Going big...... advice please.

[Ramdough]

I am in central Texas. Would have to go by mail.

Thanks for the offer though.

[JamesW]

To most people I sound like a broken record but instead of K1 it might be worth looking at Poret Foam (http://www.swisstropicals.com/filtra...ua-media-shop/) as a fluidized media. Stendker discus also use it as the basis for mattenfilters. Think scalable, long-lasting and effective sponge filters on steroids.

Did you decide to go with RO? Overflow design?

[Ramdough]

I will consider the foam, but not yet. Still organizing things.

I am planning to start without RO. A friend of mine ran a planted tank and had peat moss in his substraight. He said he had very stable PH and had breeding in his tank. If the plants, peat moss and logs don’t do it, I may add RO. But I can always get there later.

For the overflow, the tank has one built in. By setting the height of my first barrel and its overflow, I can control the height of the water in the tank overflow thereby controlling noise in the house.

That is my current plan. It should be pretty simple, no valves..... just setting heights.

[Ramdough]

I do have a new question. A friend of mine recommended filling the overflow with bio balls to add surface area. I was assuming that may not be a good idea because it would be a pain to clean..... ever. I would rather leave it empty than add something there to clean (will be a pain to get to once setup).


Thoughts?

[JamesW]

I'm assuming the overflow has one/two bulkheads through the bottom of the tank?

If you have a short stand pipe/no standpipe at all, the detritus should eventually makes its way down to the filter. In my opinion, bio balls are kinda out-dated, they work best in a wet/dry format and have a low surface area compared to modern filtration media. If you are using reticulated foam, K1 media, or matrix/engineered ceramic media then the surface area for biological filtration will vastly exceed the extra you would get from an overflow filled with bio-balls.