Thought i would make a contribution to this nice local website. Got a few friends out there that i would like to share with. To paint the picture, up untill recently i worked as an aquarist at AQWA, meaning wicked job, heaps of spare time, absolutly no money. So i basically built everything my self. I have done my best to model this tank on the surge zone of lake tanganika. yet to add a surge bucket though.
i have detailed with photos how i constructed my tropheus's filter system.
First of all the tank that recieved the royal treatment, the fish can from Kev at Malaga Aquarium, great mix of trophs.
![](http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z19/mathewharvey79/DSC05277.jpg)
and the filter running:
![](http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z19/mathewharvey79/DSC05278.jpg)
and this is how it is built:
![](http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z19/mathewharvey79/DSC05264.jpg)
![](http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z19/mathewharvey79/DSC05265.jpg)
![](http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z19/mathewharvey79/DSC05266.jpg)
![](http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z19/mathewharvey79/DSC05267.jpg)
![](http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z19/mathewharvey79/DSC05268.jpg)
![](http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z19/mathewharvey79/DSC05273.jpg)
Then i didn't want to drill my tank to after giving the grey matter a workout i finally figured out how a overflow worked enough to trust it in my rental appartment. Here is how it is build:
![](http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z19/mathewharvey79/DSC05272.jpg)
The integral part and insurance against the syphon breaking is this one way air valve.
![](http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z19/mathewharvey79/DSC05271.jpg)
I hook it up to the resticted intake of a pond pump using air tubing, this constant sucking insures that the syphon keep flowing smoothly.
In this tank i also use a SCWD device (thanks to Matt at Veba's) which helps my add some surge type action to the tank. As you can see the tank has a bit of a DIY look about it but give it a few months and algae will hopefully blend everything in nicely..
hope this inspires others to save $ on expensive filters and make there own. leaveing more $ for fish.
![biggrin.gif](/biggrin.gif)