new member, diy filter with 200L ex pickle drum

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mitch.silk

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 3, 2013
18
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Australia
Hey all, first post. i must say its great to be on a forum who's large aquariums are more than 300L (80G). Its great to see such big numbers haha. im rather humbled reading other peoples aquarium adventures. i myself have a 1000L hybrid aquarium that i built myself. its fresh cold water with mainly australian natives. i've had a quick read of some other ppls filter set up ideas and i have a few ideas that i wanna try. I'll try to upload pics of my aquarium so you guys have an understanding of what im saying.

(so i think ive uploaded photos) first is showing my pipes (the white one in bottom corner is a 50mm with bulk head that was extended up to water height as drain. second photo just showing messily what im working with whilst setting up - contemplating put cannister to right of aquarium, and thirdly what the aquarium looked like when first set up)
IMG_2162.JPGIMG_2246.JPGIMG_2436.JPG

so any help is much wanted and appreciated

ok so here goes, i currently have a diy sump and want to try an oversized diy cannister filter. the housing for which i intend to use is 200L ex-pickle drum. excuse my use of Litres (3.78541L to a Gallon). a store sells them here in South Aust. (im pretty sure im allowed to post links, i had a quick read of the rules and all seemed okay to post links)

http://www.paramountbrowns.com.au/h...ts/storage/tubs-containers/pickle-drums-200l/

the pump i intend to use is the something along the lines of this pump. I have a mate who owns a pump business so i can go to him for a really high quality pump later if i need to but trying to do it cheap at the moment.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/18000L-H...lies&hash=item19c1021fdc&_uhb=1#ht_2119wt_909

so my idea is to have the water flow into the top of the SEALED pickle drum through a bulkhead and then go through the media (thinking of just doing an over sized eheim classic) and then in the bottom have my pump sitting there. now here's one of my first issues,the output size is 2" roughly 50mm... i can go ahead and make a 50mm spray bar but i also have 6x 16mm flexible hose plumbed into my aquarium. 2 on top, 2 on left and and 2 on right. i was wondering if i could some how change the 2" outlet into the 6x16mm easily and dynamically. if worse comes to worse i could always have a massive spray bar...

That's all assuming that reducing outlet size would damage my pump

Im intrested in doing something like this photo below. but housing the pump in the cannister. Thoughts?

file.php


so yeah thanks for spending the time to read my essay, ANY thoughts will be appreciated and yeah, good to be a part of MSK. ]

Mitch

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IMG_2436.JPG
 
I've just had a read of about almost all diy canister threads and am i shooting really high with a pump doing 4755GPH. im factoring in some of my 16mm outlets are at 1.8m approx. whilst 2 are at about 1.2 and another 2 at 1.5.... i'd rather do to much than not enough. and when i do water changes i can actually connect the garden hose into one of the 16mm pipes (it fits really snuggly inside the 16mm pipe - fluke) and when i turn the house tap on the fish LOVE it, like absolutely love it. currently i have a 3000LPH pump in my sump and 3x 12000lph wave makers just to prevent stagnant water. i dont think my fish will be battered by too much water with the new filter because now that there is heaps of driftwood and rocks in there it leaves little pockets of calmer water.

thanks
 
It sounds like you want to build a trickle filter in a drum. You need the water to enter the drum through some type of prefilter and disperse over the bio balls. The pumps in the bottom of the drum, support the bio balls above the pump to keep them above of the water level in the bottom of the barrel. Essentially your building a bio tower. It would be better to use an external pump. In the event of pump failure you would have to disassemble the contents of the drum to service the pump.
I would use two 9000 lph pumps instead of the single 18000 lph pump. If one pump quits you would still have the other running.
Set up a drain and drip system, and never worry about water changes again.
 
Thanks for the reply KAWAMIKIE. i've got eheim classics on other tanks and i like what they do so im trying to build one of them... just its probably 20x bigger haha. i know bio balls should be wet/dry but ive had them submerged before and hoping the surface area should give enough of a home to the bacteria. I spoke to a local guy who sells fish stuff and i was going to get 1000x 42mm bio balls and 10mx1mx2cm of aquarium pad for $190 total. that way i can use the foam pad kind of like they do in the eheims and other canisters. i bought a plastic laundry basket that fits inside my pickle drum to give space around my pump (which i just bought unfortunately 10hrs ago) ill look at it when i get it but alot of the bigger pumps can either be submersible or in-line so i might have a winner with that.

thanks for your reply, greatly appreciated :D
 
I personally think submerged bio balls are a waste. It would probably be just as effective to fill it up with a bunch of old shoes. I would consider filter sponges instead. Or even lava rock would probably give more bio surface area.

I would use a pump purpose built for aquariums. That sump pump you linked to is probably very inefficient. I have used cheap pumps in the past and always ended up tossing them.

I too would try to figure out how to put the mechanical filtration on the top and the bio filtration on the bottom for ease of maintenance.
 
i just bought my self some sponge today. i cut it to the required diameter. i figured i had about 42cm (approx 16inch) i dont know if ill put it all in there though.

Unfortunately, i've already purchased the pump so ill give it a shot, and i bought it because i figured well 18KL/hr minus head height and filter media will drop it, down a few thousand, and then i'll have a nice amount... and it does have a three year warranty so if i get three years out of it i'd be happy.

is lava rock expensive? and i think i've seen that used in landscaping, it'd pretty much be the same wouldn't it?

i did a mock setup in anticipation of my pump and i have the laundry basket (pump cover) sitting there surrounded by bio balls, then i stuffed heaps of sponge in.

would it be worth taking out some bioballs to have all 16in of sponge pad (coarse) and then some fine wool pad?

thanks :)

ps i'd fill it with old shoes but i dont have too many pairs lying around haha
 
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