trickle filter

[dannyboy]

You all have been great, few more questions. I'm thinking of building a trickle filter and was wondering if a 10 gallon fish tank would make a good one. Anyone have suggestions or drawings on ones they have built? Such as how high the water level should be before spilling into next chamber, how high to pile bio-balls, how to spread the "trickle" evenly over the balls and if a separate chamber could be built in as a protein skimmer. Thanks in advance.

 

[dannyboy]

am i confusing this with a refugium? I wanna drip water over bio-balls till it fills enough of chamber 1 to spill into chamber 2. In chamber 2 I was thinking of placing a bubbler to mimic a protein skimmer drawing the water under that wall into chamber 3 where it will be pumped back into tank. This a good idea?

 

[yote]

You'd be better off with just a simple sump/fuge.
Bio-balls will lead to problems if there not cleaned at least every other week.
Forget out a bubbler too.that will only cause salt creep.
Set up a sump add a good quality skimmer and you wont go wrong.

 

[jb61264]

Tell us a little more about what type of aquarium you are thinking about...size, livestock, etc.

You will hear from everybody here to "not" use a trickle filter setup that uses BioBalls. It is advice that I have followed recently and just finished building my own sump/refugium. The BioBall strategy was popular in the past but recent experience has suggested that they become a site for nitrate accumulation.

A 10 gallon aquarium could be made into a sump/refugium but one of the most important things that you should consider running is a protein skimmer (which is very often placed in a sump/refugium or hung on the side of it or the actual tank).

There are designs for sump/refugiums on this site...the one that I built out of a 20 gallon aquarium is here:

A pretty common/standard design where the tank flows into the right side (which is where my protein skimmer resides) over/under/over baffles to eliminate any microbubbles from the skimmer entering the refugium section which is in the middle...here I will have a 2-3 inch sandbed layer with chaeto macroalgae...finally from the middle chamber, water flows over into the third where my main pump resides to send water back up to the tank

 

[dannyboy]

Honestly we haven't decided what we are gonna stock this 75 gallon with yet. Still looking into that part. Figured it's gonna take a while to cycle so I have time. That set-up you have looks do-able. That's a 20 gallon high tank? Are the baffles glass? What kind of skimmer is that or did you build that too?

 

[jb61264]

The tank is a standard 20 gallon...if I would have had the room in my stand, I would have used a 20 gallon long instead, but this has worked out ok. The baffles are 3/16" acrylic cut to fit just right (although I had to do a bit of sanding to get them to fit perfectly)...the skimmer is one I had when I did a reef about 13 years ago...LOL...I don't know that they are still in business but its called an Amiracle Sea Reef skimmer...it worked fairly well when I used it previously...to be honest, it will be one of the first things I upgrade immediately after I get going.

75 gallon is a good size...the one piece of advice I would give you while you're at this point is to step back two steps and do ALOT more research and planning...don't just jump in without knowing what you want to keep in your tank...there are some incredibly knowledgeable people on this forum who will steer you in the right direction.

The three key components that you really want to research/plan for right now are:

1. Protein Skimmer
2. Lighting System
3. Sump/Refugium

 

[dannyboy]

OK, either way I'm gonna want a sump/refugium and a protein skimmer from the popular vote. I'm having a hard time finding the posts about building 1. I have an empty 10 and 20 gallon tank so could use either. Can someone point me in the right direction please.

 

[Bifferwine]

You can use either the 10 gallon or 20 gallon tank. Bigger is better, but you will want it to fit in your stand with ample space between it and the tank so you can get in and out of it.

I've built two sumps before (one was a 20 gallon, and my current one is a 55 gallon). I used plexiglass for the baffles. Lowe's will cut them to size for free. Then you just silicone them in place (be sure to use 100% silicone that DOES NOT have any antimicrobial or antifungal additives). Like the one pictured above, my sumps have had 3 sections. The first section is where the water comes in, and that holds the equipment like heaters and protein skimmer. The second section is a refugium that contains a deep sand bed, live rock rubble and macroalgae. The third section is called the return section, and that just holds the pump that shoots the water back up to the tank. The return section is the smallest section, and this is the only place where you will see water evaporate from. So, this is the only section where the water level drops.

 

[jb61264]

OK, either way I'm gonna want a sump/refugium and a protein skimmer from the popular vote. I'm having a hard time finding the posts about building 1. I have an empty 10 and 20 gallon tank so could use either. Can someone point me in the right direction please.

Read this series of three articles first
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sumps, Part I by Greg Taylor - Reefkeeping.com

Then check out this guys site...he has some good DIY information:
Melevsreef.com - DIY Glass Sump & Refugium

The link above and advice from various people on this site are what I used to get my 20 gallon design built

 

[dannyboy]

If I went with a 20 gallon long, what would be the best way to get the water down and the best pump to get it back up? And 2 inches of sand be adequate?

 

[reeffreak]

If the tank doesn't have overflow(reef ready)built in then you will either need a overflow box or drill the tank.Sorry,I don't know anything about drilling.I recommend a Lifereef overflow box,the most reliable on the the market.A Mag 7 will make a good return pump and won't break the bank.Don't forget to put a ball valve on the return to control the flow.2'' of sand will work,I prefer a deeper sand bed in the fuge...about 4''.

 

[dannyboy]

ok, so that being said, I'll start building the 20 gallon long tonight. I fear the over flow unit because if I lose power the syphone will be lost and when power returns main tank will be over flowing. Can I use matching pumpi, 1 pumping in while other is pumping out so both will start up at same time if power failure? And with type of filtering, (will be placing protein skimmer in) will I need any other filtering? Thank for all the help everyone.

 

[yote]

A good overflow box will hold its siphon in case of a power failure as long as the U-tubes ends stay submerged.So that shouldnt be a problem.
You will however want to leave enough room in the sump to handle the extra water that will flow into it.
If you really want some mechanical filtration,just pick up a couple of filter socks.

 

[jb61264]

Jeff at Lifereef.com guarantees that his siphon box will restart on a power outage and has never had one fail...I recently bought one for my system and although I haven't yet started my tank up, I can tell you that the quality and fabrication on this is very very good...well worth the cost for me.

 

[Bifferwine]

I used to use a CPR overflow box (I think that's the brand, you can buy them on Aquarium supplies for your tropical fish tank, saltwater fish tank, saltwater aquarium fish, freshwater aquarium fish & reef aquarium. Aquarium filters, aquarium lighting, aquarium tanks, protein skimmers & more for your reef tank.). There's a little $10 aqualifter pump that you attach to it that automatically restarts the siphon in case of power failure. I never had a problem with the CPR overflow box and would also recommend that brand.

 

[wellnuts]

Hi everyone
I am new to saltwater too.
I just set up a 75 gallon FOWLR that the previous owner still had running. It came with a custom built Trickle Filter that uses bioballs. There's a UV filter and Protein Skimmer in the sump (he wasn't running either one). I see in the thread that the bioballs are a potential source of high nitrates.
What am I missing?? I thought the whole goal was to to turn the potentially dangerous nitrites into relatively safe nitrates
(nitrogen cycle: ammonia-nitrite-nitrate) and then to either remove nitrates thru water changes or something like a coil denitrator.
Also....the idea of setting up a sump/refugium with only a live sand bed and a skimmer....isn't that the same as just putting the live sand in the bottom of the main tank and running a skimmer? What does the sump/refugium add to the equation.

Thanks for listening. I'm slowly adding fish, and I just want to make sure that I'm not heading down a dangerous road.

 

[yote]

Your live rock is your source of biological filtration.But enough of it will also reduce the nitrates.most corals a lot a fish and 99.9% of the inverts will die if nitrates get high.Not to mention,nitrates feed algae.
The main reason for a sump is to get equipment like skimmers and heaters out of the display tank.The refugium plays two rolls.Its a refuge for the pods to breed.Pods help clean up detritus and some kinds of algae.The second part is it help remove excess nutrients.

 

[reeffreak]

ok, so that being said, I'll start building the 20 gallon long tonight. I fear the over flow unit because if I lose power the syphone will be lost and when power returns main tank will be over flowing. Can I use matching pumpi, 1 pumping in while other is pumping out so both will start up at same time if power failure? And with type of filtering, (will be placing protein skimmer in) will I need any other filtering? Thank for all the help everyone.

No,you can't use a pump to bring water to the sump and another one to return.You will never be able to dial the exact return.A good overflow box like the Liferreef one will automatically restart after the power goes out.There are optionally equipment you can use in additional to the skimmer but none is totally necessary.

 

[reeffreak]

Hi everyone
I am new to saltwater too.
I just set up a 75 gallon FOWLR that the previous owner still had running. It came with a custom built Trickle Filter that uses bioballs. There's a UV filter and Protein Skimmer in the sump (he wasn't running either one). I see in the thread that the bioballs are a potential source of high nitrates.
What am I missing?? I thought the whole goal was to to turn the potentially dangerous nitrites into relatively safe nitrates
(nitrogen cycle: ammonia-nitrite-nitrate) and then to either remove nitrates thru water changes or something like a coil denitrator.
Also....the idea of setting up a sump/refugium with only a live sand bed and a skimmer....isn't that the same as just putting the live sand in the bottom of the main tank and running a skimmer? What does the sump/refugium add to the equation.

Thanks for listening. I'm slowly adding fish, and I just want to make sure that I'm not heading down a dangerous road.

Thats the thing with bioballs,it keeps accumulating nitrates if they are not cleaned often.Live rock does the same thing with added benefit of some nitrate reduction.Having a deep sand bed and macro algae in a fuge will also help reduce nitrates.I have never had any detectible nitrate in over a year.All I have is lots of live rock,skimmer and fuge.The fuge also makes a nice breeding ground for copepods which helps with waste(detrivores),microalgae and food for fish and corals.

 

[hotimportknight]

That CPR overflow biff recommended is a good overflow. Get the aqualifter pump it works great, just make sure you check and replace the airline tubing occasionally or it will build up air bubbles and not flow good enough, I just figured out that was the issue the other day. After you have that figured out it works great, i start and stop my overflow every time i feed my fish and it starts up every time again with no issues.
Fosters and smith sells them, I think mine was around 70-80$ possibly on sale a while back, Get an overflow rated for more than your return pump.