Anyone in the club run a wet/dry filter on their co2 enriched planted tank?
If so could you comment on the details of the setup? Sizing of sump, flow rate, noise of overflow and trickle tower, overflow type, flooding precautions and siphon design, siphon/overflow clogging and critters, etc.
Jim
Wet/dry filter?
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Jim Miller
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Jim Miller
- Posts: 940
- Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2010 10:16 pm
- Location: Parkton, MD
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Some musings
Although I like the look of my rimless, nothing over the edge tank, it comes with some compromises. At 90g in order to get sufficient flow I need to have both a canister and a flow pump. I have these plumbed in parallel sharing the inlet and outlet to my tank through bottom drilled bulkheads. In addition I have drain and fill lines plumbed in to make water changes easier. I really like this feature.
But the amount of hard PVC under this 4ft long tank is starting to annoy me and makes me a little nervous about the resulting lever arms potentially working against a bulkhead in the event of an accidental bumping, e.g. CO2 tank getting knocked over. I initially went gung ho trying to maximize the flow efficiency in a vain attempt to get by with the flow from the Eheim 2078...silly me. Once I gave up on that and went through a progression of 150, 300 to now 600gph flow pumps the plumbing choices I made now seem a bit absurd.
One thing I could do if I drained the tank would be to put a 90 degree elbow immediately after the bulkhead and put more of the plumbing against the top of the stand, properly supported by braces of course. The initial main ball valves would be next then everything else would plumb into horizontal manifolds held high. This would free up a lot of room and make most of the runs out of flexible tubing rather than hard PVC. The remaining hard PVC would then be much more out of harm's way.
Another approach I'm starting to think about is to blend the bottom drilled approach with a HOB OF and sump. I could use the existing drain as a location for a safety standpipe which would be normally dry. The OF box would then contain a full siphon and a laminar flow drain. Together those three would constitute a BeanAnimal system which when properly implemented is silent. I'd have to do something different for returns as well to avoid siphoning issues.
The sump driven by either a Eheim 1260 or 1262 (600 vs 900gph at zero head) would allow me to eliminate a lot of my undertank PVC risk at the cost of a big box of water. It would eliminate my Eheim 2078. I'd probably run a diffuser in the sump rather than a reactor I have now. The inline heater would probably be replaced by one submerged in the sump return section.
This would also give me some surface skimming which would make for a cleaner surface. The HOB OF would allow me to implement this without committing to a box location in case I wanted to return to strictly under tank plumbing or move the tank to more of a peninsula approach.
After extensive reading on the BeanAnimal thread on ReefCentral I've gotten more comfortable about the reliability of an OF/sump.
Any thoughts and suggestions encouraged!
Jim
But the amount of hard PVC under this 4ft long tank is starting to annoy me and makes me a little nervous about the resulting lever arms potentially working against a bulkhead in the event of an accidental bumping, e.g. CO2 tank getting knocked over. I initially went gung ho trying to maximize the flow efficiency in a vain attempt to get by with the flow from the Eheim 2078...silly me. Once I gave up on that and went through a progression of 150, 300 to now 600gph flow pumps the plumbing choices I made now seem a bit absurd.
One thing I could do if I drained the tank would be to put a 90 degree elbow immediately after the bulkhead and put more of the plumbing against the top of the stand, properly supported by braces of course. The initial main ball valves would be next then everything else would plumb into horizontal manifolds held high. This would free up a lot of room and make most of the runs out of flexible tubing rather than hard PVC. The remaining hard PVC would then be much more out of harm's way.
Another approach I'm starting to think about is to blend the bottom drilled approach with a HOB OF and sump. I could use the existing drain as a location for a safety standpipe which would be normally dry. The OF box would then contain a full siphon and a laminar flow drain. Together those three would constitute a BeanAnimal system which when properly implemented is silent. I'd have to do something different for returns as well to avoid siphoning issues.
The sump driven by either a Eheim 1260 or 1262 (600 vs 900gph at zero head) would allow me to eliminate a lot of my undertank PVC risk at the cost of a big box of water. It would eliminate my Eheim 2078. I'd probably run a diffuser in the sump rather than a reactor I have now. The inline heater would probably be replaced by one submerged in the sump return section.
This would also give me some surface skimming which would make for a cleaner surface. The HOB OF would allow me to implement this without committing to a box location in case I wanted to return to strictly under tank plumbing or move the tank to more of a peninsula approach.
After extensive reading on the BeanAnimal thread on ReefCentral I've gotten more comfortable about the reliability of an OF/sump.
Any thoughts and suggestions encouraged!
Jim
I run a wet dry on my 72 gallon tank. I use a mag 5 pump. I run an upaqua atomizer inline on this setup.
The setup is painfully simple (because I'm not that smart
) The sump is split in half except on the bottom where the sponge fits.
Water goes to the drip tray on the left side of the sump has a thin layer of filter foam, which I change regularly, so it doesn't cause flow problems and the sponge and bioballs provide more than enough biological filtration. Occasionally, I will cut a section in the the middle and use with purigen or activated carbon. The water than flows through a series of bioballs. At the bottom of the sump is a very large sponge which separates the two sides. In the right chamber is my Mag-5 pump with flexible tubing, about half way up is the atomizer, then more flex tubing to the line that returns to the loc line into the tank. I use no PVC at all. I seal the left side of the sump top with duct tape.
No reason you could not also use the canister as well with this setup either.
The setup is painfully simple (because I'm not that smart
) The sump is split in half except on the bottom where the sponge fits.Water goes to the drip tray on the left side of the sump has a thin layer of filter foam, which I change regularly, so it doesn't cause flow problems and the sponge and bioballs provide more than enough biological filtration. Occasionally, I will cut a section in the the middle and use with purigen or activated carbon. The water than flows through a series of bioballs. At the bottom of the sump is a very large sponge which separates the two sides. In the right chamber is my Mag-5 pump with flexible tubing, about half way up is the atomizer, then more flex tubing to the line that returns to the loc line into the tank. I use no PVC at all. I seal the left side of the sump top with duct tape.
No reason you could not also use the canister as well with this setup either.
Fred
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Jim Miller
- Posts: 940
- Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2010 10:16 pm
- Location: Parkton, MD
- Contact:
