I built this sump 3 years ago, but I never had a drip tray because I had a large enough pile of mechanical media that ended up spreading the water pretty evenly.
^That photo shows what I'm currently using which is a 25 micron filter pad sitting on some egg crate. This, along with not using carbon anymore, increased the amount of bio media I could fit.
The 25 spreads the water perfectly, and is good filtration, but I have to change the filter pad every day. In order to use 50 or 100 micron, I need to, finally, figure out a drip tray.
After an hour of walking through home depot in search of drip tray material I had some stupid ideas with rubber, some good ideas with plastic, and one really good idea:
PVC Shower Pan Liner. The price is per foot and the roll is five feet wide, so I got a 1' x 5' piece for $5.95. Much easier to cut/drill than plexi, and will not warp like plexi. So I calculated that I need about 156 1/8” holes to match my 1.5” plumbing. Using some graph paper as a template, a $10 rotary tool, and a razor knife and a beer, my helper and I made this:
IMPORTANT: Oatey ALSO makes a CPE Shower Pan Liner, or Chlorinated PolyEthylene; which doesn’t strike me as being safe for fish. In fact, I’m not even sure that the PVC liner that I just made is safe for fish. I’m still reading, but I don’t like to take chances on my aquatic buddies so I’m going to call around tomorrow to see if I can get a small cut of EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer) which, translated to English means: Fish Safe Pond Liner.
As soon as I can find some EPDM I’ll do this all over again and I'll have my drip tray.
^That photo shows what I'm currently using which is a 25 micron filter pad sitting on some egg crate. This, along with not using carbon anymore, increased the amount of bio media I could fit.
The 25 spreads the water perfectly, and is good filtration, but I have to change the filter pad every day. In order to use 50 or 100 micron, I need to, finally, figure out a drip tray.
After an hour of walking through home depot in search of drip tray material I had some stupid ideas with rubber, some good ideas with plastic, and one really good idea:
PVC Shower Pan Liner. The price is per foot and the roll is five feet wide, so I got a 1' x 5' piece for $5.95. Much easier to cut/drill than plexi, and will not warp like plexi. So I calculated that I need about 156 1/8” holes to match my 1.5” plumbing. Using some graph paper as a template, a $10 rotary tool, and a razor knife and a beer, my helper and I made this:
IMPORTANT: Oatey ALSO makes a CPE Shower Pan Liner, or Chlorinated PolyEthylene; which doesn’t strike me as being safe for fish. In fact, I’m not even sure that the PVC liner that I just made is safe for fish. I’m still reading, but I don’t like to take chances on my aquatic buddies so I’m going to call around tomorrow to see if I can get a small cut of EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer) which, translated to English means: Fish Safe Pond Liner.
As soon as I can find some EPDM I’ll do this all over again and I'll have my drip tray.
