Diy filtration

[Brandon D.]

As I'm sure many people have asked similar question I will start with the idea which is some sort of diy canister with a large turn over volume. my idea is to have it gravity fed to the pump which leads to my somewhat dumb question of if it is gravity fed will the pump somewhat pull water in and will it also keep internal pressure down. Any advice or input is greatly appreciated

 

[Gilcano]

DIY filtration - My EheimZILLA

I'm in the same boat, I want a filter in which you can put a large amount of media but the commercial brands cost you an arm, a leg and an eye altogether.
So I research and got this idea from a guy in SA, he made his with 6" PVC pipe and fittings 12" tall for his 55 gallon tank but I'm thinking to go beyond that. I'm planing to go 36" tall so you can put a lot of media (ceramic rings, bio-ball, floss, blue bonded pads, etc). Check this out.

 

[Brandon D.]

Tht thing is the bomb!

 

[flyfishfan1966]

You may want to consider a sump.
Super easy to make, relatively cheap, relatively off the shelve
The three containers are dog food and cat litter.
They fit perfectly on the inner edge of the tank.
Home Depot pond filter pumps back t about 850 GPH at 5feet.

Here's a pic of mine.
It's a 40 gallon long as the sump for my 180.
The water comes from the overflows and goes in the three containers.
There's a Rubbermaid basket that's drilled and holds the filter media
The the water hits old school blue bio balls.
There is roughly 12 Gallons of bio balls!!
There is room for another sub filter which would bring me to about 16 gallons of BB.
I was also thinking of switching to the SeaChem Matrix in one or more.





If you'd like more details lemme know.

 

[Gilcano]

I'm thinking to do something like this picture



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Gilcano]

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[agrasyuk]

FFF, I like the idea of drilled buckets in the sump to hold media instead of gluing dividers.

 

[Brandon D.]

We'll I already had a pump so figured I'd base around that no need to spend mre then I have too in built a test system and two half in bulk heads wnt even flow 330 gph so I doubt one 3/4 bulkhead would

 

[Mebbid]

When I see threads like this I have to pose this question:

What good does an excessive amount of biological filtration media do?

Your tank can only hold soo much fish stock which is a direct limiting factor in the amount of ammonia that can be produced at any given time. That ammonia production is kept in check by a bacterial colony that is limited in growth by the amount of ammonia in a tank.

Assuming the average tank is producing 20ppm nitrate weekly which is fairly average for an aquarium. Each 1ppm of ammonia creates 3.6ppm of nitrate. This will mean there is approximately a 5.5ppm production of ammonia every week. A standard HOB filter with a cartridge insert is often cycled at 4ppm of ammonia daily which is 5x the amount of ammonia produced in a week on an average tank.

There's no need to go overkill on filtration and this is the exact reason I haven't done a fluidized sand bed filter.

 

[Brandon D.]

Not going over kill just wanna make my own filter for cheap lol

 

[Gilcano]

So Mebbid: are you saying that a regular HOB filter like Aquaclear 110 or Marineland 350 is good enough for a 90g tank for example? No need for an Eheim 2217 or any other canister filter?. I thought the more filtration the better the water quality and less problems with water parameters. I'm no expert on this but people are allways saying that overkill fintration will keep your tank cristal clear and trouble free. I see people with a 110g tank and a Fluval FX5 rated foe 400+ gallons or an Eheim 2262 (rated x 460g) in a 150g tank.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Brandon D.]

Point^ good question

 

[agrasyuk]

Sorry , it is not a secret that some aquariumists are obsessed with filtration
more will not hurt of course , but question of just how much is Really required is a very valid one. Something tells me that FX5 is a terrible overkill for anything under 100gal.

 

[Brandon D.]

Alota money for it!

 

[Dallascowboys16]

THE amount of bb in a filter isn't the issue if it's cycled correctly. The main need for larger filters on a larger tank is water flow.

 

[Lepomis]

When I see threads like this I have to pose this question:

What good does an excessive amount of biological filtration media do?

Your tank can only hold soo much fish stock which is a direct limiting factor in the amount of ammonia that can be produced at any given time. That ammonia production is kept in check by a bacterial colony that is limited in growth by the amount of ammonia in a tank.

Assuming the average tank is producing 20ppm nitrate weekly which is fairly average for an aquarium. Each 1ppm of ammonia creates 3.6ppm of nitrate. This will mean there is approximately a 5.5ppm production of ammonia every week. A standard HOB filter with a cartridge insert is often cycled at 4ppm of ammonia daily which is 5x the amount of ammonia produced in a week on an average tank.

There's no need to go overkill on filtration and this is the exact reason I haven't done a fluidized sand bed filter.

I had similar the other day but did my usual and just deleted it moved on.