Wet/Dry design

[BarroomHero]

the problem with this is that the 2nd chamber doesn't really do anything. and i think having heaters before the WD, risks losing a bit of heat when exposed to air and trickling down the media as opposed to remaining submerged (just a guess, i didn't do research on this). and the baffle right before the pump needs to be lower. water level will be the same on both sides.

I am going to have the heaters in the 2nd chamber horizontally, so it will completely sumbmerged after the bio media, see below. I am not sure what you meant by "Putting the heaters along side the depth beside the pump is the better place to put them. 15" depth is good enough for most heaters too."

Also, I plan on using the 2nd chamber for the heaters, sumberged media, and possibly live plants. So I wouldnt say that it doesnt do anything.

Right now I have the baffle at about 4" in the drawing, how tall should it be?

 

[LowCel]

Here are a couple of pictures of mine, I am very happy with it.

The final chamber could very easily be widened a little to allow submersible pumps. I also believe that is the best place for the heaters since it is right before the tank so the water won't be cooled by dripping through the bio section.

 

[xiaan]

Tooled around with the drawing a bit more, incorporated feedback, and here we are (side, then top view):



Mostly for my reference later, again, labels for the numbers in the diagram:

1. Two 4" 200 micron filter socks.
2. Two 250 watt heaters
3. Egg crate with filter pads
4. Bio-balls or scrubbies
5. Filter pad (bubble buster)
6. Return pump
7. Fluidized sand bed (planned)

The goal with making (5) so wide is to overcome the immense inconvenience of having the heaters under the bio stack. I'm going to put it together so I can remove the filter pad at (5) and adjust the temperature of the heaters. I already ordered the 250 watt Stealths, and damn, 15" is hard to fit anywhere!

My only nagging uncertainty is that I've sacrificed a lot of water volume in the sump in favor of bio.

Christiaan

 

[roarbot]

I would raise the bio tower higher in the sump and redirect a tee from the return pump to the drip tray.
This lets you:
a. have a lot of water in the sump
b. be able to turn off return to tank flow for maintenance, while still having water flow through the tower

The socks are awesome. Get two so you can just swap them and bleach the dirty one and have it ready for the next change.
How often you change them depends on bioload.
I had a central system with 300+ total gallons heavily stocked(slight problem with ATM's and fish auctions). Only had to change it every week and a half. They can hold a lot of stuff before they start overflowing.

Next time you're in your LFS ask to see their setup. Just scale down to fit your needs.

 

[zennzzo]

Thread is 5 mos old, and the OP has already built his filter...