automatic waste removal idea

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necrocanis

necrocanis

Catfish God
MFK Member
Oct 10, 2005
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montana
i suddenlyhad a brainstorm from outta nowhere, so someone stop me if this sounds like crap! i was inspired by everyones automatic this and automatic that systems they are setting up! so here's an idea. Why not make something kinda like an undergravel filter that covers the bottom of your tank with holes large enough for waste to fall through, put your rocks on top of it have a hole(or several holes) drilled underneath the tank, and have a line run to a wetdry filter. The waste theoretically will fall through the undergravel filter through the holes and into the filter. This probably means you will have to clean your filter more often, but won't have to mess with syphoning crap off the bottom of your tank. And another idea that would probably work even better is if you are making your own tank make the bottom of it kinda pyramid shaped underneath the stand but put a grate where the pyramid meets the rectangular part of the tank. Now all the crap will have a funnel to suck it right out of your tank as soon as it is produced! I am sure that a crap free tank will be much healthier for your fish! If anyone is planning on doing something similar or has something similar, please share with us and let us see those pics! As for me I will probably try this with a small tank in the future just to see how it will work!
 
it could work but what happens when the power goes out
then your tank is empty your fish are dead and you have alot of water to clean up
just my 2 cents

mike
 
here's a rough sketch to show what I am talking about! Black dots represent crap, sorry about the crappy wet dry, but you all know what they look like it's just there for representation! As you can see the crap is funneled to the prefilter pad of the wetdry, which will probably have to be cleaned/changed very often! let me know what you think! Oh don't know for sure, but might not be the best idea for planted tanks!

fish crap remover.JPG
 
damn, didn't think about that! Maybe an automatic shutoff valve, or same design but run the line to your septic system instead of a wetdry and make it a purge valve and just kinda flush it when ready!
 
or to be really over doing it just get a wet dry the same size as your aquarium! I am sure someone out there has allrady done it anyway!
 
Just like any other wet/dry setup, you need a water level snorkel pipe added to your plumbing, Where the water meet the open air is a siphon break and that level also determines the water level in the tank. You'd be better off with a slant bottom to make the plumbing easier:

level.jpg
 
hmmm, that's a good take on it. I guess you could still run the grate across where the slant meets the tank on the high end, you still get the funneling effect! So in your design oddball the tank would not overflow?
 
necrocanis said:
hmmm, that's a good take on it. I guess you could still run the grate across where the slant meets the tank on the high end, you still get the funneling effect! So in your design oddball the tank would not overflow?
Click to expand...

I think you mean, "the filter will not overflow" in a power outage. No, water seeks it's own level and the water in the standpipe is a gravity drain. With no pump return water trying to fill the tank, the water flow will stop throughout the system.
 
Bassman89 said:
sounds like it would take some time but itd be worth it...what if the seal were to break where the outgoing tube attaches to the tank??
Click to expand...

What if the seal were to break in any part of the tank? With the proper bulkhead fitting, the risk of a seal failure is near zero.
 
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