute through the airlifts. And if I set it up to move water at the waterline, I can move around 20 gallons a minute per pump.

Does any of this help? I'll be glad to take some extra pictures if needed. Just let me know how I can help.



Brain,
That sounds like one heck of a setup. You're able to move quite a bit of water, I bet that keeps excellent water quality