5g bucket filter media

[AtomixIGN]

I built a 5 gallon bucket filter last year. Here is a pic.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v334/AtomixIGN/filter.jpg

click here for far shot (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v334/AtomixIGN/My%20House/b2cffbcf.jpg)


The bottom is filled with lava lock up to the return. Next up is 3 gallons of Lee's bio balls. A ball of ehfi-fix course mesh is stuffen in front of the return. And finally on the top I use 2 layers of polyester batting.


The pump is a submersed no name waterfall pump with a large sponge prefilter. rated for 1260 gph.


Now that that's all out of the way, what I'm looking for is a top level of filtration. Some sort of a coarse sponge big enough to fill the bucket without side blow out. Something to trap the large particles and allow the water from the spraybar to distribute equally across the polyester batting.



Thoughts?

[AtomixIGN]

I picked up a set of Pondmaster refills and cut them to size.

Coarse, medium, medium with carbon, and then the poly batting. All the pieces I had left over I stuffed under the bioballs to up my biological filtration.

http://www.northlandgardens.com/IMAGES/water_images/Supreme-filter-1000-white-pad.gif
http://www.northlandgardens.com/IMAGES/water_images/filter%20pad%20FINE%203%20pk%20for%201000%20&%202000%20copy.gif
http://www.northlandgardens.com/IMAGES/water_images/Supreme-filter-1000-black-pad.gif

[DeLgAdO]

I picked up a set of Pondmaster refills and cut them to size.

Coarse, medium, medium with carbon, and then the poly batting. All the pieces I had left over I stuffed under the bioballs to up my biological filtration.

http://www.northlandgardens.com/IMAGES/water_images/Supreme-filter-1000-white-pad.gif
http://www.northlandgardens.com/IMAGES/water_images/filter%20pad%20FINE%203%20pk%20for%201000%20&%202000%20copy.gif
http://www.northlandgardens.com/IMAGES/water_images/Supreme-filter-1000-black-pad.gif

i use the fine pond water in my wet-dry

i highly recommend it

the one i have i bought last year, and i rinse it every week with a jet nozzle and it has yet to fall apart

ITS BUILT EXTREMELY TUFF:thumbsup:

[fishyboi]

I use a trash can as my filter, its almost the same as your bucket.

[Don4921]

I picked up a set of Pondmaster refills and cut them to size.

Coarse, medium, medium with carbon, and then the poly batting. All the pieces I had left over I stuffed under the bioballs to up my biological filtration.

http://www.northlandgardens.com/IMAGES/water_images/Supreme-filter-1000-white-pad.gif
http://www.northlandgardens.com/IMAGES/water_images/filter%20pad%20FINE%203%20pk%20for%201000%20&%202000%20copy.gif
http://www.northlandgardens.com/IMAGES/water_images/Supreme-filter-1000-black-pad.gif
no offense or anything but those products are heavily overpriced...:grinyes: be better to get in bulk from koi shop much cheaper and same quality:thumbsup:

[Dr Joe]

How about the commercial floor scrubber pads 18 & 24 ? " diameter, scrubbers are course, polisher pads are medium. Check with a janitorial supply. I used to cut them up for other filters I made. Heavy duty, last forever.... even work as bio-material ( more surface than pot scrubbers ). ;)

[tattoodaddy]

Now that is a good idea...build the filter with trash can and use floor scrubbers as media...maybe even aperfect fit. What size pump would be recommended for this set up?:confused:

[fishyboi]

Just use anyting rated at 400gph, thats wat i use I think

[Don4921]

How about the commercial floor scrubber pads 18 & 24 ? " diameter, scrubbers are course, polisher pads are medium. Check with a janitorial supply. I used to cut them up for other filters I made. Heavy duty, last forever.... even work as bio-material ( more surface than pot scrubbers ). ;)
make sure you rinse those out before use sometimes they have chemicals on them already for the floor :( goodluck:woot:

[GoodMike]

on our pond we use a similar set up, except we use a really large planter with a lid, its probably like a 40 gallon barrel basically, we took this pad material (kinda like a huge thick scrubber pad) its about 2 feet wide and 15 feet long. rolled it up, stuck it inside. the water is pumped from the pond to the bottom of the barrel, then when it reaches a certain hight, it is poured back into the pond.

[Dr Joe]

Isn't it common knowledge to wash everything including under the fishes finger nails before putting it in the tank.;) They aren't normally treated but may have a release agent on them to keep them from sticking together during shipment.

I've seen the rolled up idea online somewhere as a prefilter, maybe it was yours?

Sure would be nice to have one all inclusive filter that we just had to scale up/down to fit our needs... hhmmm, gotta think about that again, last time it turned out to be a 20g filter for a 10g tank! But it was clean.

[Don4921]

i have a 65-gallon filter and it does 3 ponds