A couple weeks back I bought a 7 or 8 gallon trickle filter off of craigslist for $30. The thing looks brand new with no real calcium deposits.
This evening after work I caught a wild hair and decided to get that sucker filtering. I have come across many DIY overflow pipe posts and was pretty confident in the design. I believe it is called a Durso design.
I went out to my shop and started pulling out 3/4" fittings from my box of a billion fittings. Couldn't scrape enough elbows together so I went with 1" PVC instead. I cut a few pieces of 1" pipe to lengths that looked good and dry fit everything together. It ended up about 14" over all height.
I pulled out an old Little Giant 3e mag drive external/submersible pump and assembled everything on my 110 gallon aquarium after giving everything a good scrubbing in the kitchen sink.
I covered the external end of the pipe and gave the elbow a good suck and then choked out a couple gallons of fish water from my lungs. (I think I might have caught ich!) I quickly plugged the 1" pool type hose from the trickle filter to the stand pipe and watched the water start to flow. At about 4" in the sump I plugged in the little giant and watched the water level quickly go to 0 inches and got a nice grating dry impeller sound from the little giant. So I quickly unplugged the pump and repeated the process with the pump inlet choked to 3/8". It took a little longer but sucked the sump dry again.
When the water fills the sump it comes up to about 3" from the top of the sump covering the majority of the bio balls. With the sump sucked dry the water level in the tank is up to the very brim! I am a little shocked that a 1" overflow pipe can't keep up with a Little Giant 3e!!!!
For a temporary solution I put a whole house 12" cartridge filter canister in the return line from the pump to the tank. I had a solid activated carbon filter cartridge that I put in the canister that slowed the flow WAY DOWN! Enough to keep the tank at a very nice level. I know the sump will eventually start to slowly fill as the carbon block gets filled with debris.
How much flow should a trickle filter have? I know I could have just put a valve in the return to adjust the flow but that seems like a waste of good pump pressure. What size pump do most people run on a trickle filter? Should I go up to a 1 1/2" overflow pipe? The little giant 3e pump is rated for 670 gph at 1 foot head. The sticky chart says that a 1" pipe is rated at 600gph. I figured at 4' head the pump would always be behind the pipe. My 1" pipe doesn't seem like it is getting anywhere near 600gph.
I have a excess of filtration on this tank so I am not really worried and really don't need the trickle at all. (Eheim 2275, Fluval 404, Magnum 350 and an Emperor 400) The trickle IS noticeable quieter than the Magnum 350 even before putting the pump on a pad. I am kind of thinking about getting a pretty fine pleated cartridge for the canister filter and doing away with the noisy Magnum 350. With the trickle filter prefiltering the large and medium debris I would expect to get a fairly good life out of a pleated filter cartridge which is a couple of times bigger than the Magnum 350 cartridge.
This evening after work I caught a wild hair and decided to get that sucker filtering. I have come across many DIY overflow pipe posts and was pretty confident in the design. I believe it is called a Durso design.
I went out to my shop and started pulling out 3/4" fittings from my box of a billion fittings. Couldn't scrape enough elbows together so I went with 1" PVC instead. I cut a few pieces of 1" pipe to lengths that looked good and dry fit everything together. It ended up about 14" over all height.
I pulled out an old Little Giant 3e mag drive external/submersible pump and assembled everything on my 110 gallon aquarium after giving everything a good scrubbing in the kitchen sink.
I covered the external end of the pipe and gave the elbow a good suck and then choked out a couple gallons of fish water from my lungs. (I think I might have caught ich!) I quickly plugged the 1" pool type hose from the trickle filter to the stand pipe and watched the water start to flow. At about 4" in the sump I plugged in the little giant and watched the water level quickly go to 0 inches and got a nice grating dry impeller sound from the little giant. So I quickly unplugged the pump and repeated the process with the pump inlet choked to 3/8". It took a little longer but sucked the sump dry again.
When the water fills the sump it comes up to about 3" from the top of the sump covering the majority of the bio balls. With the sump sucked dry the water level in the tank is up to the very brim! I am a little shocked that a 1" overflow pipe can't keep up with a Little Giant 3e!!!!
For a temporary solution I put a whole house 12" cartridge filter canister in the return line from the pump to the tank. I had a solid activated carbon filter cartridge that I put in the canister that slowed the flow WAY DOWN! Enough to keep the tank at a very nice level. I know the sump will eventually start to slowly fill as the carbon block gets filled with debris.
How much flow should a trickle filter have? I know I could have just put a valve in the return to adjust the flow but that seems like a waste of good pump pressure. What size pump do most people run on a trickle filter? Should I go up to a 1 1/2" overflow pipe? The little giant 3e pump is rated for 670 gph at 1 foot head. The sticky chart says that a 1" pipe is rated at 600gph. I figured at 4' head the pump would always be behind the pipe. My 1" pipe doesn't seem like it is getting anywhere near 600gph.
I have a excess of filtration on this tank so I am not really worried and really don't need the trickle at all. (Eheim 2275, Fluval 404, Magnum 350 and an Emperor 400) The trickle IS noticeable quieter than the Magnum 350 even before putting the pump on a pad. I am kind of thinking about getting a pretty fine pleated cartridge for the canister filter and doing away with the noisy Magnum 350. With the trickle filter prefiltering the large and medium debris I would expect to get a fairly good life out of a pleated filter cartridge which is a couple of times bigger than the Magnum 350 cartridge.
