i was thinking about adding bio media space to my wet/dry by making an acrylic box, that would be open on top and bottom, to fit where drip tray is at. then drip tray would go on the top of that with the cover where bulkheads are. so basically my question if i do that would it be ok to use acrylic they sell at home depot and or lowes. its just the regular acrylic, not the special one that is used for tanks. it would about 1/4" thick. hopefully that makes sense, if not sorry. but any help would be great and thanks in advance.
adding bio space to wet/dry, need advice
- Thread starter jizon82
- Start date
here are pics of the drawing i made at work.
in this pic its hard to see what i wrote.
hopefully you can see what it says in this photo. basically it says on the top "side view of delrey model 240" then below that it says "new drip tray area" then below that it says "old drip tray area" then finally to the right it says "this is the box thing i was talking about for more bio-media space. there would be wiggle room. it would go from about 7.53 gallons to about 14.57 gallons."
now in doing this would it be a waste of time? and should i use the cell cast acrylic instead of the regular acrylic sold at like home depot and or lowes?
in this pic its hard to see what i wrote.
hopefully you can see what it says in this photo. basically it says on the top "side view of delrey model 240" then below that it says "new drip tray area" then below that it says "old drip tray area" then finally to the right it says "this is the box thing i was talking about for more bio-media space. there would be wiggle room. it would go from about 7.53 gallons to about 14.57 gallons."
now in doing this would it be a waste of time? and should i use the cell cast acrylic instead of the regular acrylic sold at like home depot and or lowes?
just a little more info this would would be filtering a 225 gallon tanks built by Charlie's fishtankfactory that i hopefully will be getting this monday. can't wait for that. but anyways would doing this to my current wet/dry model 240 be sufficient enough? stocked wise not sure yet. maybe my wife's 6 ranchu's.
I have used acrylic from Lowes before to build very large sumps and have never had any issues. I understand that you want cell cast acrylics when using it for viewing windows but in an application like this I think you are fine. The Delrey is rated right at 240g. Most filters IMO are not capable of filtering the size tanks they are rated for so I think the addition of a new section is a good idea.
I think you should focus on mechanical filtering in lieu of bio filtering. You really do not have to have tons of space for bio. You just need an good media. I would try and focus on removing as much detritus from the water as possible.
is the current bio media you have not enough? If you arent having any problems I would not mess with it. If you are having an issue the easiest way to increase your bio capasity would be to use/add ceramic rings as bio media. THey are kinda spendy but they have way more surface area in a given volume than bio-balls or scrubbies. I understand that redundancy is important but a lot of people on MFK tend to blow bio media out of perportion with way, way, way, way, way more bio media than nessicary.