DIY internal monter filter!!!

MyFishEatYourFish

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 15, 2008
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monsterville
here you go. ok, this is a skeletal view of abs or pvc, whichever you prefer, the water flows into, via oveflow, the 12" diameter pipe through the smaller pipe sticking out. then it falls down through course media, through the small connecting pipe into the bottom of the second 12" pipe and up through finer media. then it overflows into the third 12" pipe and falls onto the drip plate which disperses the water evenly over a bed of bio media, then when it reaches the bottom of the last cahmber it is pumped back into the main tank, i think that when i do it i will hook another pipe up to the exit one and extend it to the other end of the tank so that water isn't being redfiltered. to expose the bio media to air i will have multiple airstones jut above the pump, or have a pump that pumps more water than the amount that can flow into the system. this will keep the last chamber close to empty. my theory is that since air pumping through a pump lowers the gph then it will reach an equallibrium where there is a continuous and constant air flow through the pump. which will keep the bio media in the air. i will control inlet flow via a ball valve on the inlet pipe. the only drawback to overpump method is a continuous bubble flow into your tank. to fix that i will have a second de-bubble chamber at the end of the "transport" pipe at the opposite end of the tank as the main filter. this will be a 4" or so pipe with a t at the top, so air flows through the top of the t and water out the side, either through a diy spray bar or just straight in. in my tank, the 300 gallon diy, the filter will be all the way to one side, out of site, the the exit tube will run along the front under window level, out of sight then into the de-bubbler on the complete opposite side, out of site.
tell me how you guys think this will work and if you see any pobs.
 

MyFishEatYourFish

Feeder Fish
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May 15, 2008
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monsterville
the drip plate? or the filter? the filter is for my 300 gal diy, theres a thread titled 300 gallon diy. a drip plate spreads water out over a surface to even out the flow over your media, hopefully to prevent channeling and dead spots, both are BAD.
does that answer your question.
 

hybridtheoryd16

Jack Dempsey
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Nov 28, 2007
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Personally i would not want this inside my tank. If you put it outside the tank it would be a complicated sump basically. So IDK?. It will work i am sure of that. i have made a internal sump style filter for a few tanks that ius simply a peice of glass that is in the corner of the tank and behind the glass is biomedia and then all the actual filter material you want. And the glass is broke off at the bottom corner so that a pipe can be run out beside it and a power head for the pump since it is a zero head height sump. I have painted the glass the same color as my background on my show tank and it is virtually invisable. here is a pic of a small design on a feeder tank.
And it works great, the tank is about 12g and has about 75 minnows in it right now that are 1.5-2.5'' :eek:and it did have a small ammonia reading of .25ppm the day after i out them in there but now it has gone away four days later. So I am pretty sure the bio-load capabilities of this design are good.
 

Pharaoh

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Feb 18, 2008
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Looks as though it will work just fine except for one thing. The drip plate as pictured serves no purpose being placed wherre it is. As you stated, the drip plate is for distributing water over the media. The plate should be in the first chamber.
Cool idea. I want to see it in action.
 

MyFishEatYourFish

Feeder Fish
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May 15, 2008
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monsterville
the first two chambers will be filter floss, the first course, the second finer. floss kind of acts as its own drip plate and as one area becomes saturated it spreads out the flow and soon has even flow throughout. the drip plate is last because i want the last chamber to be a wet dry bir chamber.

i will have this in tank because i'm trying to eliminate as much evaporation as possibe to retain heat and keep cost down. i plan on having the tops accessable from the top and stacking rocks in front.

i was thinking about capping the tops of the pipes and making it canister for indoor applications.
 

dragonfish

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Sep 17, 2006
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I'm sure it will work but to be effective it will need to be a fair size and take up quite a bit of room in tank. Why not do something similar with an external sump?
 
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