Tips on wet dry overhead diy filter

[Nilsafeller]

I use old 20- 40 gallon tanks for this purpose, sometimes on a shelf sometimes in window boxes to help plant growth. Sometimes the water would return straight to tanks, sometimes back to sumps.

the one above is a 20 gal with papyrus and aquatic plants, and also acts as a refugium for shrimp, and sometimes for fry.
below a 40 breeder on a shelf, with papyrus, Pothos and is where I wild put expectant female live bearers, to drop fry in a secure environment

I'd love to use an actual tank 20 or 30 gal but no place to set it near tank... so plater hanging box it is... beautiful setup tho

 

[Nilsafeller]

This is what I have so far... 1400 GPU pump to railing planter box.. silicone my devider in... just have to pick up some 1 inch pipe for drain to tank and drill the holes/put together and drop in my pothos and filter floss

 

[Nilsafeller]

Just waiting for silicon to dry so I can attach input to box and clean everything up and take off the fx6

 

[the big kahuna]

So I'm gonna add my personal set up and try to explain it as best as I can. It may seems complicated but it's quite simple.
On my 300 I have 3 Fx6 filters filled with nothing but filter floss. The output hose is connected to pvc pipe at the end and secured to the canopy and drains into a medium sized sterlite tote that has egg crate on top and the middle cut out for a 8" 50 micron filter sock. That water then drains into another sterilte container that directly under the first one. In the 2nd container, I installed a 2" bulkhead with a 2" pvc pipe sticking up around 10 inches and another pvc pipe about 3" long going from the bulkhead into the water (I went with 2" pipe because it came in black).

So if your still following me here's the good part. In the second container I have about 12 pounds of Bio-Home media. So the water is pulled from the 300 into the Fx6 and filtered through the filter floss and out through the filter sock. Then the water fills up the second container with the Biological media and the water rises until it gets to the top of the pvc pipe, then it drains down the pipe straight into the water. I have this set up on each one of my fx6's. In one of the 2nd containers I have half bio-home sectioned off and my heater rod on the other side. It's works very well AND have about 36-40lbs of biological media running which is more than enough. I also had a tall canopy made so all of that is out of view. I change the filter socks every 2 days and the filter floss every month or 2.

 

[Nilsafeller]

Scrapped the first one... let's call it the test filter lol... finally found actual bulkheads... pics dont show the second drain I installed.. Herbie styles... got my pothos in aswell