So I made a w/d off a previously used idea here on MFK and it's turned out nice so far. And by so far I mean sitting in the hall way 
. I went and bought three sheets of .22mm plexiglass, some aquarium sealant, and used an old 55 gallon laying around to make a 24" bio chamber that needs to be filled with scrubbies, and I have a 9" area that with be home to two filter socks as soon as they come in the mail. One problem is my bio chamber can house about 200-300 scrubbies and I have about... 50? But that's sovled by me actually ordering a good amount. My real problem is mechanical filtration.
If any of you are into ponds, you may have heard of Bioforce filters. They come in 250, 500, 1000, 1500 sizes I believe. My mom(and me as her helper, and by helper I mean I do all the grunt work) install ponds and maintain them etc, so she has a small stock laying around. Currently I use a bioforce 500 to filter my 240 gallon tank, however, after cleaning the pads, usually within a week the water flow slows waaaaaay down. The most recent cleaning it took only two days. Note that this is just filtering a 240 with two common plecos, a smaller catfish, shovel nose catfish, clown knife, and silver arowana. It may seem like much, but I don't feed them THAT often. Usually once a day and not a lot, since the arowana has been finicky about eating lately. Anyway, back on topic, judging by how much I've been cleaning the filter lately, I'm afraid that two 200 micron filter socks will be the death of me as far as cleaning them. Anyone have some DIY ideas for good mechanical filtration? I know I could leave the bioforce filter hooked up and use that, however that would require another pump and I'm trying to cut back on electrical use since I live at home for free and would like to not contribute so much to electrical usage. Gimmie some ideas! And maybe I'll take some pics of the w/d.
. I went and bought three sheets of .22mm plexiglass, some aquarium sealant, and used an old 55 gallon laying around to make a 24" bio chamber that needs to be filled with scrubbies, and I have a 9" area that with be home to two filter socks as soon as they come in the mail. One problem is my bio chamber can house about 200-300 scrubbies and I have about... 50? But that's sovled by me actually ordering a good amount. My real problem is mechanical filtration.If any of you are into ponds, you may have heard of Bioforce filters. They come in 250, 500, 1000, 1500 sizes I believe. My mom(and me as her helper, and by helper I mean I do all the grunt work) install ponds and maintain them etc, so she has a small stock laying around. Currently I use a bioforce 500 to filter my 240 gallon tank, however, after cleaning the pads, usually within a week the water flow slows waaaaaay down. The most recent cleaning it took only two days. Note that this is just filtering a 240 with two common plecos, a smaller catfish, shovel nose catfish, clown knife, and silver arowana. It may seem like much, but I don't feed them THAT often. Usually once a day and not a lot, since the arowana has been finicky about eating lately. Anyway, back on topic, judging by how much I've been cleaning the filter lately, I'm afraid that two 200 micron filter socks will be the death of me as far as cleaning them. Anyone have some DIY ideas for good mechanical filtration? I know I could leave the bioforce filter hooked up and use that, however that would require another pump and I'm trying to cut back on electrical use since I live at home for free and would like to not contribute so much to electrical usage. Gimmie some ideas! And maybe I'll take some pics of the w/d.
