Has anyone done this before?

Was thinking if I had a big sealable container I could fill it with material to act as a bio filter, put two plumbing fittings on it, and plumb it to a big powerhead. Nothing complex, just huge filter area and a huge power head.

Anyone have any ideas or thoughts on this?

why does it have to be sealable? wont it be better to have like a trickle dry filter with open air allowing bacteria culture to breathe?

i might be wrong here with my theory... :oops:

I was wanting it to be sealed so that if it clogs up I dont drain my tank on the floor, but I see where you're going with this....I could just use a bin as a sump, put the powerhead after the container and put an overflow in the tank.

Pure genius shiuh. I'll get right to working on the pretty pictures.

That means I'll need an overflow though Not keen on an overflow.

yea....you do need an overflow...thats what i had...a glass sump with bio media. ....I also had a bin as a sump, and a media filled container on top of the bin like you said. works out cheap this way.

you are right about chances of water draining from sump on the floor if your pumps fails or overflow outlet fails...but i rarely have this happen. :)only once though...as i have poured too much water into the sump..but i am quick enough to recover it.

Unless you have a proper overflow already, I'd just go with sealed. You'll also get more flow this way as the pump doesn't have any static head to work against.

Yeah I dont want to modify the tank. Sealed would be great, any ideas on an ideal container?

Something like this:

This one's 38 liters.

Screw on lid, should seal well, nice big opening for easy access to clean it. Throw a couple valves on the side to pump water in and out and it should work great.

I think once you price it out you may aswell by a canister filter. You can get a new Aqua One CF1200 for as little as $138.00.

Price it out. Container that seals, taps, tubing, trays, media, pump, spray bar, intake strainer.

Niloc made a DIY canister filter using an old Keg.

I beleive it worked really well too.

try doing a search for it in these forums

Price it out. Container that seals, taps, tubing, trays, media, pump, spray bar, intake strainer.

Was thinking no taps, tray, and $10 tubing, spray bar is just a 20c piece of plastic with holes in it. Media and power head would be the big costs. Reason I was posting this was for larger tanks, where a sump wasn't desired but a large media area was. So even if it cost $300, it'd still be a bargin. The new Aquis filters have made larger capacity externals a bit more in reach though.

Our tank is only 650 litres, so we've wimped out and opted to purchase an Aquis 2400 to add to the setup. A Fluval FX5 would be ideal, but it's just too expensive. Tank currently has 2 x AquaOne 1200L/hr internals for flow, and a single Jebo 819. It just isn't doing the job with that fish load unfortunately. Either that or train oscars to eat properly, that tank grows inch long tubifex worms all the time, despite weekly gravel cleans :roll:

Thanks wok, I'll do a search and have a read