DIY Sump Filter (hardb0ileds FPK4000)
- Thread starter hardb0iled
- Start date
Thanks guys, I'm busting to get it up and running! Just waiting for the pump to arrive, hopefully by the end of the week 
More pics when I get mail!
, so I figured for that price I may as well buy one and try it out for myself. This one is currently running off an 1800lph pump so for its size it certainly filters a decent amount of water. My house mate actually likes it hanging there on the side of the tank, she said its almost therapeutic, like watching a lava lamp! 
More pics when I get mail!
I read about the FBF's and everyone in the know raved about how good they are but hardly anyone seemed to be using them. An online aquarium shop here in Aust has these ones for ~$45AU
, so I figured for that price I may as well buy one and try it out for myself. This one is currently running off an 1800lph pump so for its size it certainly filters a decent amount of water. My house mate actually likes it hanging there on the side of the tank, she said its almost therapeutic, like watching a lava lamp! Woohoo, my pump has arrived!
I'm taking a day off work tomorrow to get a couple of things done so I think I'll try and get this thing running. I havent had much luck getting a quick cycle done on the tank with the Fluval canister, I dont think its flowing enough water for the size of the tank and therefore is taking for ever to cycle, even though I thought I'd seeded it pretty well from my other tank and added Nutrafin Cycle a couple of times? I'm hoping adding the sump filter with over 4000lph of filtering capacity will get things happening! I can also steal some of the bio balls from my other established sump filter so it should kick it off quick smart!
Look out for an FPK4000 update in the next day or two!
I'm taking a day off work tomorrow to get a couple of things done so I think I'll try and get this thing running. I havent had much luck getting a quick cycle done on the tank with the Fluval canister, I dont think its flowing enough water for the size of the tank and therefore is taking for ever to cycle, even though I thought I'd seeded it pretty well from my other tank and added Nutrafin Cycle a couple of times? I'm hoping adding the sump filter with over 4000lph of filtering capacity will get things happening! I can also steal some of the bio balls from my other established sump filter so it should kick it off quick smart!
Look out for an FPK4000 update in the next day or two!
FPK4000 is up and running and working perfectly!
I had been cycling the tank with my old Fluval 403 and the FBF. Even though I had ran the Fluval on my other established tank for a couple of weeks before moving onto this one, the tank still had ammonia readings for the first week. As soon as I installed the FPK4000 - ammonia totally gone in 2 days.
Now I found it hard to believe that the BB colonised the brand new wet/dry and cleared up the ammonia in 2 days, so I put it down to the extra dissolved O2 in the water from the wet/dry and the extra flow rate as helping kick start the bio filtration.
I have now removed the Fluval canister altogether and dumped the canister media into the middle chamber of the sump. I'll get some pics later in the week.
I had been cycling the tank with my old Fluval 403 and the FBF. Even though I had ran the Fluval on my other established tank for a couple of weeks before moving onto this one, the tank still had ammonia readings for the first week. As soon as I installed the FPK4000 - ammonia totally gone in 2 days.
Now I found it hard to believe that the BB colonised the brand new wet/dry and cleared up the ammonia in 2 days, so I put it down to the extra dissolved O2 in the water from the wet/dry and the extra flow rate as helping kick start the bio filtration.
I have now removed the Fluval canister altogether and dumped the canister media into the middle chamber of the sump. I'll get some pics later in the week.
Ok, finally took some pics of it up and running, I will explain some of the tuning techniques I have used to try and eliminate the noise associated with overflows and wet/dry filters MC stirred up some fo the laterite I used as a substrate base which is why the prefilter pads on the drip tray are looking so dirty, its just laterite dust, everything got coated with layer of red dust! 
Here is a close up of the drip tray and the configuration of the overflow pipes.
To keep the water flowing out of the overflow pipes quiet, I broke each pipe into 2 and then 4 using PVC "T" joints before dumping onto the drip tray, this slows the water down and allows the trapped air to escape gradually and quietly in the pipes instead of 'spluttering' out of single exit which is quite noisy! The pipe on the right has one of the exits blocked temporarily whilst I was fiddling with stuff but generally it is the same as the one on the left. For plumbing in these areas I never glue the pieces. This enables me to quickly experiement, tune or change the configuration around very easily. They are under low pressure and even if they do leak its only going into the drip tray anyhow!
This tank I purchased 2nd hand and it was already drilled with 3 holes high up on the back panel. There were no bulk heads or plumbing installed so I decided to use 1 as a sump return and the other 2 as drains for the sump. My other tank uses a corner overflow/weir with a hole drilled in the bottom of the tank. Although the corner overflow takes up more tank space, I believe it is a better alternative. I have had trouble getting the desired flow rate through the back panel holes in this tank, which I put down to lack of head pressure at the height of the holes. I can make it flow plenty if I create a partial syphon effect but its bloody noisy then!!
Anyway, having 2 drain points meant I could have 2 different methods for draining the water, I wanted a surface skimming drain and also a mid water drain. Here is what I came up with:
Notice the prefilter on the mid water drain, its just a piece of bio foam mat which is attached to the water intake with a rubber band! Squeezing this out is the only weekly maintenance I need to do on the filter!
MC stirred up some fo the laterite I used as a substrate base which is why the prefilter pads on the drip tray are looking so dirty, its just laterite dust, everything got coated with layer of red dust! 
Here is a close up of the drip tray and the configuration of the overflow pipes.
To keep the water flowing out of the overflow pipes quiet, I broke each pipe into 2 and then 4 using PVC "T" joints before dumping onto the drip tray, this slows the water down and allows the trapped air to escape gradually and quietly in the pipes instead of 'spluttering' out of single exit which is quite noisy! The pipe on the right has one of the exits blocked temporarily whilst I was fiddling with stuff but generally it is the same as the one on the left. For plumbing in these areas I never glue the pieces. This enables me to quickly experiement, tune or change the configuration around very easily. They are under low pressure and even if they do leak its only going into the drip tray anyhow!
This tank I purchased 2nd hand and it was already drilled with 3 holes high up on the back panel. There were no bulk heads or plumbing installed so I decided to use 1 as a sump return and the other 2 as drains for the sump. My other tank uses a corner overflow/weir with a hole drilled in the bottom of the tank. Although the corner overflow takes up more tank space, I believe it is a better alternative. I have had trouble getting the desired flow rate through the back panel holes in this tank, which I put down to lack of head pressure at the height of the holes. I can make it flow plenty if I create a partial syphon effect but its bloody noisy then!!
Anyway, having 2 drain points meant I could have 2 different methods for draining the water, I wanted a surface skimming drain and also a mid water drain. Here is what I came up with:
Notice the prefilter on the mid water drain, its just a piece of bio foam mat which is attached to the water intake with a rubber band! Squeezing this out is the only weekly maintenance I need to do on the filter!
This tank I purchased 2nd hand and it came with 3 holes drilled high up in the rear panel. It came with no other plumbing so I decided to use 2 of these as drains for the sump and 1 for a sump return.
My other tank uses a corner overflow with a hole drilled in the base, although the corner overflow takes up more tank space, if i had the choice I think I would go with the corner overflow, I have had some problems getting the desired flow rate through the back panel drains. I put this down to not enough head pressure at the height of the holes.
But having 2 drains for the sump meant I could have 2 different types of drains, I wanted a surface skimming drain and also a mid water drains, so here is what I came up with:
One thing I found with the surface skimming drain, is that you need the openeing to be larger than the drain pipe diameter or you will not get enough flow through it. I had a few ideas to play with but this one appears to be working well for the moment. Again its just made using common PVC pipe fittings. A T piece and a couple of 45degree bends. With these 'standpipe' type designs, air gets sucked in with the water and creates all kinds of interesting sounds! One way to tune this out is to insert a length of airline tubing down the pipe and adjust it until it quietens down. This allows air to be introduced mid way down the pipe instead of being sucked into the opening. I drilled a hole in the middle of the T piece and inserted the airline tubing down that way so it looks neat.
The mid water intake looks overly complicated, and it is! Because I didnt have time to experiment with the drains before setting the tank up I had to gamble and just run the plumbing at the back of the tank straight down to the cabinet. Which meant I had to do this inverted U bend stuff with the mid water drain to stop the water from draining all the way to the level of the bulk heads when the power is off. Ideally this should be at the back of the tank where its hidden from view and I could have just run a short pipe directly down from the bulk head inside the tank. In simple terms, the water will not drain lower then the U bend once I switch the sump pump off. This means the 3' sump will easily hold the backdrain water from the main tank. It also contains a piece of airline tubing inserted through a hole drilled in one of the 90degree elbows.
This sump can not overflow the tank and the tank cannot overflow the sump(unless a bulk head fails). The sump pump will run dry before the tank will overflow.
....any questions?
My other tank uses a corner overflow with a hole drilled in the base, although the corner overflow takes up more tank space, if i had the choice I think I would go with the corner overflow, I have had some problems getting the desired flow rate through the back panel drains. I put this down to not enough head pressure at the height of the holes.
But having 2 drains for the sump meant I could have 2 different types of drains, I wanted a surface skimming drain and also a mid water drains, so here is what I came up with:
One thing I found with the surface skimming drain, is that you need the openeing to be larger than the drain pipe diameter or you will not get enough flow through it. I had a few ideas to play with but this one appears to be working well for the moment. Again its just made using common PVC pipe fittings. A T piece and a couple of 45degree bends. With these 'standpipe' type designs, air gets sucked in with the water and creates all kinds of interesting sounds! One way to tune this out is to insert a length of airline tubing down the pipe and adjust it until it quietens down. This allows air to be introduced mid way down the pipe instead of being sucked into the opening. I drilled a hole in the middle of the T piece and inserted the airline tubing down that way so it looks neat.
The mid water intake looks overly complicated, and it is! Because I didnt have time to experiment with the drains before setting the tank up I had to gamble and just run the plumbing at the back of the tank straight down to the cabinet. Which meant I had to do this inverted U bend stuff with the mid water drain to stop the water from draining all the way to the level of the bulk heads when the power is off. Ideally this should be at the back of the tank where its hidden from view and I could have just run a short pipe directly down from the bulk head inside the tank. In simple terms, the water will not drain lower then the U bend once I switch the sump pump off. This means the 3' sump will easily hold the backdrain water from the main tank. It also contains a piece of airline tubing inserted through a hole drilled in one of the 90degree elbows.
This sump can not overflow the tank and the tank cannot overflow the sump(unless a bulk head fails). The sump pump will run dry before the tank will overflow.
....any questions?
Looks great! 
I was just reading up on Fluidised Bed Filters and they sound awesome ... a nice addition to any filtration system to remove the last of the nitrates, nitrites and ammonia.
JB
I was just reading up on Fluidised Bed Filters and they sound awesome ... a nice addition to any filtration system to remove the last of the nitrates, nitrites and ammonia.JB
