Building a 3 Drawer Wet/Dry Trickle Sump... HELP!!

[birdhawk23]

Okay so after having too much time on my hands and everybody recommending I go for more filtration on my 150 gallon, I've started the process of building my own wet/dry trickle sump using the 3 drawer technique

First I had this perfect 3 Drawer stand laying around the house.
Measurements are 12.5 x 14.5 x 25.5|

Next I went out on a limb thinking I knew what goes in the drawers and bought
1. Bioballs for the top drawer (100 count)
2. Carbon pads, and Ammonia pads for the middle drawer
3. Filter fiber for the bottom drawer


Sooo here is where my knowledge runs dry... and I kind of need some helpful tips from the pros
1. Is this the correct order that my contents should be in the drawer?
2. I have a 150 gallon tank, and am not sure what I am going to be putting the drawer in, suggestions? Size?
3. What size pump will I need to re-filter the water back up into the tank? Any specific brands?
4. Do you guys suggest the overflow box or doing the pvc siphoning build?
5. How many holes will need to be drilled in each drawer, and should I sit an egg crate on the bottom of the drawers?

And to my knowledge I know I need the drawers on one side and the pump on the other... What other objects do I need to place inside the sump.. Heaters?something else? This is my first shot at this so any info will help a BUNCH!


As you can tell i'm a newbie at this so I'm relying on some good people to help

 

[KLee79]

just for example..this is my filter i made about 2 years ago and its still up and running. I personally made the top drawer my 'trickle tray' over the scrubbies or bio balls in your case. but I would warn you that I had to fix mine by putting a larger tub under the whole tower due to the overspray of the top tier-im sure that could be done another way.

 

[clayton1985]

1. Is this the correct order that my contents should be in the drawer?
2. I have a 150 gallon tank, and am not sure what I am going to be putting the drawer in, suggestions? Size?
3. What size pump will I need to re-filter the water back up into the tank? Any specific brands?
4. Do you guys suggest the overflow box or doing the pvc siphoning build?
5. How many holes will need to be drilled in each drawer, and should I sit an egg crate on the bottom of the drawers?

1. with what you have id put the bio balls in the second drawer and the filter floss in the top drawer and what ever else you have in the bottom, the idea being that bio ball apparently arent as effective if fully submerged so that rules out the bottom drawer, also they wont be as effective if they are dirty cos the bb on them will be covered in muck so that rules out the top drawer cos they will get dirty in no time as all the crap that comes from the overflow, so if you put the filter floss in the top drawer it will remove all the the muck and let your bio balls work properly. You could even put your pads in the top drawer then your filter floss over the top of that, then second drawer bio balls and srubbies in the bottom drawer. 2 Your drawers will need to be sat in a container big enough to handle the overflow from your tank when you turn your pump off (my tank is 550l and my container is 115l and more than handles the overflow) 3. some people prefer 5 times turnover but you can do with 3 times but you will need to consider the size of your overflow pipes(there is a good sticky at the top of the diy page about overflow rates by chompers) plus consider its best to have more than one overflow in case one gets blocked 4. someone else will have to answer that as i just drilled mine as its plywood. 5. i cut the bottom out of each drawer as they were quite flimsy with a 2 inch lip, the top drawer got an acrylic drip plate with 1/4 inch holes every 1/2 inch then egg crate placed on the bottom of the other drawers. hope this helps

 

[birdhawk23]

Okay wow guys this is already more than I expected. Awesome!!
I'll make sure to rearrange the order of my drawer contents.

Also could you possibly explain what exactly your PVC is connecting and going from?
I plan to start plumbing in the morning..
Thank you guys!!

 

[birdhawk23]

bump for help

 

[Ancient_Fish_Master]

1. first drawer should have sponges and filter floss, second drawer should have the bio balls and the last drawer should have ceramic media since it will be submerged.

2. a 30 gallon rubber maid tub should be just fine. gotta make sure everything fits under your stand though, unless you plan to run it on the outside beside the tank.

3. i would shoot for no less than 800 gph after return plumbing. good brands are mag drives and quiet one pumps.

4. if your confident in making a pvc overflow, go for it. plus it will be cheaper. CPR makes really good HOB overflows, i run the 1500 gph model on my 130 gal.

5. this is a but trial and error. you need enough holes so that the first drawer doesnt overflow with water and so that the water trickles over the bio balls.

 

[Ancient_Fish_Master]

as for plumbing you can watch my vid, just explains how i did my plumbing and where it goes.

[YT]sZKuFh09PRY[/YT]

 

[KLee79]

in my pics i have the pump in the pond. it pumps water to the top of the drawers. I have an emergency overflow drain in the top drawer that goes back to the pond. I also have the return pvc coming out of the bottom drawer..

 

[Dieselfool]

Here's pics of mine.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

Remove the Ammonia pads, they do no good for the biological filtration