Undergroung/sponge filter design

[Muni]

I'm working on a breeding/display rack for smaller tanks (by our standard). I'd prefer everything to be air driven for noise reduction and simplicity.

Looking at a 10-12 tank rack of custom built tanks that would house mainly Small shrimp, plecos, corys. Many of them need very low PH which my local water is NOT. My tap water is 8.0+ The shrimp I'm looking at are happy in the 6.0 range.

I'll be using RO/DI water with minerals added back per my research but I've been working out tank design and set up to be both beneficial for the natives and easy for me to maintain.

I came across an Australian shrimp keepers forum and one of them mentioned this design as a "Taiwan" design that he uses.

I think its a pretty excellent way to do things. The soil used to drop PH in most shirmp tanks degrades over time and if you use it above an underground filter it degrades faster.

So if we section of a piece and add some other media it becomes a HUGE underground filter, bio filtration area.

My only change to this design would be instead of clear glass on the front is cutting a piece of tile or slate that I or my wife found attractive and using silicone to fix that in place as the front wall.

My tanks will be set up 24" front to back and and 18" wide to fit in my rack design.

Top Down view



So if i set the divider 6" off the back I'd have an 18"x18" open area with the raised shelf. It should provide awesome filtration for shrimp or low fish population and a nice visual element over the standard glass box.

I'd love any feedback on what media/layer to stick in the filtration area.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

That looks like it will be a huge mess to clean the media once it gets dirty. And you want air driven for noise REDUCTION? I've always found air driven to be the be noisy and buzzy and loud and irritating and noisy and did I mention buzzy and irritating? A power head drawing through the standpipe should be silent.

I'd try siliconing some drift wood onto the glass to hide it, either a bunch of small pieces like sticks or a larger flat piece.

 

[twentyleagues]

That looks like it will be a huge mess to clean the media once it gets dirty. And you want air driven for noise REDUCTION? I've always found air driven to be the be noisy and buzzy and loud and irritating and noisy and did I mention buzzy and irritating? A power head drawing through the standpipe should be silent.

I'd try siliconing some drift wood onto the glass to hide it, either a bunch of small pieces like sticks or a larger flat piece.

I kind of agree with this....well not kind of I do agree with all of it. I think in the future that guy and if you do the same that will be a nightmare. Just go with a traditional sump design and drill the tanks you said they are custom and get a pump that is quiet and adjustable make a manifold for return or just set up a flow through design to return water to the top and drain to the next tank down and so on. If you want the tank on their own systems for disease control then I'd suggest a mattenfilter design be quieter to run a power head but can be run off air too.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I have run undergravel filters off and on for a few decades. Never quite like you picture but close a time or two. I have a few thoughts.
First I have made glass partitions as pictured. I eventually hid the glass in a simple way. Since you will have to silicone the glass panel in place when the tank is dry and empty this next step can be done at that time. I would spread a thin film of aquarium silicone on the surface of the glass to be visible and sprinkle a layer of the substrate gravel onto that film. (note- the gravel must be dry so plan ahead if it needs to be cleaned). After the silicone sets a lot of the gravel will fall away but plenty should stick. Other than the straight and flat aspect of the glass it becomes very much less visibly noticeable.

I will add more later if you wish.

 

[Muni]

Thanks for the feedback. For the noise reduction part I meant I'd be running a large air pump not in the room. So the only noise would be the bubbles themselves.

I was just trying to reduce the wiring since there will be 10 tanks on the rack.

If I were only running shrimp and corys how often do you think I'd have to clean the media in that area? It would be 6" by 18" with that design then however tall I make it.

 

[nzafi]

Why don’t you just run sponge filters or HMF filters? I’ll easily run that many tanks on one pump, plus the low maintenance.