Sump Filter... Will it work??

[muffin]

Alright. So I have this idea but I'm not sure if it will work or not. Basically Tank 1 would be a large tank that has been tapped so that excess water will run off into the smaller tank bellow. In the smaller tank would be an air stone that would be basically cranked to the max. On the other end of the tank would be a set up of homemade filters. Basically what I was thinking is to taked two pieces of plexi-glass and cut a hole in the center. Put a piece cotton or whatever between the two pieces and then attatched them together using plastic nuts and bolts. Also could set this up to pass through a sponge or have the water pass through amy type of media that you could set up this way. This would be both mechanical and biological and even chemical if you wanted it to be. The reason for the air stone below is to not disturb the water in the tank very much but still have it rich in oxygen.. Also this would create add some oxygen to the water right before you pass it through the media to keep the beneficial bacteria happy.. then pump the water from the smaller tank up into the larger tank..

In theory I think it could possibly work and you could have as much surface are as you wanted and have the water pass through any type of media of your choice..

I just want to hear your opinions on this..

Oh and one more thing.. I won't be doing this for at least a year when I get out my apartment and get a house....

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[Drumachine09]

sounds plausible. Nifty!

[Sasquatch]

It's definatly doable. I had a similar system for my fathead breeding culture except that I just put a bunch of HOB/Canister filters on the bottom tank to do the filtration and had a submersible pump to get it to the tanks higher up.

The basic problems with this type of setup is making sure the flows are balanced. If you have too much going into the top tank, it'll overflow. To little coming out and you'll burn out the pump in the lower tank. The easiest way around this is to have an over flow, like you suggested. You drill the tank, attach a bulkhead and run a pipe or hose to the lower tank.

Youhave to have a big enough pump to provide the flow rate you want (x gals/hour) and have a return pipe big enough to handle that level of flow. When you buy the pump, make sure it's actually over powered for your needs because it'll pump against gravity. This can make a big difference. Good pond pumps should have a chart that indicates the flow at a given height (often called head).

This kind of filtration system certainly provides advantages with regards to the amount of filtration and from a looks perspective. You essentially have all the appliances in the bottom (hidden) tank, filtres, airstones, heaters etc.... and the upper tank has as little as a few pipes. You can also put massive amounts of filtration on the hidden tanks. I was running a system that totalled about 150 gals and had two Emperor 400's on it, each churning out 400 gals/hour. Needless to say, the water was crystal clean and ultra clean.

The setup is a little more complicated, but in the end, I think it's more than worth it.

[cocoa_pleco]

its doable. I think it was turbomkt that posted 2 designs in a diff thread,