Ziggy953
Aquarium Advice Addict
Can't be too common, I started a thread about it, got a total of about two responses, then it kind of died out - of course mine was a little more purpose specific. Getting some great ideas by following along with your build however, especially since I won't have to worry about CO2 loss in my trout tank, but filtration will be a big issue.
Glad to be of help. FYI the trickle filter I put together cost me right at $20.00 for all the parts. The little drawer stacks from walmart were 7.97 and 4 something. The filter floss was under $3 the sponge was $4 at my LFS. Pretty simple and took about 20 minutes to put together. Each drawer has 36 holes drilled in the bottom. I'll take some pics of them and post them for you. You can use any of the drawer stacks that walmart sells. Larger for lager systems. The thing that caught my attention here is that I can change out the media in each drawer easily, I can see how the water is flowing through the filter and I can adjust my filtration needs based on what's going on in the tank.
I believe that most places that have 9-12 tank systems (petco petsmart walmart ect) use sump and trickle style filters though they may incorporate a biowheel of some kind. Just a little info there..