need some help building my own wet/dry

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nicky11

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 21, 2010
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Lima, Peru
Hey everybody, so I've been keeping freshwater fish my whole life and now I'm in the mood to start getting into a fish only saltwater set up. But before I buy the aquarium and everything I decided to build a wet/dry filter myself. I made a little drawing of what it somewhat should look like when done, so far I have already made the tank and placed the separations inside and made sure there are no leaks. As I am trying to make it myself I want to spend the least amount of money I can. The drip tray, filter media, return pump, heater (not in the drawing) I all have, but my problem is the bio balls and the protein skimmer. My biggest issue is that I live in Peru and these things are very rare here and if a lfs has them, they are ridiculously expensive. Concerning the bio balls, they do not sell them here, but instead they sell these Sera Siporax, which look like little ceramic tube type things. I read a little on this and found out that the media must be pourus to house the bacteria. So if this is the case, would it be the same to just buy a couple ceramic pots in a local market and break them up and use that instead of the bio balls??? If not, is there any other inexpensive material I can use for this portion of the filter.
Also my other issue is the protein skimmer, here they are selling a Sera PS 400 HO, which I was taold would be fine for an aquarium of about 100 gallons. Is this true? and they want about $220 for it, is that a good price???

Any other ideas anyone may have please put them down, as anything will help me out. Also yes I have looked into bringing things from the states, but I want that as a last resort :P

Here is a sort of sketch of what the filter kinda looks like, sorry for the poor quality lol.
 

Attachments

i think the bio balls need to be above water line for salt. from others i have seen you may need to put a refugume in to it. "live rock" other than that i think it looks ok

I was able to get a long 30gal

chamber 1 drip filters bio balls
chamber 2 more filter material or for salt the skimmer
chamber 3 the live rock the you bubble gaurd section and
chamber 4 the sump. get 2 pumps instead of 1 so if one goes you have a back up.

from reading all the diy threads i think that will do it
 
LoganBlade;4260665; said:
i think the bio balls need to be above water line for salt. from others i have seen you may need to put a refugume in to it. "live rock" other than that i think it looks ok

I was able to get a long 30gal

chamber 1 drip filters bio balls
chamber 2 more filter material or for salt the skimmer
chamber 3 the live rock the you bubble gaurd section and
chamber 4 the sump. get 2 pumps instead of 1 so if one goes you have a back up.

from reading all the diy threads i think that will do it
Click to expand...


thanks a lot man, yeah the bioball portion is definately above the water line, thanks for the advice, ill definately use it...although im still a little bit intrigued on other materials I can use instead of bioballs
 
hawilipino;4261000; said:
you can use bioballs..lava rock..and plastic pot scrubbies..
Click to expand...

cool, thanks a lot, im thinking the lava rock is gonna work better, although the pot scrubbies are gonna be easier to get
 
Don't use bio-balls at all they produce nitrates.
All you really need is a sock or floss for mechanical filteration , a protein skimmer, live rock and live sand. Lots of water flow. The live sand and the live rock are a natural filter. Make sure you add live stock slowly and start off with damsels. Put a couple fish in for 3 weeks and test the water params every couple days. Test kits for nitrite ammonia and ph. You will see the nitrite and ammonia raise and then go back to 0 when this happens your tank is cycled. But be patient add fish very slowly or else the ammonia and nitrite could spike to deadly levels.
 
fltt;4268249; said:
Don't use bio-balls at all they produce nitrates.
All you really need is a sock or floss for mechanical filteration , a protein skimmer, live rock and live sand. Lots of water flow. The live sand and the live rock are a natural filter. Make sure you add live stock slowly and start off with damsels. Put a couple fish in for 3 weeks and test the water params every couple days. Test kits for nitrite ammonia and ph. You will see the nitrite and ammonia raise and then go back to 0 when this happens your tank is cycled. But be patient add fish very slowly or else the ammonia and nitrite could spike to deadly levels.
Click to expand...

sorry for the late reply, but I decided to go with the lava rock instead of the bio balls and pot scrubbies as it seems somewhat more natural and the amount of holes and spaces for bacteria to grow....I already have had the tank cycling for a while. Definitely gonna start with damsels this week although Ive seen some amazing clown triggers, emperor angels, flame angels, clowns....some are very rare to find here, but will add them little by little for sure....thanks for the advice
 
If you are going to have a fish only dont worry abit about the bioballs and nitrates. Do your water changes and the nitrates will be fine. The ceramic or clay pots broken down will not help you but as said before Lava rock has a lot of surface area for benificial bacteria to grow. All your shark and ray guys use bio balls in there systems as i do so if you can get them cheap that would be the best. Have fun!
 
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