Wet-dry filter for 300 Gallons

[Kevin11d]

This is my first time making a filter, i need all the advice i can have from all the professional here!!

Height: 18"
Width: 24"
Length: 36"

Base on the pic , do you see any problem?
I'm not sure what kind of water pump i need for this system. I need to pump to water up to 9'. Will 960GPH be good enough for 300 gallons?

If the water pump doesn't pump fast enough, will the bio balls fill with water?

Thanks
Kevin

[FischAutoTechGarten]

Are tank dimensions 96" Long, 24" Wide, 30" High?

[tom.s]

;D

I am not sure, but is 2" enough water hight for the pump ?

Otherwise looks fine to me.

Ronald

[Kevin11d]

It's 36" long, 24" wide and 18" high!!!

[FischAutoTechGarten]

meant the aquarium, not the wet/dry.

[jaydoc]

you are off to a great start! I would like to make a couple of suggestions if I may.

1. Pumps are rated in gallons per hour at 0 head height. They usually have a graph on or in the box that will tell you flow rate at a given head height. You need 3-4 times the tank volume to circulate per hour at 9 foot of head height if I read your post correctly.
2. I agree that 2" is not adequate for thepump sump, I suggest moving your "racks" up to 4". You then can make one more "dam" after the bio-balss that is 4" tall so that the water trickling over it insures about a 4" sump depth for the pump.
3. I think you have enough bio balls if I have done my calculation correctly. the manufacturer recommends one gallon of bioballs for 30-40 gallons of tank volume. multiply the height x width x length of just the bioball chamber and divide by 231 to get gallons of bio balls.
Although you have enough bio balls, it doesnt appear to me that the water will distribute over them equally in your drawing. consider a flat piece of plexiglass with holes drilled in it that the water cascades onto and then is spread out over the biochamber equally to drip down through the bio balls.
4. You don't have to worry about the pump not being able to pump fast enough to keep the sump from over filling. Once the system is running, the same amount of water going out of the pump to the tank will overflow from the tank back to the sump so everything is equal.
Good luck!

[Kevin11d]

Hey ODwyerPW: sorry for the misunderstanding.

That 300 gallons is combined with 7 tanks. Two 33G for breeding, four 45G for raising and one 67G show tank.

Hey jaydoc: thanks for you help!! ;D ;D


Do most people use 1" pvc pipe for central? I can't found any 1" pvc pipe, all i found is either 3/4" or 1 1/4".

Kevin

[1bigfish]

Hello,

The first two chambers of foam are overkill. In fact, they will mess your system up. Foam will not let water pass through it as fast as bioballs or as fast as your pump may push water. As they collect debris, they will only slow the water. On top of that, your drawing shows the walls down stream of the foam going all the way to the top. They should be lower in case the water is restricted and the level rises. You would rather have water bypass the foam than end up on the floor. Also, the bacterial bed in the foam will be very large. You want the bacteria in the bio balls not the foam.

Ther correct way to work this kind of system, is to use a prefilter. Look at the typical overflow box, a coarse foam is used, to collect only the larger items of debris. And if it cloggs due to neglect, the water will pour down the center and stay in the overall system. From there, the water flows over a drip plate to get evenly distributed into the bioballs. Debris that makes it past the prefilter will be large enough to pass through the bioballs and settle on the bottom of your sump. You can syphon it out later.

Next, just make sure the sump is large enough to hold the extra water that will drain into it if the power fails. My 125gal has two 30gal sumps.

I've included a picture of a wet dry I made out of a 30gal tank. The bioball chamber slides into the glass tank.

Good luck,

Steve

PS If your breeding, some hydro 5's will work just as well. Sometimes it is nice to not mess with a central sump. Example..when there is an outbreak of some kind, the central sump ensures that every tank will share the love.

[jaydoc]

Hey Kevin,
There are several good ways to do a wet/set up and big fish makes some excellent points. Notice also that he has his heaters in the sump-A good idea. Mine are in my sump with a temperature controller that I got from www.jehmco.com that has the sensor in the tank. This works great because all the heaters work together and tank temperature, not sump temperature, is what controls it.

I have 2 pre-made sumps from Oceanic that are plumbed together. I have found that they are a good design but I don't think they have a big enough bio chamber. You also can definitely build one cheaper. If your local fish store carries these sumps, you could go look at them to get ideas for your design.
Cary

[Kevin11d]

Hey guys, does this filter looks better than the first one?
I made a 1" tube at the incoming water section just incase for overflow water. That tube will automatic lead to the drain.
I increase the sump to 4" so that there will be enough water for the pump and the water will not over fill the bio balls.

Thanks
Kevin

[1bigfish]

Ok, give me some info.

Where is this filter going to be? Out in the open or will there be some space limits on it? If there are some limits, give me the measurments. HeightXwidthXlength. I'll draw a true "wet/dry' filter to meet your needs. Are you leaving the heaters in the tanks or will they be in the sump? Is it in the house, or garage?

We'll get you going, on way or another.

Later,

Steve

[Kevin11d]

Steve: It's going to be in my basement. The filter is going to be under the rack. Space available is 72" long, 24" deptha and 24 high". I will put the heaters in the sump area. The pump will need to pump water up to 9', with a together of 300 gallons of water, how much GPH will i need to make this filter work correctly.

Thanks for helping me!!! ;D ;D

Kevin

[1bigfish]

Ok, I have school tonight, so I'll try to get back to you Friday sometime.

Also, are you making the sump from scratch or using an existing tank? Where are the 18X24X36 diminsions coming from?

Later,

Steve

[Kevin11d]

Steve: I'm making this filter from scratch. I will be using polycast acrylic sheet to make the filter. it's cheaper to buy polycast acrylic sheet than buying glass.

Thanks
Kevin

[Dave C]

Kevin,

I'd get rid of the 2nd foam section and make it all bio-balls. I don't think 2 prefilter sections are necessary. I'd also drop the glass partition level from the 1st foam section so the water will overflow into the next section if the foam gets clogged. I have a similar filter that I made and this has happened, though it's rare. I remove and clean the foam every couple of months and it isn't a big issue. On my setup the water level in the bioball seciton is kept at the height of the partition that encloses it. I've never had a problem with the fact that the media is totally submerged rather then above water level. I would size the pipes going to the filter as large as possible, no less then 1".

Since your filter will operate at a normal water level of 12" that means you will have 22g of add'l space before the filter will overflow. You should figure out the amount of water that will be in 1" of your tank population. That is a typical amount of water that will return to the filter when the power is shut off. So for instance, if you were only servicing a single 300g tank with the dimensions of 96"x26"x28" (LxWxH) then a 1" drop in tank level represents a 10g amount of water returning to your filter. So your sump appears to be properly sized.

I'd also drill holes in your tanks to allow for a 1" return pipe. That's the size mine is on my 180g tank and with 2 such holes it's barely large enough to accept the water flow... it seems that my tank could possible overflow. And that's with a Mag 5 pump.

[Dave C]

btw, your filter looks a lot like mine. (http://members.shaw.ca/dclubine/wetdry1.htm) If you have any other questions that I might be able to help with just ask.

http://members.shaw.ca/dclubine/Filter.JPG

[slicksta]

made mine out of rubbermaid containers.....no gluing and your all done for $10 ;D

[Diskusfreak]

Look’s like a good design but Id chance some details.

I find the bio balls to work great when the water is dripping down over them, but not as good when submerged.
So why don’t you have bio balls where it is enough oxygen and ceramic macaroni (don’t know the right name in English) under the surface.

In my wet-dry filter I use this method and its working ok.

[Dave C]

I acknowledge that it is a better design to have the media above the water rather then submerged. But it hasn't been a factor in my tank. I believe that we oversize our filters to such an extent that they can operate efficiently regardless of where the media is located. My filter, shown above, has been servicing my 180g with no problems for a couple of years. It is currently maintaining 30 4-5" Discus right now and has kept up with the demands of 200 smaller Discus for a period of growout. Could it be more efficient if the media was raised? Possibly, but it's just not a factor. Aquaclear filters seem to operate fine and keep tanks going with submerged media and the size of the media is a fraction of the size of most media chambers on the average wet/dry. The main reason I designed my filter the way I did was space constraints. The filter needed to fit under my tank stand and there was not much height to work with. So it was the most convenient to design it with the media submerged. So far it's worked great.

In order to make your comparison did you have a wet/dry where the media was submerged? What problems did you encounter?

[jaydoc]

Dave C
Do you know how many bioballs you have in your system. (or gallons of bioballs) I have a 175 set p and planon a similiar load of adult discus. I find alot of debarte over how many bioballs are needed per gallon of water and was just curios about your setup.

Cary M.

[Dave C]

I have 10g of bioballs in my wet/dry servicing a 180g tank. There are a couple of sponge filters in the tank too but they are moved in and out as I need them.

[slicksta]

I'm using 8gal in a 155...same with the sponges...rinsed regularly

[Diskusfreak]

Dave C: I do agree that the filter is oversize so that it will fill its function anyway. But If I was to build a new filter why should I not build it as effective as possible. The media is about the same price (in Europe anyway) and the design of the filter is the same.

The only negative thing about ceramic macaroni could be that they could clog up after some period, but due to the bio balls this should not be a problem.

In my filter I have been using bio balls and added macaroni just last week so I really don’t have any own experience in the matter. I can just refer to other solutions I have seen.
My thoughts about using a various media are that if they have a different surface different bacteria might live there. And if you have a large fauna of good bacteria they might solve unusual problems with water.