40G Goldfish Tank

GuildedGravity · May 4, 2021

Hey All,

I know this is a reef forum but don't hate. I'm on here for advice and because I like looking at other people's fish. Who knows, maybe someday I'll become a reefer.

This is my 40 gallon tank with my three goldfish Appa, Boogie, and Bubba. Appa is the small white and orange Ranchu, Boogie is the medium white/black Oranda, and Bubba is the big boy.

I have built a 20G sump that I will be looking for plumbing advice on soon, so stat tuned for that. Right now I am running two Aquaclear 70 HOB filters.

dvgyfresh · May 4, 2021

Yay orandas ! My fav freshwater fish by far lol
They are water puppies

GuildedGravity · May 4, 2021

dvgyfresh said:
Yay orandas ! My fav freshwater fish by far lol
They are water puppies

big chonky puppies

dvgyfresh · May 4, 2021

U

GuildedGravity said:
big chonky puppies

Yes they are! Question , why do you have so much filtration for the goldies? I would think the aqua clears would be enough for just goldfish , unless you plan on getting rid of them and just using the sump. And lastly are you going to add a background- I think a background would help bring out the colors and block the view of the cords but beautiful tank regardless!

GuildedGravity · May 10, 2021

dvgyfresh said:
U
Yes they are! Question , why do you have so much filtration for the goldies? I would think the aqua clears would be enough for just goldfish , unless you plan on getting rid of them and just using the sump. And lastly are you going to add a background- I think a background would help bring out the colors and block the view of the cords but beautiful tank regardless!

Well goldies are pretty dirty, so a lot of filtration is good. I think the two aquaclear 70's are probably plenty. But I started this sump project a while back when I thought I was going to get a much bigger tank. But I ended up moving into an apartment instead of a house so I ended up getting a 40G aquarium. And at that point I had already built the sump and acquired my return pump and everything, so I'm just going for it.

Oh and yes I am going to add a black background when I take the tank down to plumb it up!

GuildedGravity · May 10, 2021

Tested my sump by itself yesterday and there were some issues. The water couldn't flow through fast enough because the gap under my baffles was too small. I cut out three of the baffles and just added them back in. Its curing now.

GuildedGravity · May 11, 2021

The 2nd revision of my sump works great! Water level in the last chamber is fine and it is very quiet! This pic is steady state while the pump is running.

Just to put all the info out there I raised the 3 baffles so they are 1.5" from the bottom of the tank (only .5" before). I also moved the last raised baffle 2" to the left to expand the chamber for the return pump.

GuildedGravity · May 13, 2021

ITS DONE! And its working great. I wish I could measure what GPH I'm getting, but its plenty. I'm running warm water through to soften the braided nylon tubs, Ill add the fishies and plants back tomorrow. Enjoy and thanks for the help!

GuildedGravity · May 13, 2021

As you can see I am using my little baby clamps to prevent kinks from forming while I run this warm water through. Working pretty well. The tubes are slowly forming to the right shape.

Critteraholic · May 14, 2021

Awesome! Can't wait to see the final pics. Luuuvve goldies!

GuildedGravity · May 15, 2021

Final pic with the fish! Happy with this for now. Might get 1 more goldy. If I every do reef I'll probably start small.

Dcal · May 15, 2021

GuildedGravity said:
Final pic with the fish! Happy with this for now. Might get 1 more goldy. If I every do reef I'll probably start small.

keep updating this! even tho its a reef forum as you've seen already people definitely appreciate seeing some goldfish

GuildedGravity · May 15, 2021

Dcal said:
keep updating this! even tho its a reef forum as you've seen already people definitely appreciate seeing some goldfish

Thanks and will do!

dvgyfresh · May 17, 2021

GuildedGravity said:
Final pic with the fish! Happy with this for now. Might get 1 more goldy. If I every do reef I'll probably start small.

Looks great!

NotoriousENG · Jun 6, 2021

Fellow freshwater aquarist here also looking at trying to set up a sump and drilled tank. I saw you ended up going with the eclipse overflow, how do you like it? Does it keep the water level at an appropriate height? I'm also considering trying the eclipse.

GuildedGravity · Jun 7, 2021

NotoriousENG said:
Fellow freshwater aquarist here also looking at trying to set up a sump and drilled tank. I saw you ended up going with the eclipse overflow, how do you like it? Does it keep the water level at an appropriate height? I'm also considering trying the eclipse.

Hey! Yeah this is my first time having a sump/overflow but I do enjoy the eclipse model. Maybe a bit pricy but it works great and it includes both the glass cutting drill bit and a drill template which is awesome. You just have to be really careful where you drill the hole. If you press the drill template up against the black frame on the outside of the tank then the overflow on the inside will interfere with the internal part of the black frame. So there is a sweet spot that you will have to measure out. I made sure the internal part of my overflow is flush with the internal edge of the black rim piece (as high as possible without removing part of the black frame. See the pics in this thread) and my waterline is covered by the black rim. My flow rate is pretty high so there is a chance if it was lower the waterline might lower a bit, but is high enough that it should be hidden in any case. I hope that answers your questions.

UkiahTheTurtle · Jun 7, 2021

Cool tank I love goldfish

GuildedGravity · Jun 7, 2021

UkiahTheTurtle said:
Cool tank I love goldfish

Thanks!

NotoriousENG · Jun 8, 2021

GuildedGravity said:
Hey! Yeah this is my first time having a sump/overflow but I do enjoy the eclipse model. Maybe a bit pricy but it works great and it includes both the glass cutting drill bit and a drill template which is awesome. You just have to be really careful where you drill the hole. If you press the drill template up against the black frame on the outside of the tank then the overflow on the inside will interfere with the internal part of the black frame. So there is a sweet spot that you will have to measure out. I made sure the internal part of my overflow is flush with the internal edge of the black rim piece (as high as possible without removing part of the black frame. See the pics in this thread) and my waterline is covered by the black rim. My flow rate is pretty high so there is a chance if it was lower the waterline might lower a bit, but is high enough that it should be hidden in any case. I hope that answers your questions.

Thanks for the information! I am going to give the eclipse a shot and see how it goes. If my water level ends up being too low I figure I can use a piece of acrylic to block part of the slots.

On a semi-related note, It looks like you have the same stand I decided to go with aside from the fact I have the 29-gallon size. I also saw you had pipe clips attached to the back rail, did you just drill them directly to the stand? I'm also curious how flat the surface of yours was, mine was pretty bad so I'm using a wood top with foam between the wood and the stand to level it.

GuildedGravity · Jun 9, 2021

NotoriousENG said:
Thanks for the information! I am going to give the eclipse a shot and see how it goes. If my water level ends up being too low I figure I can use a piece of acrylic to block part of the slots.

On a semi-related note, It looks like you have the same stand I decided to go with aside from the fact I have the 29-gallon size. I also saw you had pipe clips attached to the back rail, did you just drill them directly to the stand? I'm also curious how flat the surface of yours was, mine was pretty bad so I'm using a wood top with foam between the wood and the stand to level it.

My stand is fairly flat. I have it set up as-is and haven't had an issue. However, using a wood base piece is definitely not a bad idea.

As for the metal clips. Those are from the industrial electrical section in home depot and were only like $1.50 each. They are for mounting electrical conduits but work fine on any pipe like this. I used these self drilling metal screws (see photo) to attach them. They drill right into metal and as long as you don't over tighten them and strip the hole they hold really well. I torqued them a fair bit and didn't strip any holes for this stand. Just make sure you don't try to drill right on top of one of the long fasteners that holds the stand together, it might interfere with the fastener. I also put a handful of washers under each mount to keep it the proper distance from the tank. I superglued each stack of washers together to keep them more or less cylindrical.