250g Maintenance Free (sorta)
- Thread starter CHOMPERS
- Start date
that undergravel system is awesome, do you find it does what you wanted to. i'm considering doing something similar in my tank when it gets moved into my new place, but i'm curious to know if the work i'll put into it will give me the results i'm looking for?
Yep, so far no complaints from me or my fish. I expected to have some dead spots, but so far none have shown themselves.
Time for an update. It was brought to my attention that I forgot to add the details of my stand pipe. Since the tank is bottom drilled, it meant my plumbing would have to be inside the tank. I am ok with it because I would rather have the tank flush against the wall. I experimented with different types of stand pipes and found that I got the best results from the simplest solution.
Noise was the biggest issue since the water dropped down 25 inches to the bottom of the stand pipe. It also gurgled and sucked air constantly. The obvious solution was to slow the water down and provide a sound barrier at the top of the pipe.
This is a view from the front view panel of the tank. The white stick across the inlet is a pen with the guts removed.
Noise was the biggest issue since the water dropped down 25 inches to the bottom of the stand pipe. It also gurgled and sucked air constantly. The obvious solution was to slow the water down and provide a sound barrier at the top of the pipe.
This is a view from the front view panel of the tank. The white stick across the inlet is a pen with the guts removed.
Here is the star of the show. It is the netting, tied in the center with heavy fishing line to the pen shaft. I figured it would be on my regular list of things to clean, but the rushing water takes care of it. If anything large goes down the stand pipe, the netting just moves out of the way.
On my other system with three stacked tanks, I have a vertical drop of 46 inches. It is a 1.5 inch pipe with 1.5 inch bio-balls inside. It is also quiet, but the bio-balls do not move out of the way when something large goes down the shute.
On my other system with three stacked tanks, I have a vertical drop of 46 inches. It is a 1.5 inch pipe with 1.5 inch bio-balls inside. It is also quiet, but the bio-balls do not move out of the way when something large goes down the shute.
You invented a wet muffler (well, mabe not invented, but amazed everyone here!)
Use should go to school and become an engineer...just remember it was my idea when you graduate, so I get to blow the whistle and ring the bell too.
Great work.
This should help some other people too.
Dr Joe
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