elmuyloco5
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I'm going to do my best to explain this thing to you.....
I came up with this idea to make a series of modular boxes (I like the ability to change things without remaking the whole unit). The first box would contain the trickle part of the unit. The water would enter into the top of this box and go through a prefilter (not sure what material I'll make it yet). The prefilter would sit ontop of eggcrate where the water would then trickle through bioballs that sit upon another eggcrate (your basic wet/dry design) and then there would be an opening below the bioballs where the water could pool up as it gets ready to flow out of the box. The next box would be connected to it with pvc pipes that are sealed with bulkhead rings so they can be disconnected at any point.
In the second box, there would be baffles alternating the flow from top to bottom and they would contain a series of materials (carbon, that white ammonia elminating granules, floss or sponge. Then the water would leave through more pvc tubes into the third box.
In the third one there would be a refugium (live sand, plants, lr....if I can get it growing in my tank first since I can't buy it in Hawaii). It would also give me an isolation tank so that I can seperate anyone I need to for various reasons. There would be mesh covering the inlet and outlet to keep fish from swimming between boxes. Then the water would flow out more PVC to the final box.
In the last box I would put my heaters, pump, and possibly skimmer....not sure what type I'm going to get yet though.
So what do you think? Would it work? We would, of course, have an overflow box too. I liked the idea because we could add in a larger box here or there if we wanted or another box if we wanted it to go through something else.
Ok....ready for you to tear it apart.......
I came up with this idea to make a series of modular boxes (I like the ability to change things without remaking the whole unit). The first box would contain the trickle part of the unit. The water would enter into the top of this box and go through a prefilter (not sure what material I'll make it yet). The prefilter would sit ontop of eggcrate where the water would then trickle through bioballs that sit upon another eggcrate (your basic wet/dry design) and then there would be an opening below the bioballs where the water could pool up as it gets ready to flow out of the box. The next box would be connected to it with pvc pipes that are sealed with bulkhead rings so they can be disconnected at any point.
In the second box, there would be baffles alternating the flow from top to bottom and they would contain a series of materials (carbon, that white ammonia elminating granules, floss or sponge. Then the water would leave through more pvc tubes into the third box.
In the third one there would be a refugium (live sand, plants, lr....if I can get it growing in my tank first since I can't buy it in Hawaii). It would also give me an isolation tank so that I can seperate anyone I need to for various reasons. There would be mesh covering the inlet and outlet to keep fish from swimming between boxes. Then the water would flow out more PVC to the final box.
In the last box I would put my heaters, pump, and possibly skimmer....not sure what type I'm going to get yet though.
So what do you think? Would it work? We would, of course, have an overflow box too. I liked the idea because we could add in a larger box here or there if we wanted or another box if we wanted it to go through something else.
Ok....ready for you to tear it apart.......