Sump is a 40b.
Its an oddball set up. I wont be disuaded. I do not want to baffle the sump, I've baffled sumps before and I just don't like them, plus its tedious and everyone does it. I want this system not to be reliant on a custom tank for the sump. I want to be able to replace or switch the tank. Maybe to something smaller or to something larger if I change my mind down the road. I want it completely modular.
Ive alwys wanted a trickle tower for ease of maintenance. The mechanical media drawers are accessible above the water line. They are in the open. Easy stuff, cheap media I can just throw away. No filter socks to rinse. I will be incorpoating a fail safe in the tower incase the mechanical media clogs. And imo you cant beat floss/polyfill. Its the bees knees.
The tower will be an acrylic box with a sterlite/rubbermaid stacking drawer inside of it.
Essentially a herbie set up cannot have a trickle tower because the drains need to be submerged to help the siphons start and purge the air.
The drains are 2 perfectly straight 1" pvc pipes with no elbows or threaded fittings. All slip joints including the bulkheads. Again this is for flowrates and siphon stability. Aside from the gate valve there is no real "plumbing" to speak of in the general sense of the word.
My solution is a chamber on top of the drawer system that holds the better part of a gallon of water. Its going to have a small weir style baffle in the chamber to hold the water. It will spill over to a drip tray IE an acrylic plate drilled with holes. This will difuse it and minimize noise.
Next it will fall into a tray of poly batting pad
Drawer 2 is poly fill floss
Drawer 3 is a wet dry media such as bioballs.
Finally under the waterline will be potscrubs or biomax. Maybe even cut up sponge blocks left over from my dearly departed Ac110.
I chose the 40b because its a boss tank, plus my old man used to have 17 of them running in the basement wheni was a kid. He's still got half a dozen in the garage. I wanted a large water volume most of all.
In the no man's land area of the dead of the sump I have 4 sponge filters and 3 box filters full of biomax and floss. These bad guys will help with polishing water and providing me a means of powering other projects when I need them. Hey they run off 5-10 watts and a single pump dont be hating. I will also house my heaters and my juvenile cichlids / fry. Im constructing a series of baskets or "breeder boxes" out of thay white nylon mesh from the arts and crafts section. It will allow me to segregate fry based on size/age also house expecting mothers with a mouthful of babies before they become lunch in the tank.
Im cultivating a tray of pothos across the span of the back of the tank.
Finally at the far end of the tank is the venerable magdrive 9.5 with a bypass installled in the return, because thats what cool kids do.
If none of this makes sense thats alright, sit tight for pictures! Thankyou for your interest
Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
