At first I was thinking of a DIY PVC overflow for my plywood tank that I am building, then I thought of how easy it could be to drill a plywood tank before it is water proofed. Could I drill two holes one on each side of my tank at the top where I want my water line to be and just make a simple Y shape with PVC on the outside back of the tank going right to my filter media? If the power goes out on my return pump the water would just stop going through my overflow. Would this work?
overflow for my plywood tank???
- Thread starter Brian G
- Start date
Yes your idea will work...
Personally I think the filter intake needs to be at the bottom of the tank where the waste settles. Having it at the top does help prevent oils from building up and disturbs the surface also... so ultimeately having both is 'best'.
If you took your idea of drilling the tank at the top (@ desired waterline) and mounted a T fitting on the inside of the tank where it's drilled... if you took one opening of the T and ran it straight down it could collect waste from the bottom... if you narrowed the other opening of the T to about half the diameter of the pipe running down, this would balance the flow between the two openings. You will not need to worry about the pipe at the bottom siphoning the tank empty because this line will not be a siphon. The benefit of a drilled tank is you can use an "overflow" instead of a siphon fed method.
If you dump water right on top of a sponge, naturally tons of waste will collect/pile where the water hits the sponge. If you are the type to clean media very frequently and not 'burn out' on such maintenance, that is fine. Personally I like the method of having water dump into a chamber, then water flow from that chamber through a sponge. This spreads the waste more evenly through the sponge allowing more time to go between cleanings without any ill effect (other than leaving waste in the system).
Personally I think the filter intake needs to be at the bottom of the tank where the waste settles. Having it at the top does help prevent oils from building up and disturbs the surface also... so ultimeately having both is 'best'.
If you took your idea of drilling the tank at the top (@ desired waterline) and mounted a T fitting on the inside of the tank where it's drilled... if you took one opening of the T and ran it straight down it could collect waste from the bottom... if you narrowed the other opening of the T to about half the diameter of the pipe running down, this would balance the flow between the two openings. You will not need to worry about the pipe at the bottom siphoning the tank empty because this line will not be a siphon. The benefit of a drilled tank is you can use an "overflow" instead of a siphon fed method.
If you dump water right on top of a sponge, naturally tons of waste will collect/pile where the water hits the sponge. If you are the type to clean media very frequently and not 'burn out' on such maintenance, that is fine. Personally I like the method of having water dump into a chamber, then water flow from that chamber through a sponge. This spreads the waste more evenly through the sponge allowing more time to go between cleanings without any ill effect (other than leaving waste in the system).
My plan is to put water jets on the bottom of the tank randomly spaced apart. This will keep the waste stirred up and im hoping will go through the overflow up top and at the same time keeping the water circulating around the tank.
I was thinking with my wet-dry to first have the water go through a drip plate onto some filter floss, I was thinking furnace filter media? then through my scrubbies. Im hoping all this would require is a quick switch of the filter floss every now and then when required.
Would this drip plate method spread the water evenly enough through the scrubbies? And would the media out of a furnace filter work?
I was thinking with my wet-dry to first have the water go through a drip plate onto some filter floss, I was thinking furnace filter media? then through my scrubbies. Im hoping all this would require is a quick switch of the filter floss every now and then when required.
Would this drip plate method spread the water evenly enough through the scrubbies? And would the media out of a furnace filter work?
Brian, take a look at the build I am currently working on. I have a plywood tank with 2 overflows going into a large plywood sump. It may or may not give you some ideas. As far as filter media, I am going with Poret Foam of 20 and 30 ppi and filter pad of 50 and 100 microns after everything passed through filter socks. Good luck on your build.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=305927
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=305927