Help needed with my first DIY wet dry filter

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
From the research I've done, the answer is NO. A DE or Sand filter will do very minimal, if any, bio filtration. If you are running one, it should be for mech only.

What I'd like to do if I ran a pond, or something really large:
Run a Sand filter off of the tank/pond. Then pump from the sand filter into a bio tower. Then have the bio tower run into the tank.
It seems like you'd be able to do a MASSIVE amount of filtration with a system like that.

If you want to do everything in one easy to use system.....You should look into a bead filter. The beads will hold benificial bacteria, and they also serve as mechanical filtration. It works about the same as a sand filter, except you have bio filtration built in. The only down side is that they are not widely used, so they are fairly expensive due to their low production volume.....Where a pool sand filter is pretty darn cheap because of the large amount of them that are produced every year (downside is that with a sand filter, you'll have to run some kind of bio filtration along with it).
 
I'm trying to stay away from expensive filter, hence the DIY part. So this is what my plan is so far: overflow to a plastic cabinet with 3 drawers (from top to bottom, sponge filters, ammo carb chips, more sponge filters). Then from the cabinet into a 40 gal tote with 2L of pond matrix, some scrubbies (as suggested by the sticky), and a few bio balls just for fun. Then pump back to the pond. And I'll have two of these running to my 500 gallon pond.
 
Several years ago I had a water leak in my house plumbing that flooded the crawl space under my house. I bought a flowtech from home depot to clear out the water and it worked great. I now use the flowtech for water changes and it does a great job. I would not run one continuously in a sump. They suck down a lot of electricity! They also put out a lot of heat.

Personally I love my Hayward EC40 DE pool filter. I have had it for 9 months on my well stocked 110g and I have not had to change the DE media yet. For $220 including shipping from Amazon I think it is the best aquarium filter deal I have ever come across.

I also run a sump along with my Hayward DE. I like sumps for the huge amount of oxygen they add to the water that you just can't get with a closed loop filter system. Your dual 40g tote sump design sounds like it should be very effective.
 
Oughtsix said:
Several years ago I had a water leak in my house plumbing that flooded the crawl space under my house. I bought a flowtech from home depot to clear out the water and it worked great. I now use the flowtech for water changes and it does a great job. I would not run one continuously in a sump. They suck down a lot of electricity! They also put out a lot of heat.

Personally I love my Hayward EC40 DE pool filter. I have had it for 9 months on my well stocked 110g and I have not had to change the DE media yet. For $220 including shipping from Amazon I think it is the best aquarium filter deal I have ever come across.

I also run a sump along with my Hayward DE. I like sumps for the huge amount of oxygen they add to the water that you just can't get with a closed loop filter system. Your dual 40g tote sump design sounds like it should be very effective.
Click to expand...


Oughtsix, not to derail. But I have a thread regarding De / sump setups can you take a gander and throw
E some advice??

Mike
 
Does the Hayward de filter provide bio filtration or just mechanical? Any suggestion on PVC pipe sizing for intake? Ive seen so many different numbers that I don't know which to trust. I'd like the opinion of someone who has a similar setup. My goal is 2,500-3,000 gph. I was think 2" but idk
 
Diatomaceous earth has a huge amount of micro pores. This is what makes such a good filter media. Having so many pores means it has a massive surface area... I would guess several magnitudes more surface area than other filter media. Bacteria needs surface area to colonize. I have no clue if beneficial bacterial like DE as a home. I would venture to guess it would have something to do with the physical size of the bacteria vs the physical size of the pores in the DE.

If beneficial bacteria does like to live on DE... what happens in the eventuality that the DE powder has to be changed? I would not want DE to be the only place bio filtration occurs in my tank. I like wet/dry sumps... give the bacterial organic rich water with a huge supply of oxygen and let them do their job.
 
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