Just finished my 75 gallon dry/wet/wet filter/sump and thought I'd share a picture and brief desctription. I plan on filtering a 350 gallon tank with this thing.
I plan on having a single 1 1/2" drilled overflow with two 1" inch returns from two Mag12's. Water enters the bioball chamber into a drip plate lined with Poret coarse (10ppi) foam, then through two more inches of coarse foam into the bioballs. There is 8 gallons of bioballs with about two gallons submerged and 6 gallons above the water line. The flow will go up through a layer of ceramic rings (not pictured, I'll be taking the ceramic rings from 4 baskets of my FX5's when I upgrade my 150g to a 350g) and through some crushed limestone (there is a layer of black Matala I'll be taking out). Water will then spill over onto Poret Waffle cut medium grade (20ppi) foam. I really like this foam here, the water channels down it nicely without using a drip plate. The water will then pass through 4 layers of Matala, from coarse to very fine. The last stage before the pump chamber, will be stuffed with pillow stuffing topped with a layer of purigen and/or carbon. The only other thing left to do is plumb a UV sterlizer off one or both of the returns, which will not happen until the tank is up and running.
Its running in test mode and I started a fishless cycle on it. I am really pleased with it. I may start on a smaller version (30/40g) for a 75g growout tank.
I plan on having a single 1 1/2" drilled overflow with two 1" inch returns from two Mag12's. Water enters the bioball chamber into a drip plate lined with Poret coarse (10ppi) foam, then through two more inches of coarse foam into the bioballs. There is 8 gallons of bioballs with about two gallons submerged and 6 gallons above the water line. The flow will go up through a layer of ceramic rings (not pictured, I'll be taking the ceramic rings from 4 baskets of my FX5's when I upgrade my 150g to a 350g) and through some crushed limestone (there is a layer of black Matala I'll be taking out). Water will then spill over onto Poret Waffle cut medium grade (20ppi) foam. I really like this foam here, the water channels down it nicely without using a drip plate. The water will then pass through 4 layers of Matala, from coarse to very fine. The last stage before the pump chamber, will be stuffed with pillow stuffing topped with a layer of purigen and/or carbon. The only other thing left to do is plumb a UV sterlizer off one or both of the returns, which will not happen until the tank is up and running.
Its running in test mode and I started a fishless cycle on it. I am really pleased with it. I may start on a smaller version (30/40g) for a 75g growout tank.
