Low Maintenance Design - Bottom Filter & Ultima II Filter

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Desdinova

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 1, 2010
119
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Kentucky
Hi Hi Everybody!!

I have been thinking about building a big tank for a few years now. I want to design a low maintenance system, because I get burned out cleaning tanks. Lately, I've been wandering around MFK and I happened upon someone using an Aqua Ultraviolet, Ultima II filter. I investigated and was left with a renewed hope! This filter requires no media changes and cycles ammonia directly to nitrites. It also has a backwash system that cleans the filter and does half the water change for me.

One thing is missing though. It doesn't solve my problem of fish waste getting trapped in the tank and requiring me to go to great lengths to get it out.

My idea is to create a tank with pits in the bottom, where a grated filter intake will be located. The pits would be filled with gravel (because I like the look) and the filter would continually pull the fish waste, through the gravel, into the filter.

Picture attached - I imagine a pond liner (or other sealing method) between the "clay" and the gravel. The filter could either be a bottom filter or just a hose could attach to the grate and pipe to the side of the tank.

Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts or opinions?

bottom-filter-design.png

bottom-filter-design.png
 
This looks like a bottom drain used in pond applications. It makes total sense to me. I would think you would want a prefilter to make sure that no rocks, gravel etc get pulled into the pump that will be pushing water through your ultima filter.

Vacumming the gravel in my tank is started to be a real PITA...I think using bottom drains like they use for ponds is a great idea, but you would have to be sure to design it so that when the pumps are off, your entire tank isn't drained. In other words, I believe it would have to be a type of closed loop system.
 
A closed loop system is exactly what I had in mind. I also plan to exclusively use very large gravel, for two reasons. I want larger pockets between the stones, so that the fish waste can be pulled down easier. It would prevent smaller material from getting to the pump too. I figure that I'm going to have to hand-pick the stones out of bags of gravel, because some smaller stones end up mixed in with the bigger stuff. I already have some pretty gravel picked out.

I was going to test ideas on a 5.5g glass tank, but I think I'm going to get some wood and make a larger pond box in the yard instead.
 
rokit_armor said:
Seems like a UGF that drains down instead of being pulled up. Should work well. This is why I switched to sand, I just swoosh the water around a bit and all the detrius stirs up and goes into the filter. No more gravel vacuuming for me!
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good alternative; I'll keep it in mind. My problem with UGFs is that the debris gets stuck and can't be removed.
 
I have a bottom drain in my DIY 112 gallon plywood tank. The only issue I have is the 'slick' on top of the water. All my tests are fine, but I still have a residue on the surface of the water. If I was to build another(which i will) I would incorporate a surface skimmer and bottome drain. But, yeah, with sand and a bottom drain, occasionally i'll swish my hand over pockets of detrius and it flows right to bottom drain. I have only vacuumed maybe twice in 3 months.
 
Also, I have 20 Tiger Barbs, 3 Mbuna Cichilds, 2 Bala Sharks, 7 Cory Cats, 5 BN Plecos, 2 Fat Heads, and a Red Eared Slider and a Miss Map turtle in this tank, sand is clean!
 
I think I know what you mean. The difference is that your drain is elevated and mine is depressed, being under the gravel. Sand wouldn't work in my design, but I like the sand idea.
 
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