need ideas for trickle filter

[gary1218]

I'm having made a large trickle filter for my new tank set up. It is being made to fit in the area under one of my tank stands. Basically it will be a covered/sealed 80 gallon tank - 36" long x 18" wide x 30" hide.

My concern is getting the water to flow over all of the bio balls. If I use a trickle plate it would be 36" x 18". I'm wondering with that large a trickle plate if the water will flow to all parts of the filter.

Any ideas/comments?

Thanks,
GARY

[slicksta]

Gary
what I did on mine is that I made a spray bar and ran it around the outside of the trickle plate and have it spaying to all parts of the plate....
if I get a chance I will take a pic for you....

John

Gary

If your going to use a trickle plate I think you might have a real problem getting even coverage over the bio-balls with a plate that size.
Ive never made a plate that large, biggest Ive made is about 16x16. The most effective method Ive found is to drill small holes in the center of the plate with the holes getting larger as they radiate out from the center. Im not sure how well this would work with a 16x36 plate. If it was my setup, I would use two lines into the filter and use two smaller 16x16 plates.

Tony

[slicksta]

........I didn't glue any of the fittings.......This makes it easy to adjust and take apart to clean..

[gary1218]

VERY cool John ;D Thanks for the pic.

GARY

[Lance_Krueger]

Hey Slicksta,
Any way to post more overall pix of your wet dry? I really like that idea of the spraybar over the drip plate. Hadn't seen anyone do one like that before. I'm planning to make a DIY wet/dry for my 200 gallon Oceanic Discus tank. From your picture, it looks like a small rubbermaid filled with bio balls inside a bigger rubbermaid which is your sump. Right? Pix, descriptions, and drawings, please. ;)
Thanks,
Lance Krueger

[slicksta]

Lance
that's pretty much it....I will take some more pics this week...It's been running since August....haven't had a problem yet...

John

[Lance_Krueger]

Looking forward to them.
Thanks,
Lance

[slicksta]

Lance
....don't know if I'll get to the pics before the week-end....IM me if you have any questions....
John

[Rod]

Hi Gary,

If the return water to your drip plate proves not too be enough flow, perhaps you could place an auxillary power head in the sump to flow extra water back over the filter media.

HTH

Rod

[gary1218]

Well I talked to the fellow last night that is going to make the filter for me. We decided to go with the drip plate. I'm going to start with 1/4" holes placed 1 1/2" apart. We'll see how that works. I think for the few tanks I'll have on the system now that should be fine. As I add more tanks and increase the water flow to the filter I can just enlarge the holes.

THANKS for the other suggestions :D

GARY

[slicksta]

Here ya go Lance....my DIY wet/dry
It starts with a AGA 155 bow with built in dual overflows.
I didn't use there overflow valve kits.....instead I made one overflow an intake and the other the return.
The intake is filled with 3 gallons worth of bioballs and topped with two sponge pads and a trickle plate....all home made

[slicksta]

1

[slicksta]

Through the 1" bulk head and a ballvavlve to the wet/dry

[slicksta]

Here is a the wet/dry which is made from two plastic containers.
The larger sump is a Rubbermaid 24"L x 18"H x 16" L . If I remember correctly, it is a 27 gallon. the pic looks a little funny because I spliced two pics together

[slicksta]

this I posted before....A spraybar made out of 1" PVC over a triclkle plate made from a plastic cafeteria tray. The filter box is a plastic storage container 16"L x 12"H x 10"D.

[slicksta]

1

[slicksta]

under the trickle plate is a layer of filter floss

[slicksta]

under the floss is a layer of filter sponge

[slicksta]

then there is 5 gallons of bioballs

[slicksta]

the filer box empties into the sump. I drilled a series of holes in the bottom of the filter box the same as the trickle plate only larger , about 3/8"
In the sump there are two heaters.
....a small pump that I have filled with sponges and carbon. This polishes the water and keeps the water in the sump always moving....
....and a low water cut off. This is incase something obstructs the flow to the sump. This protects the pump and heaters from runnning dry

[slicksta]

a pic of it running...

[slicksta]

this is my DIY filter that is in the sump connected to the small pump

[slicksta]

then it gets pumped back up by this little guy......
actually he is going to get replaced by a little giant 3-MDQ-SC when I get the chance......
Both are about 700 gallon an hour

[slicksta]

and the reason for all this............

[slicksta]

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[slicksta]

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[slicksta]

*

[Lance_Krueger]

John (slicksta),
Thank you so much for the detailed descriptions and the great photos. They were extremely helpful! :D
Couple more questions for you. I see the smaller rubbermaid containing the bioballs sitting inside the larger rubbermaid. Is there any sort of support beneath the smaller one, or does it just rest on it's handles across the edge of the larger rubbermaid?
I also saw that you had an X-10 controller with a couple of cords plugged into it. Is this to turn on and shut off your lighting? How do you like the X-10?
Thanks again,
Lance Krueger

[korbi_doc]

:bounce2: :bounce2: Hi Slicksta, the system is neat, I hardly understand it, mine was a bought one for the 90g years ago (amiracle I think) but it works. I'm not that handy. What I want to say is; THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL; LOVE THAT TANK; & THOSE FISH!!! They are WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!! Very very neat, go guy!! Dottie ;D ;D ;D ;D

[slicksta]

Lance...
...the smaller one fits perfectly in the larger with no support under it.. It's lip rests on the lip of the larger one on three sides. I have a piece of PVC with a notch on each end which locks into the lip of the larger snugly and prevents the bioball container from moving. It also helps the larger one from speading to much when it fills with water durring a power failure..

[slicksta]

'nother pic.....

the X-10 module is the timer for the lights. It also lets me control the light by universal remote. I am happy with it's operation.
As a timer it works flawlessly....on the remote and a few macros that I have it included in, its operation is acceptable....over 95%....X-10 isn't a perfect yet....

Dottie........thank you.....


John

[daninthesand]

Regarding drip plates.

I used to have an external sump for my 80 gallon. Heck, that was about 12 years ago! In it I used a two stage drip plate. The top plate had "coarse" holes. I can't remember (sorry :-\)exactly but i think they were around 1/4 inch in size and spaced about 1" apart in a grid pattern around the entire plate. This top plate was actually a tray with about 1" high walls on it. The walls forced the water through the holes rather than spilling over the edges down the insides of the sump and missing the bioballs.

At one corner the wall was slightly lower, to allow for water to overflow directly into the sump (thereby bypassing the filter media) should the filter media ever get clogged.

The tray sat about 1/2" above a layer of coarse sponge filter, sort of like the sponges in the Aqua Clear filters I use today. This layer filtered out the larger particles.

This coarse filter media sat on top of a finer filter sponge. These two layers of filter media sat on top of a second stage drip tray. It was made exactly the same as the top one, EXCEPT, the holes were 1/8" in size and spaced in a ~ 1/2" grid pattern. The walls were higher to allow for the thickness of the filter material.

These two trays sat on top of the bio balls.

The idea is that the first tray distributes the water to certain extent and the finer second tray distributes it even further. It all worked rather well and I got very good distribution of the water flow onto the bioballs this way. The trays were easily accessible and lifted out for easy sponge cleaning. I had a LOT of room under this particular tank, so access was not a problem.

Like I said, this was a while back but hopefully you get the idea. And of course I do not have a picture to post because that filter is long gone. (I sold it because I stopped keeping fish when I moved overseas)

Feel free to ask for more detail. It just might jog my memory for some useful information. ::)

Daniel :P

[Lance_Krueger]

John (Slicksta)
Again, your explanations and photos excell my expectations. Good idea on the PVC pipe across the top. Thanks so much. Now I've just got to go out and find the pieces to make my own. One last question, do you have a lid on the overall larger rubbermaid (it looks like you have one on the smaller bio chamber, and how do you keep the sprinkler head in place above the drip plate?
Thanks Lance

Daninthesand,
Good idea. Thanks for your helpful info. I will probably incorporate several ideas I've seen on the internet, and make my own that will fit my needs best.
Lance

Hey Gary if you need any bio-balls, I have 20-30 gals of them in storage left over from my saltwater days. I'm sure we could work something out..............


Randy

[gary1218]

Thanks for the offer Randy, I'll keep it in mind. It will depend on how large a filter I end up with. I have probably enough to fill 35-40 gallons myself. I may need a few more if I make it as large as I hope to.

GARY

[slicksta]

Lance

Yes I do have a cover on the larger one...I cut the cover in half so that it fits over the open end right up to the PVC brace.
The spray-bar just sits on top of the plate. It's a about 1/4" smaller all around and slides in and out easy.....but snug enough to stay in place.

John