Hi,
I have the following internal sump in a freshwater tank.
How do I place the media (foam, floss, and ceramic)? In what way? height? etc.
Attachment 129055
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Hi,
I have the following internal sump in a freshwater tank.
How do I place the media (foam, floss, and ceramic)? In what way? height? etc.
Attachment 129055
I would recommend that you cut Poret sponges to fit snugly in the available space and cover it with floss. Biological filtration is simply a function of the surface area available for bacterial growth and it's hard to beat a sponge in that regard. Ceramics, rocks, etc. also work, but sponges would likely be the cheapest medium.
But if you cover the sponges with floss to trap the detritus, it's a simple matter to replace the floss whenever it gets too much crap. Wal-Mart sells mattress batting which is the same material as aquarium floss very cheaply.
Thanks
How do I install the sponge, horiztaly or vertical in the 1st chamber?
Below or higher the water entrance?
To the height of the the sump or the height of the sepertor (between 1st and 2nd chambers)?
Thanks again
I suggest the following, knowing that there's probably many ways to do this.
Chamber 1: Just floss to trap all the debris. You want to organize is so that you can remove the dirtiest layer of floss easily.
Chamber 2: Poret sponge 1" - 2" lower than the adjoining wall, covered with floss again. As the water cascades over, any remaining debris will be filtered out so that the sponge is receiving water without any particulates.
Chamber 3: As much or as little Poret sponge as you want.
The key is to have the floss and Poret sponges fit snugly so that water cannot bypass either medium, which it will if there's a gap.
I avoid using sumps because they're expensive. Homemade ones work well, except there's a lot of noise and humidity. If you can overcome these objections, it's an excellent filtration system. Just remember that it's not a substitute for large water changes.
Good luck, Willie
I run my sumps with sponges and cut to fit pads to remove debris before the sponge .
Love the simplicity and price of sponge. Eventually all bio media needs to be rinsed and sponges are the easiest to clean IMO.Many studies show sponge to have far more usable surface area for bacteria then other medias .They also don't slime over or get clogged and suffocate bacteria as easily .
I use Poret and sponges from Hagen for AquaClears in all my sumps .
Willies advice is spot on as usual .
Thank you, all, for your help.
I also have lots of cermic media (matrix).
So I though placing the sponge and floss on the first chamber, and the ceramic on the 2nd.
On the 3rd chamber, I have the return pump, but also a UV filter and a heater.
Does it make sense? Will it lower my water flow?
Chamber 1 (see attached diagram): how do I place the floss and sponge? from which height to which height?
Chamber 2: can I fill all of it in ceramic (besides the bottom which is open
How about this one (i hope it is clear)?
What should I put at the entrance level in chamber 1?
Thanks
Janiv
A coarse sponge could be used there ?
Also possibly leaving a space on the bottom for the heaviest debris to just collect before getting to the sponge you have in drawing ?
For my Dual Chamber Sump, I ordered Poret foam... The first half of the Sump is where all of the filtration will be occur (2nd half has instrumentation, heater, pump, etc..). I will have 2 really coarse 400micron filter socks to catch heavy debris from the tanks. 400micros is very coarse and should not require allot of maintenance to keep it from plugging up.… Following that, I will have 4 grades of Poret foam arranged vertically, left to right. I will begin with 2 pieces of 2” 10ppi foam, followed by 2 pieces of 2” 20ppi foam, followed by 2 pieces of 30ppi foam, and finished by 2 pieces of 45ppi foam. Utilizing two pieces of each size will allow me to rotate the poret sheets to speed up colonization after a poret sheet is removed, cleaned and reinstalled. With the sizes arranged in pairs, the leftside position will always be removed, the rightside sheet will shift to the leftside position. When the removed sheet is cleaned and then reinstalled, it will occupy the rightside position. This allows a better colonized, but not very dirty sheet to do most of the work… while the cleaned sheet starts to rebuild its colony. The sheets will have a small vertical eggrate between the different sizes to make removal easy and prevent everything from falling over. The sheets are 12 1/4" wide x 10" high... water level will be at 9", which leaves me 2 1/2"" accross both chambers of my Sump to handle excess what during power-out events.Quote:
Originally Posted by coralbandit
Poret should arrive tomorrow. Socks by the weekend.
The diagram shows the filter socks sitting low in the sump, but that will not the case.. I'd never let the lip of the socks sit below a potential high water level as I wouldn't want all of that debris floating out. When the Socks and Foam arrives, I'll take a foto of the build.
Attachment 129088
I purchased a large amount of Bio Home Ultimate for cheap many years ago. Every media claims to be the best these days but bacteria will grow on all sorts of things. Although the lack of oxygen in the inner most parts of the sintered glass is good for a particular bacteria, the name slips me right now. Just as with any filter setup correctly you want to remove as much waste from the water before it hits the main section where the good bacteria is being kept. I do this with sponges, coarse to fine. I use a tight woven polishing pad before the water hits my Bio Home, same as in my canisters. I will then have one more before the return pump chamber to catch anything that may have slipped by. I got away from the loose floss type stuffing , it's just gets every where. Just make sure that non of your sponges or floss has been treated with chemicals for fire proofing, anti bacteria, and anything else. When flow rate slows it's time to clean the sponges. I over filtrate all my tanks and I have to sets of sponges, at least, for all my filters, swapping them all out goes very fast and I can clean them when I want. I'm not worried about killing bacteria on them as I have more media that would be required for tanks 5 times as big, lol!!!!!
NCH