David R Posted February 19, 2008 Report Share Posted February 19, 2008 I'm making a new tower for the sump for my new 5' tank, I'm going to enlarge the chamber for bio media so some is permanently under water and some is above water with the water flowing over it. I usually just run a single piece of filter wool and change it often, but this tank is going to have some big messy fish (dats, ornates etc) so I'm thinking about running something coarse as a washable pre-filter for the filter wool. So for those running sumps, how do you have your mechanical filtration set up? Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simian Posted February 20, 2008 Report Share Posted February 20, 2008 I have heard that running the water through a standard swimming pool filter cartridge works really well and makes it very easy to clean, not sure how it would go under gravity feed tho. Another option would be to use a filter sock like they use in milking plants that would catch everything and leave your water really sparkly and clean. If you were only after a coarse filter id also consider going to a home brew shop, you can get a nice nylon mesh bag for a couple of bucks (they use em to strain out the lumps from home brew wine. But what do I know, I don't even have a sump :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nemines Posted February 20, 2008 Report Share Posted February 20, 2008 your could try some of the pond filter pads available as they are intended for coarse filtration. or you could go for something like efhimech which would spread the water evenly over your bio media. or you could try getting some brushes (like on a broom) to make your own. come one you guys who actually have sumps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted February 20, 2008 Report Share Posted February 20, 2008 I've got a sump but I need this sort of info as well as I'm sure it could work better than it does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted February 21, 2008 Report Share Posted February 21, 2008 easy i find that mechanical filter wool and pre filt er wool foam is really annoying at times, so what i do, is i bought two heap intrnal filters. jebos, i run them in the sump as a mechanical filtration. now i have 4 internal filters. 2x jebos, 2x fluval 4s in my sum doing the mechanical filtration, plus the massive water going through them makes bio fitration very good:D untill i got my recentdats problem my jaridnii tank was always good water quality and i feed them lots, i use dto over feed the jar. never any problemms. i have not cleaned the internet filters for more than a year. it has weakened slightly but the filtration with some dirt in there is very gooed and lots of bacteria Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted February 21, 2008 Report Share Posted February 21, 2008 as a note you can get some internals that can dismantle and you can put the filter wool inside them, you can also use that for fine filtration. jsut that when you have the motor pumping, you get massive out put of water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted February 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2008 Henward; so does the water flow straight from the main tank onto the bio media? Wouldn't that clog it up with crap really fast? I have to rinse my filter wool weekly and replace it fortnightly because of the amount of stuff it catches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paekakboyz Posted February 21, 2008 Report Share Posted February 21, 2008 sounds like all the filtration happens in the sump - both the intake and output are in the sump itself... I've seen a couple of sumps setup with internals in them for additional filtration which seemed like a good idea. Henward - If you've got the sump partitioned where/how do you place the filters etc? pics would be awesome too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted February 22, 2008 Report Share Posted February 22, 2008 ok my mistake i also have a canister in this set up with bio filtration and sponge so its abit different i guess with partitions you cant really beat filter wool but putting an internal where the filter wool should be should work the same or add to the filter wools efficiency shouldnt it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doch Posted February 23, 2008 Report Share Posted February 23, 2008 i run mine over filter wool and have a fine mesh plastic filter under that to stop big stuff then over bio balls then over my crushed pipi shells but i am also looking at some thing dif for my bigger tank other than bio balls Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doch Posted February 23, 2008 Report Share Posted February 23, 2008 i have a 136 litre sump with 4 partitions so lots of scope for ideas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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