sick fish!

[babyblue86]

so you have your pre filter with media pads..... grime still gets by the pads and makes it to the bio filter... right? how big is you mech filter and how big is you bio filter

 

[babyblue86]

fishy do you have any pics on your profile

 

[crsublette]

so you have your pre filter with media pads..... grime still gets by the pads and makes it to the bio filter... right? how big is you mech filter and how big is you bio filter

Mechanical filter is a quilt batting filtering.

Bio filter is a skippy bio filter. Ya can scale his size down to be used in a 20 gallon trash or anything, but this type of bio-filter is not like a wet/dry bio-filter and you can not have a high flow through it.

If you really want to get efficient and technical and low maintenance, then you can check out koiphen.com and do a search for "sieve filters" and "fluidized or trickle/shower tower bio-filters". Sieve filters are extremely low maintenance mechanical filters. Trickle and shower tower bio-filters are like a wet/dry filters with the maximum O2 penetration and high flow. Fluidized bio-filters is a high water flow filter, not a wet/dry filter.

 

[Fishylove]

Yes I have a dense pad and a furnace filter and then the screen not too much will get past it, but very fine particles. When I Clean out the pre filter sometimes there is a bit of setiment in the bottom, but not much. If I were to possibly seal the hole where the pump comes out of the side it might element that idk. But anyway. As my bio is a 50 gal up flow filter, I have 1 1/2" hose going to the top portion of the filter and inside, if you lift the lid you'll see 1 1/2" PVC pipe that goes straight in and elbows around the center, straight down to the bottom. Now , 1/4 way up that pipe I drilled holes to distribute to incoming water and cut V's at the bottom so it wouldn't get clogged. Made a " table" of sorts to support an egg crate lighting fixture cut to fit the diameter of the barrel at that point. The middle half of the barrel is media, with another " PVC table on top of that to hold the media in place. So. The water flows up through the media, out through a 2" pipe attachment with a hose to the filter and what ever doesn't go through at that point. I have another PVC port that is piped as overflow into the pond. The waterfall feature is an urn on top and it also as bio media in it covered with lava rock for looks. Now the bio Filter has a ball valve on the bottom to use for water changes or to back wash sediment from the bottom of the filter. In all honesty I should never have to take the filter apart. Except maybe to fix a leak , which has happened already, but I was told if you do it quickly the good bacteria should be ok.
I don't have pictures on my profile yet, haven't messed with the computer, love my iPad But maybe if it's not too hot tomorrow, I'll take some pics

 

[Fishylove]

Btw the dense pad I use is like a cushion/pad material, used for crafts and such. But not what they call a closed bubble foam pad. Where water doesn't flow through freely. Really time consuming to clean but it catches A Lot of muck
Good luck blue , good to have ya here.

 

[crsublette]

Btw the dense pad I use is like a cushion/pad material, used for crafts and such.

That's quilt batting. All sorts of types and sizes.

 

[fresia1999]

Welcome!

 

[Fishylove]

Isn't Quilt batting a cotton material? What I use is foam.