6 replies to this topic

[Thalassic Park]

Hi,
I wanted to write about my filter.
Eheim's are great for a backup.
But you can't beat a box on the top of the tank.
I cleaned the filter 6 times in the tanks first year(1997). I placed limestone rocks in the tank, which were then covered in algae. At first Brown algae grew and covered the rocks. The tank also become cloudy due to phytoplankton and bacteria blooms. Water exchanges just seems to promote more blooms. I think this is what some people refer to as 'new tank syndrome'
So the only thing to do is ride it out with minimum W/E's. After about 6 months green algae outcompeted the brown alga and covered the rocks which indicates a change in the water chemistry/functionality of the tank & Filters.
Anyhow after the first year the filter only needed to be cleaned once per year.
Imagine a rock pool down the beach in a reef. The water drains out of the pool until a wave comes across and fills the pool again.
This is what I wanted in my tropheus tank. By amalgamating several ideas I discovered a way to have a filter with this wave effect. The media in the box on the tank is saturated and then drained, this offers a lot more oxygen to the bacteria(wet/dry filtration). The water is released into the tank, filling it full. The pump continuousley pumps from the tank to the 'box'. Until it drains out through the bottom of the box into the tank. The water current in the tank is slow as the pump pumps water to the 'box', then when the water in the 'box' is released there is a barrage of oxygenation and water current. It has been working like this since 1997.
There is an overflow, that drains back to the tank and prevents the 'box' from overfilling. The filter might not look as neat and tidy as a Eheim tucked away. But its filtering efficiency far outweighs the deficit in aesthetics.
Thanks for reading.

[oo fish styx oo]

Sounds great, maybe you could post some pictures? Would love to get a look at it.

Colleen

[mtchye]

I too use a similar filter design. These seem to be very popular back in Malaysia where they are very cheap and efficient filters.. Its basically a mini trickle filter that sits on top of the tank,driven by a powerhead or pump. Gravity returns the water into the tank. I think its the fact that there is so much oxygen for the media that makes it efficient, like other trickle filters...

Age of aquariums sells a similar thing..

www.aquariumproducts.com....ory5_1.htm

And a friend of mine has constructed something similar but just using a plastic tupperware container, so he could fit more media in, and a powerhead to get the water up there.

Its a good efficient design, and does not require a sump like bottom tank trickles or a sealed canister like home made canister filters, so its quite a simple design. If the power stops nothing happens, the filter just drains itself, the powerhead remains under water in the tank so it does not need repriming.

However, its not the best looking of things.. imagine a blue box on top of your tank lids lol

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[saudukar]

Yeah I fabricated something similar using a plastic storage container and reticulation fittings.

Basically the unit sat just underneth the tank and the unit had a sump I had made with a plastic sheet silconed half way down the coinatiner. The unit had jap mat/media/sintered glass in the gravity fall.

The submersible pump pumped it back up to the tank. It would work from over flow from the pumped water into the tank and went out from a U bend at the top of the tank with 19mil reticulation piping and a shovel nose (you know the end fittings that you plug into the base of a undergravel filter).

Basically the principle is that the U bend creates a vacuum which accepts all the water falling into it and allows the water to rise above the lip of the tank and over the side. And as long as the lip of the shovel nose is at the level to accept only overflow cause by the oncoming water from the pump it works.

Of course when I got some more money I retired this homemade monstrosity (it looked awful)to my pond. and bought a proper external filter.

[OgTimGr]

Hi Thalassic,

That is exactly the type of filter I have been meaning to build for some time. It seems similar to the algal scrubber concept where water is passed over a mat of algae under a light source to remove nutrients. The water is pumped into a hinged container that when is reaches a certain volume tips the water onto the mat creating the surge of water.

I have also thought this set up would be great for cigoby cichlids living in the surge zones in Tanganyika.

Would love to see any pics of your design,

regards, Tim

[me]

I have to admitt it sounds interesting, but i still cant imagin like what it looks like, rekon you could get soem pics of it running and apart etc etc?

[Thalassic Park]

hi,
no moving parts
No pictures

Edited by: Thalassic Park at: 4/16/03 1:10:15 am