filter socks or this dry/wet I got for free?

[T3hFu><0R]

I'm in the process of designing a 55 gallon sump for my african cichlid tank and got a dry/wet drip tray/box thing for free. I was wondering if since I have it I should use this instead of a pair of filter socks. I have a temporary design. apparently it would be better if I changed it so the bio media was dripped on instead of flowed through. but what would you guys do if you had this laying around?

it has a 3/4" inlet at the top which is open to that tray which i was told is for a big pad. then there is a 12" high x 10" x 8" chamber with that white plastic screen at the bottom. it has little wings on the side that hold it 6 or 7 inches from the top of the sump. this thing would have to be filled with some sort of scrubbie or I'd have to figure out how to get my 5L of eheim mech in it without it falling through the screen.

I don't know much about this mech filter drip box thing, but I have it, and it has no brand, but doesn't look like it was made in someone's basement. the edges are routered smooth and round, and there is very clean silicone on it.

would you use it over my current theory?

 

[importracer]

I fill my com[partments with sponges..............As for the first layer, p\lace a filter floss..............

 

[jcardona1]

Filter pad over a drip tray provides terrible mechanical filtration. Filter socks give you some of the best mechanical filtration. If you can incorporate them in, that's what I would use. If you're concerned about bio filtration, add some ceramic media submerged along with your bio balls.

 

[frickr]

the top tray is where your mechanical filtration goes, and you can use the same felt as socks are made of. middle portion add bioballs, and can add your ehiem mech under that.

 

[Oughtsix]

That is a sweet box!!!! I have been looking for an acrylic box with drawers like that for a while and I have not been able to find one.

My theory of sump design is to design a sump that is as easy to maintain as possible. The drawers are about the easiest way to access the mechanical media as I have seen. My theory goes: the easier it is to access and clean the media the more often you will clean it and the more debris you will remove before it is broken down to nitrates.

My current commercial sump has a filter pad on the drip tray for mechanical filtration. Although it isn't as easy to access as a drawer would be I pull the filter pad about once a week and rinse and wring it out, then put it back in. This works very nicely.

When I use really fine filter pads they fill up with debris in less than a week and the water bypasses the pad effectively eliminating the mechanical filtration. If I had your drawers I would put a coarse sponge pad in the top drawer, filter floss in the second drawer and put the whole thing over a bunch of bio balls surrounded by air.

In the new sump I am building in a 29gal tank I will use filter socks. I haven't used socks before so this will be a new venture for me. If I had your drawer I would undoubtedly use it instead of socks.

 

[jcardona1]

My theory goes: the easier it is to access and clean the media the more often you will clean it and the more debris you will remove before it is broken down to nitrates.

I look at it a different way; the better you pre-filter the water, the cleaner your media will stay. You can get some really fine filter socks that will keep your sump debris-free. My sumps have no buildup anywhere like you'd get on a traditional setup. My store-bought sumps would get tons of debris piled under the bio ball chambers when using the filter floss pads. Now that I use filter socks, the problem is long gone.

 

[T3hFu><0R]

thanks for the input guys. I'm not sure what to put in the drawer yet. I want to incorporate some sort of sock type material. but I'm thinking of filling the big chamber with scrubbies. then it'll go up through 5L of eheim mech rings. then drip over 5L of eheim substrat pro. I got talked out of doing a refugium. i guess it's just more work than it's worth in a freshwater tank. it also saves me money. with this set up I can just use a 20 gallon tank and place the UV filter in the end by the 950gph pump I have. the overflow I have is capable of pulling way more water than that, and with 4.5' of head on the pump it'll be clocked down from 950 quite a bit. with no head it sprays like a fire hose.

Oh yeah, I want to use a 15w aqua UV sterilizer on a 100gph pump. it's awesome because it has a wiper plunger deal that cleans the bulb to keep it efficient.