# DIY Trickle filter questions



## boognishmofo (Sep 26, 2011)

I plan on making a trickle filter similar to the 5gallon bucket design you find on the web. 
Some questions I have are is it ok to heat the tank primarily from the bucket or would I need to keep the heater in my tank.
Is the best way to eliminate my co2 reactor from inside the tank to put it inline from the return of the filter setup. 
I am trying to eliminate as much equipment from inside the tank as possible. 
How effective would a filter like this be? Could I use it alone or in addition to my HOB?
Would the Aqua Clear Power Head 70, 400 GPH be good enough to power this? I am choosing this power head because I can adjust the rate of flow and the reverse option.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## john borr (Sep 18, 2010)

Hello there I have made trickle filters before.
Nowadays, I just use a canister filter that has an inline co2 diffuser and an inline heater attached to the hoses so nothing in the tank except for the filter intake and exhaust. 
Now for trickle filters, All I did was use an aquarium for the sump. Just use one much smaller than the Aquarium. So for a 40 gallon tank one could use a 10 gallon tank. You need to figure out how much media you need for the size of the media container. There are different ways of making the container for the trickle media. One easy and I think good looking way is to buy one of those plastic terrariums. A 5 gallon terrarium works well with the 10 gallon sump.You drill holes through the bottom and one hole in the top of the cover to attach your hose. You can make a drip plate with aquarium divider material siliconed to eggcrate then that sits on the balls. Just drill bigger holes into the divider material.
A more professional and even better looking way to make the media container, (but much more difficult) is to buy a 5 gallon aquarium and then you knock the bottom piece of glass out. (Difficult glass to break and clean all the pieces out safely, you need experience with this kind of thing). Then you buy a piece of egg crate they use for lights and silicone this in the bottom, the bioballs sit on the egg crate. With some filters the media container can sit on the top rim of the sump, with other set-ups you silicone in plastic posts,egg crate or whatever you have around and the media container sits on the posts. I liked the media above the level of water in the sump. I used a store bought pre filter and submersible pump. You can add the heater into the sump. I made one filter that also had chambers but that's more complicated. One of the problems with these filters is that it is easy to overflow your tank or your filter. Of course they sell gadgets for this but I never invested in one All the best


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## DogFish2.0 (Oct 7, 2011)

The most important point of a sump is to besure that the water level in the main tank above the bulkhead or overflow is not so much water that if you loose power the sump overflows.


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## john borr (Sep 18, 2010)

That is true. What I use to do was to set both the intake and exhausts near the top of the tank. Get a siphon going then shut off the pump. Water fills up the sump from both the intake and exhaust tubes. As soon as the water level in the aquarium goes below the exhaust the siphon stops. You want to make sure it stops before the sump overflows. This is one reason why these filters had the hang on the back skimmers. Once the water flows past the intake skimmer the water flow to the sump stops, but importantly the siphon does not break. This is so if the electric power is turned back on the pump will begin to fill up the tank and as soon as it reaches the skimmer, the water runs back down into the filter. Otherwise the pump would overflow the tank and you could break a heater, burn out a pump, etc as the sump could run dry. I didn't like big sumps so I ran several tests like the one mentioned above.


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## boognishmofo (Sep 26, 2011)

Yeah, I had planned on doing a skimmer/overflow with preventative measures. I was thinking for the intake using some of this garden watering hose I have. It is the porous black hose that you would place under the soil to water a garden. I thought this would make a good drip system rather than constructing a drip tray.


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