How To Make My Own DIY Wet/Dry Filter

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benito1188

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 22, 2008
411
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los angeles, california
what are the things that i need exactly??

im kinda new to this, so if you can break it down to me, id appriciate it alot!hehe

would i still need a canister filter??

how much would it cost me?

i will use it for a 60 or 75 gal

i really want the best for my fish, prestine water, bio, etc.

but i also want the best deal for my wallet

thanks guys

cheers
 
well you need egg crate and some plastic peg board.... about 15 bucks total for those items.... you need an extra aquarium and make sure its 1/3 the size of your tank.... ie if you have a 60 gallon you want to aim for a 20 gallon sump.... you go to the acrylic/glass shop buy some acrylic pieces to specific size you need and then use aquarium sealant and your practically done
 
dont use PVC piping.... it gives me a head ache as welll... use vinyl tubing and some pvc.... its really up to you.... i use a mixture of both because vinyl tubing is expensive i try to use pvc as much as possible then if there is a part that i am lazy to work with i use vinyl tubing and some metal screwing clamps... it has worked fine for me for years
 
benito1188;1646811; said:
ok, so how do i do pipings?? looking at those filter's pipings giving me a headache. how do i make it work?? and ive also seen ones with plants in the filter
ok well the plants help filtriton of cousre now you need a large area for that to be even help ful like a area of 4sq feet to get some use of it :) good luck :)
 
xxt2goodxx;1646782; said:
well you need egg crate and some plastic peg board.... about 15 bucks total for those items.... you need an extra aquarium and make sure its 1/3 the size of your tank.... ie if you have a 60 gallon you want to aim for a 20 gallon sump.... you go to the acrylic/glass shop buy some acrylic pieces to specific size you need and then use aquarium sealant and your practically done

usually aquarium sealant is silicon which does a horrid job of sticking to acrylic in most cases. For acrylic tanks you use a bonder that actually fuses all the pieces together. Just saying.


For a cheap DIY sump, go with egg crate and plastic peg board as 2good as said, and find yourself an appropriate sized rubbermaid storage container, add some plastic cabinents that you can get cheap from walmart, and you are pretty well done with the sump. Just need media (pot scrubbers and poly fill are cheapest), a pump and an overflow (PVC isn't that hard to work with)
 
ok what kind of pump should i get? i really dont get how the water goes to the filter. all i know is that it overflows to the filter, "filtered", and pumped back in the fish tank. but just letting the tank water overflow to the filter doesnt really bring the dirt,poop, etc to filter? or does it? dont you need another "sucking" pump to get more waste from the tank?---enlighten me hehe
 
with pumps you want to make sure its at least 5 times your tank but preferably 7 times such as if you have a 60 gallon tank you want the pump to do at least 300 gph but preferably 420 gph and you have to make sure that you include the bulk head in your cacluations such as a mag 5 is 500 gph at zero head but if you bring it up 4ft to reach your tank it reduces your flow and your only getting 310 per hour but if you have a tall tank and you put the head at 5ft you only get 250 gph.... i'm not sure whats a good pump i'm having trouble right now deciding which pump i should get myself so dont ask me to recommend you some pumps.... i know nothing so i'm asking my fellow mfker's and they seem to be pointing me in the right direction.... im just looking for the best prices now...i've used 3 Rio pumps in the past and they all burnt out within 6months... they are lame thats all i can tell you from personal experience. stay away from RIO HF series
 
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