glassbird
Aquarium Advice Freak
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2009
- Messages
- 449
I have been doing a great deal of research on the internet about the type of filter called a "bacci shower". I think I have a good grasp of the overall concept. I have been trying to design a new filter for my ponds that can be hidden inside a whiskey barrel, and I think a variation of the bacci shower will do the job. But I would welcome the input of anyone out there who is familiar with the idea.
I have a pump that sits inside a prefilter in the lower of my two ponds, and the pump pushes water up to the filter location. Previously, I had a liner in a half of a whiskey barrel that contained filter material...the water came into the liner near the bottom and filtered up through scrubbies, and then over flowed back into the upper pond. The two ponds are connected by a waterfall. But my fish are getting bigger, and I need more/better filtration.
I now have a large plastic barrel, 18 inches across and 30 inches tall. I have come up with a square PVC arrangement that will have dozens of holes drilled into that will distribute the water over the top layer in the barrel, which will be mostly that double sided blue/white "cut-your-own" filter material from a LFS. The next layer will be about 20 inches of scrubbies that the water will shower down thru. And the bottom layer will be about 5 inches of lava rocks, mostly because I already have them, and the weight will give the barrel some stability.
Does this sound like it might work? And should I strive for more "air space" inside the barrel, or is it ok to have the barrel filled halfway up with water? I am trying to figure out if I should put the outflow (with the intake of the outflow positioned near the bottom) halfway up the barrel, or closer to the bottom. In other words, is there a benefit to letting the water collect in the barrel before it goes back to the pond? Or is the filtering action mostly taking place in the "shower" part of the process?
Whew, thats a lot of typing....thanks for any help!
I have a pump that sits inside a prefilter in the lower of my two ponds, and the pump pushes water up to the filter location. Previously, I had a liner in a half of a whiskey barrel that contained filter material...the water came into the liner near the bottom and filtered up through scrubbies, and then over flowed back into the upper pond. The two ponds are connected by a waterfall. But my fish are getting bigger, and I need more/better filtration.
I now have a large plastic barrel, 18 inches across and 30 inches tall. I have come up with a square PVC arrangement that will have dozens of holes drilled into that will distribute the water over the top layer in the barrel, which will be mostly that double sided blue/white "cut-your-own" filter material from a LFS. The next layer will be about 20 inches of scrubbies that the water will shower down thru. And the bottom layer will be about 5 inches of lava rocks, mostly because I already have them, and the weight will give the barrel some stability.
Does this sound like it might work? And should I strive for more "air space" inside the barrel, or is it ok to have the barrel filled halfway up with water? I am trying to figure out if I should put the outflow (with the intake of the outflow positioned near the bottom) halfway up the barrel, or closer to the bottom. In other words, is there a benefit to letting the water collect in the barrel before it goes back to the pond? Or is the filtering action mostly taking place in the "shower" part of the process?
Whew, thats a lot of typing....thanks for any help!