So this morning i woke up with the feeling of making a biological filter for both an extra bit of filtering and some flowerers in my room. this is the result. i don't know if it is clear, but on the left the water will come in and then go under over under over under over and away trough the black part.

the compartiment on the left will be filled for half with Substrate. then the rest but last and black will be filled to the top with substrate. the compartiment with black glass will be filled with white cotton stuff ( the regular )


i just wonder if i should put airbubbles at the start to give bacts in the filter a little extra.




problem.
option one: how do i get the water from my big tank in my filter without using a pump if i use a pump just to send the water back to the big tank

option two: how do i get it out the tank without using a pump. but only a pump to get water IN the biological filter.

Edit: after some testing in the bathtub i came to the this conclusion

setup: bucket 1 is connected with bucket 2 by a tube without air.
when i add water in bucket one to 'push' the water trough the tube into bucket 2 it doesnt communicate as fast as when i suck away water out of bucket 2 into the bathtub.

=> using a pump to return the water to the big tank will cause water to get sucked in the filter by using an airsealed tube

anyone can confirm ?

i made something like this at one time what i did to get the water from my big tank is a decent size hose with a valve on it to control the water intake on the sump. (basically a sifen) hose size compairable to a gaval vacuum. And on the other side of tthe sump run a hose on a power head so your big tank will have movement and air. it works pritty slick once its all calabrated with the valve on the hose.

i would say if you go with the traditional set up use a box that uses a u shaped hose to pull water out just using gravity, just when you do that u shaped hose make a hole in it at the lowest point you want the max fill for the sump to be so if you lose power you wont over flow your tank and then use the power head to make a water movement and just use a pump on the out flow side with a valve to control the amount of water going back in.

thats what i ment i just said it in a mest up way. you can use the power head to pull the water from the sump to the tank so your only running one pump. and just connect your air line to ur powerhead for O2

you need to build an overflow to transport the water from the main tank to the sump. the design has to be one that will break the siphon in case of a power outage so your tank wont drain. depending on the size of the main tank and the turnover rate of the sump will determine the size of piping that has to be used and this in turn will decide the size of the returm pump that will be needed.
since it will be on a fresh water tank a you really dont need that many compartment on the sump. you really only need one for the bio media and one for the return pump.

there are also a few other thing that need to be taken into consideration but all that will make a long and confusing post. also if you search for the sump or wet dry filter there are post that will explain various design for both the sump and overflow on these pages

powercuts shoulnt make an issue as the water flow stops when it levels with the other tank.just gonna make a testsetup to see how it goes. run some tests etc.

the overflow serves 2 purposes. the first is to bring water into the sump during normal operation the second is to hold the syphon so after a power outage when the power is restred the flow will continue as normal. in other words so that when the pump is restarted the syphon action will continue and not empty the sump.

simple sump ..... necros overflow threads on the diy section ...

but with using the system necro made, it is not nescecarry to have waterlevels at the same hight?

www.oscarfishlover.com/index.php?option=...atid=49&id=11667
www.oscarfishlover.com/index.php?option=...atid=49&id=11687

i know , already read both. thats why i asked if waterlevels have to be at the same lvl when using the device

i dont understand your question about the water level being the same as what?