BTW I meant 'pond' filter. As in the ones that have a fountain attachment on a pump and a large sponge filter box in the intake.
My 240g tank journal
- Thread starter loaches r cool
- Start date
Here are some pics of the filter boxes I am making. The idea here is sticking with the simple and easy tote theme. I have some mechanical filtration that will be a media bag on the drain outflow in the sump (similar to the sock filters many use). But I wanted some bio media and floss and or sponges, so I thought about making something like the pond filters, that are just a big filter box on the intake of a fountain pump. So on my return pump I will plumb the intake into a tote that will have a filter floss pad as well as bio media inside. Simple, and hopefully easy to maintain.
There will be two of these... one in each sump:
Tote with lid cut.
Return pump is a Quiet One 4000. Used a union for easy disassembly. Intake is plumbed into box and has a T, holes will be drilled around these.
A piece of eggcrate cut to fit perfectly into the lip in the tote.
Some good cheap bio media... pot scrubbers. A 3 pack was under $1.
Completed filter box.
Time will tell how long it takes for the floss to clog, I am hoping to not have to replace it too often. My goal is once a month or longer for maintenance that requires me to actually do something :wink:. If it clogs too fast I might make a larger box. Or the other option I was contemplating was two layers, a more coarse filter pad on top of the floss maybe...
There will be two of these... one in each sump:
Tote with lid cut.
Return pump is a Quiet One 4000. Used a union for easy disassembly. Intake is plumbed into box and has a T, holes will be drilled around these.
A piece of eggcrate cut to fit perfectly into the lip in the tote.
Some good cheap bio media... pot scrubbers. A 3 pack was under $1.
Completed filter box.
Time will tell how long it takes for the floss to clog, I am hoping to not have to replace it too often. My goal is once a month or longer for maintenance that requires me to actually do something :wink:. If it clogs too fast I might make a larger box. Or the other option I was contemplating was two layers, a more coarse filter pad on top of the floss maybe...
BTW Sploke, if you do something like this in the future here is one thing to think about. I realized today since I was taking measurements for the sump determining what level how many gallons were and such, that I covered up the useful part of the cutout with bracing I ran across in front of each sump. The bracing allows the weight of the water inside the sump to push against a solid brace all the way across and prevent any bowing. Dont think it was necessary but added strength for safety's sake and gives me something to attach hardware for a door lock as well.
So today I placed a rule in the sump and starting with a water level of 3" down from the top I drained it in 5 gallon increments and noted the depth. Havent figured out exactly what yet but I will make a scale somewhere so I can see exactly whats in the sump. Might take a length of smallish pvc pipe like 3/4" and cut a partial slot through it at these 5 gallon increments and then attach it vertically to the inside wall of the sump or something like that...
Time to finish up the stand. Well... maybe not finish but put some more work into lol! I built the frame of the stand already, with the intentions of just covering up the framing with tongue and groove pine. I am trying to keep it simple and easy to do, as well as the nice country pine look that I enjoy. Here is what I got so far:
Putting the tongue-n-groove together. I cut the pieces to length with my sliding miter saw, put together with some wood glue, and tacked in place with air brad nailer.
Staining the wood, I used aged maple stain and semi gloss acrylic finish.
Haven’t stained the doors yet.
All the staining & finishing done (to the front section). Just need to get the door hardware installed.
My son really likes to help (translate: he throws a fit if he doesn’t get to be in the way) :wink:.
Well, I let the whole thing sit in the garage to long before installing and some of the pieces warped/expanded and a couple of the doors don’t fit right. Off to the saw...
I hate having to put a finished piece back through the saw...
Cabinet locks were a must for me...
All the doors installed and working... along with a light in the stand. Now to rig up some switches so it will automatically turn on.
The stand so far. The front is done, the side panels need stained, finished, and attached yet.
Putting the tongue-n-groove together. I cut the pieces to length with my sliding miter saw, put together with some wood glue, and tacked in place with air brad nailer.
Staining the wood, I used aged maple stain and semi gloss acrylic finish.
Haven’t stained the doors yet.
All the staining & finishing done (to the front section). Just need to get the door hardware installed.
My son really likes to help (translate: he throws a fit if he doesn’t get to be in the way) :wink:.
Well, I let the whole thing sit in the garage to long before installing and some of the pieces warped/expanded and a couple of the doors don’t fit right. Off to the saw...
I hate having to put a finished piece back through the saw...
Cabinet locks were a must for me...
All the doors installed and working... along with a light in the stand. Now to rig up some switches so it will automatically turn on.
The stand so far. The front is done, the side panels need stained, finished, and attached yet.
Wow the stand looks great with the pine facing, and I think those filters will work out fine. I had one in my pond but it needed to be cleaned about every day so I took it out. But, it was doing mechanical and bio so it got gunked up quite fast.
Thanks for the tip re. the sump markings. My sump is a 40 breeder glass tank, so there won't be any bracing, and the room is heated so there won't be any insulation though, so there shouldn't be much in the way.
Thanks for the tip re. the sump markings. My sump is a 40 breeder glass tank, so there won't be any bracing, and the room is heated so there won't be any insulation though, so there shouldn't be much in the way.
Pumps
This has ended up being a big ordeal for me. Originally I didn’t want to spend big bucks on pumps. And under a few good reviews I bought two Quiet One 4000 pumps, one for each sump. Each would go to its own spraybar. They are rated 1017gph and max head of 10.2'. With head loss, I figured both of them combined should be pushing 1,000gph into the tank, which is on the low said of what I thought would be acceptable.
Here is a pic I'll repost of the QO4000 and a simple DIY filter box:
Well, being new to big tanks and wanting decent flow, I was a bit surprised how little flow I was getting out of my spraybars. Maybe it has to do with how the flow is dispersed across the large spraybars, or the size of the holes not big enough or too big, not sure. The overflows were only trickling, with dry spots between each tooth. I decided an upgrade was needed, direly.
So I looked at the rest of their models... and stepped up to 2 QO6000's. This would allow me to keep the same configuration as the 4000's, but get a few hundred more gph. Well, I was again sorely disappointed. I couldn’t even feel any flow placing my hand in front of the spraybars about 5" out. And the noise level was worse, the 4000's were pretty quite, these were borderline for me. And they had big inefficient looking paddle style impellor and a very inefficient power rating. Still was only trickling over the overflows. So back to looking. I decided to go a different route, one bigger more efficient pump. The QO9000 had 2328gph rating and only 145W (compared to 220W, 2x 110W for the 6000). It had a much more efficient looking turbine shaped impellor. So hoping its design was much more efficient, I decided to go that route and re-do all my plumbing to accommodate a single pump instead of dual.
QO4000 next to QO9000
Now the big question, had I finally found a good pump? No! The flow rate was good, in fact it was exceeding the capacity for the two sumps to balance each other out since the pump was just in one. Still not blowing anything away in the tank but acceptable. The problem was noise! It wasn’t bearable really. Quite disappointed. Maybe it was a fluke? I researched the pump online and found many saying the same thing (should have searched first) so I figured I didn’t get a fluke. Gee whiz I am not having good luck, and wasting money in plumbing by ripping glued pvc out and replacing. This time I am going to get a good pump! I researched for a quite, high flow, reputable pump. Reefcentral had lots of info for this. I decided on a Sequence Reeflo pump, the Snapper model. It had a 2400gph rating and amazingly only 98W! It had a very efficient looking impellor design and the folks at reefcentral seemed to think it was very quiet and reliable. After searching for the best deal though, I ended up purchasing its bigger brother, the Dart, since it was only $10 more. The Dart is rated at 3600GPH and 160W (145W typical). Here is its flow chart:
http://www.reeflopumps.com/images/750_Dart-adjustable-chart.gif
QO4000 next to Sequence Dart. Big difference!
Now to re-do the plumbing again...
Since this was an external pump with a very large 2" intake, it called for a complete re-do on the plumbing. I had to get and install two more bulkheads for the sumps, I used 1.5", with double unions, and tee'd them with a double wye fitting into 2".
I tried to scavenge what I could from my previous attempts, which led to some unsightly parts, and some odd mismatches but oh well. If I were to start from scratch it would look much better.
Now I get good flow, still not like placing your hand in front of a powerhead when placed in front of the spraybar, but its moving the water throughout the tank well. And its pushing a lot of water over the overflows. Even with the spraybars near the tanks bottom I get rippling all over the surface. Hopefully it wont be offgasing too much that I cant maintain co2 levels. Will be testing that soon.
However I have created another problem that will soon be fixed. With all this flow (even backed down a little) the sumps are now bubbling like a hot tub with the jets turned all the way on. Pump is quiet but now the sumps are gurgling/bubbling like mad! So I am now working on fixing that, using something I saw on reefcentral, basically using a T rotated 90* so flow comes in center, bubbles come up and water goes down, with a vented cap.
This has ended up being a big ordeal for me. Originally I didn’t want to spend big bucks on pumps. And under a few good reviews I bought two Quiet One 4000 pumps, one for each sump. Each would go to its own spraybar. They are rated 1017gph and max head of 10.2'. With head loss, I figured both of them combined should be pushing 1,000gph into the tank, which is on the low said of what I thought would be acceptable.
Here is a pic I'll repost of the QO4000 and a simple DIY filter box:
Well, being new to big tanks and wanting decent flow, I was a bit surprised how little flow I was getting out of my spraybars. Maybe it has to do with how the flow is dispersed across the large spraybars, or the size of the holes not big enough or too big, not sure. The overflows were only trickling, with dry spots between each tooth. I decided an upgrade was needed, direly.
So I looked at the rest of their models... and stepped up to 2 QO6000's. This would allow me to keep the same configuration as the 4000's, but get a few hundred more gph. Well, I was again sorely disappointed. I couldn’t even feel any flow placing my hand in front of the spraybars about 5" out. And the noise level was worse, the 4000's were pretty quite, these were borderline for me. And they had big inefficient looking paddle style impellor and a very inefficient power rating. Still was only trickling over the overflows. So back to looking. I decided to go a different route, one bigger more efficient pump. The QO9000 had 2328gph rating and only 145W (compared to 220W, 2x 110W for the 6000). It had a much more efficient looking turbine shaped impellor. So hoping its design was much more efficient, I decided to go that route and re-do all my plumbing to accommodate a single pump instead of dual.
QO4000 next to QO9000
Now the big question, had I finally found a good pump? No! The flow rate was good, in fact it was exceeding the capacity for the two sumps to balance each other out since the pump was just in one. Still not blowing anything away in the tank but acceptable. The problem was noise! It wasn’t bearable really. Quite disappointed. Maybe it was a fluke? I researched the pump online and found many saying the same thing (should have searched first) so I figured I didn’t get a fluke. Gee whiz I am not having good luck, and wasting money in plumbing by ripping glued pvc out and replacing. This time I am going to get a good pump! I researched for a quite, high flow, reputable pump. Reefcentral had lots of info for this. I decided on a Sequence Reeflo pump, the Snapper model. It had a 2400gph rating and amazingly only 98W! It had a very efficient looking impellor design and the folks at reefcentral seemed to think it was very quiet and reliable. After searching for the best deal though, I ended up purchasing its bigger brother, the Dart, since it was only $10 more. The Dart is rated at 3600GPH and 160W (145W typical). Here is its flow chart:
http://www.reeflopumps.com/images/750_Dart-adjustable-chart.gif
QO4000 next to Sequence Dart. Big difference!
Now to re-do the plumbing again...
Since this was an external pump with a very large 2" intake, it called for a complete re-do on the plumbing. I had to get and install two more bulkheads for the sumps, I used 1.5", with double unions, and tee'd them with a double wye fitting into 2".
I tried to scavenge what I could from my previous attempts, which led to some unsightly parts, and some odd mismatches but oh well. If I were to start from scratch it would look much better.
Now I get good flow, still not like placing your hand in front of a powerhead when placed in front of the spraybar, but its moving the water throughout the tank well. And its pushing a lot of water over the overflows. Even with the spraybars near the tanks bottom I get rippling all over the surface. Hopefully it wont be offgasing too much that I cant maintain co2 levels. Will be testing that soon.
However I have created another problem that will soon be fixed. With all this flow (even backed down a little) the sumps are now bubbling like a hot tub with the jets turned all the way on. Pump is quiet but now the sumps are gurgling/bubbling like mad! So I am now working on fixing that, using something I saw on reefcentral, basically using a T rotated 90* so flow comes in center, bubbles come up and water goes down, with a vented cap.
