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In tank planted sump filter.. It's finaly happening..

zozo

zozo

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Joined
16 Apr 2015
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8,657
Location
Netherlands
Since i'm a huge fan of planted filters, because in the garden it has prooven to me many times they are unbeatable without a doubt.. I'm kinda brainstorming quite some time how to make this work indoor with an aquarium.. And this with the least of fuss and as eastheticaly as possible.. Till now i only could come up with ideas enough but all would be external setups taking up space and constructional addaptions.

Now lately i saw a video from tha King Of DIY dude from Canada.. And he shows how to make an in tank sump filter at the side panel of the tank as you would do with a matten filter setup. But different.


The idea is realy briliant at least for tanks of demensions allowing this space to be taken. Anyway for people into using matten filter principle this is something realy worth looking into and to consider..

But this made me think of using the backside of the tank instead and than make it a planted sump setup. It doesn't need to be a very wide area depending on the pump size used i guess 10 to 15 cm will be more then enough.

So i made a little simple drawing to give the idea an image. Constructionaly it is excactly the same as in the video.
Naamloos.jpg


If you look at the image and the water buffer compartiment, this will actualy be the one fluctuating in water level.. This way with keeping the water level as low as possible in this compartiment it also can function as a kind of wet and dry filtering.. In my idea (front view) i placed a dividing wall as overflow in the planted bio media compartment to keep water standing bellow in the media only put drainage in the low left corner, where it drains into the water buffer compartment.. I think like this the media will be used as optimaly as possible.

But it is this what i'm yet not sure about.. I'm kinda convinced this idea will work.. What i'm yet not convinced about, is what is the best way to drain the biomedia compartiment..

If i triggered you curiousity and fantasy with this emersed planted filter idea.. Please share your thoughts.. How would you contsruct this? Or change my idea?
:thumbup:
 
Indeed, no you say so i remember seeitn these tanks before from front view.. Never realy bothered to search for a backside look.

This is an aquanano 60.. It is the same principle.. :) Thanks for sharing that ian_m.. :) And for people wanting open top with emersed growth it's ideal with soem addaptions to sufficiently use it and pimp it to the max.. Instead of hanging all kinds of bathroom soap holder stuff as planted substrate containers in the tank.
postadsuk.com-3-aqua-one-aqua-nano-60-100l-aquarium-full-set-up-free-delivery.JPG
 
BettsBP said:
What plants and substrate would you use in this system
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Anything inert an porous would be ok. Used different types over the years. Last summer i used sintered (fritted) glass in a planted pond filter outdoor and it grew plants like a charm. I had rotala's, cyperus, lileaopsis, hydrocotyl in it and all grew very well.. Indoor i would put plants in it growing all year long without much trouble.. Hydrocotyl, lileaopsis, echinodorus, hygrophilla, cyperus and pogostemon does, at least these i still have growing emersed above the aqauriums at the time.. I beleive there are many more i haven't tried yet.. :) Best guess, if a plant capable of growing emersed does easy in low light submersed, it probably will do good emersed all year long.. For example Rotala is flaged as medium and indeed i grew it all summer long emersed and it hates the winters low light and withers away. All tho must admit pogestemon stellata prove me wrong, it is flaged as advanced and still is growing happily emersed right now, so there definitively are exeptions.
 
My best friends daughter wants a new, bigger and open top tank preferably with a lot of emersed plants, with a complete new hanging LED fixture above it. And of course Uncle M is victimized to make it all happen. Well ofcourse i can't help also thinking a bit what's in it for myself and taking advantage of the situation :woot:.. Proposed this concept and without much tought i got a enthousiastic green light to go for it.. :thumbup:

It will becomme and 80cm (L) x 48cm (W) x 35cm (H) Optiwhite glass aquarium with the above buildin planted sump filter at the back. Low maintenance low energy setup. Had enough time since opening this thread to think about the final design of the plant holding area. And changed a bit..

It will get an overflow drip pipe above the planted filter area and a complete perforated bottom. This to optimize the wet and dry capacity.

Naamloos.jpg



For the lights i decide to go on with these 12 volt COB LED units..
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/cob-led-alu-mecanno-style-light-stand.50248/
ALready in use since June 2017 on my test setup and prooved beeing worth wile. She already has the TC420 running, so that's half the work. It will be simmular, with aluminium and acrylic and hanging instead.. :)

Interested? Stay tuned, starting soon.. :thumbup:
 
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Ordered the glas today at the shop.. 8mm Optiwhite. Cost € 117,- cut to size. That's a pretty price for such a dimension 80x48x35cm tank. That almost equals a standard Green aqua 90P going for € 300,- But that would need to ordered in eastern europe. The rest i can find goes €400 and plus local pickup by yourself.

So for a DIY + €10 kit i can be pretty happy.. Tho it's non polished sides, i lookad at a showroom display show case that was polished and it actualy is a minor improvement.. Cost would €10 p/metre for polishing, counting all sides that would be 5 metre polishing. making it €167 polished.. But i decided to safe this €50.

Kitted a few tanks by now and if done properly it's all over less than an hour work for a non professional. That's 10 minutes applying masking tape, 12 minutes kitting and 5 minutes test filling and 40 minutes cleaning 24 hours later.

Not a bad profit for an aquarium builder averagely sold for € 400. Building a tank a day with that is quite a nice monthly wages..
 
The problem with planted filters is that the plant roots can clog the media and cause overflow. I did it twice on my trickle filter in the past. I'd rather have the plant rooted in a pot that you can easily remove for maintenance of the main media, or at least make sure the filter can't overflow, as it will happen eventually...I love the general idea though.
 
sciencefiction said:
or at least make sure the filter can't overflow
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This.. :) Is always a pre whit any kind of sump, planted or not.

All tho i do not realy see that happening that fast.. Since looking at my own sump how and where the water flows and drains down the media. Most if it, what overflows into the media and is not trickling, runs along the side down.. And actualy there are 4 sides 360° around.. roots do not attach to glas or acrylic. So there will always be a drain capacity along the sides where plants do not attach roots. It's playing with flow and drain capacity. Since this can be unpredictable dynamic it surely will a prevention needs to be build in, that indeed the diagram above doesn't show.

In this one it does, red arrow.. :)
ps.jpg
 
Edvet said:
Should word. Will it be on a separate pump ? or will it be all the filtration?
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I'm not exactly sure what you mean. But this as drawn will be all the filtration there is. The sump principle but build in the tank.. Should be sufficient.. Roughly calculated it will have about 10 litre planted biomedia. +/- 50 x 10 x 20 cm is the planted buckets dimension. For a total 134 litre volume that should be more than enough.. :) Also tossing the largest part of filter sponge go for a filter sock.
 
I like these in tank sumps. Had one on a Nano Dymax cube. And found they work really well. And can be modded to your needs. Have fun with this, will be interesting to follow.
 
Edvet said:
Was wondering what the speed through the sump is, i think you'll want to keep it slow.
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Looking at my current sump design i have in use bellow my low tech, it actualy runs at 2 speeds so to say.. And i took the same design for this.

I'll try to explain, the second chamber in the diagram has a trickle pipe (spraybar) connected. Obviously this trickle pipe has a X l/h volume pass through. this pipe will trickle the water over the media over several outlets over it intire lenght..

What this pipe doesn't swallow will overflow over the top of the baffle from the media compartment and run down along the side of the media down into the buffer zone, like a waterfall. This way i'm not realy flow restricted to the pipes capacity. And the water still also will constantly trickle at the given speed the pipe allows. The pipe wont be glued in, so i can take it out and modify it on the fly to tune it's best speed. So yet i have no idea about the best hole diameter should be.. I think i strat with a 6mm and can make it bigger if needed.

Still waiting for the glass to arive, so building the sump part is still far away and still brainstorming about design possibilities. Might create extra baffle in the biomedia part. Someting like an area where that so called waterfall will run to place a ceramic ring or bioball compartment to create a faster flow through. Than it has a fast flowing turbo coarse media compartment and slow trickling planted fine media compartment.

In diagram it would look like this.
ps.jpg


Anyway in this principle water turning over 24/7 finaly all water will finaly equaly trickle slow as fast flow over the baffle. Since it is actualy masively oversized with 10 litre biomedia to filter a 134 litre i have plent of room to play. And for 134 litre low tech i think i go for a 600/1100 L/h Eden pump. And guess at the slowest speed 600L/h is likely enough. But if i can make swallow the total 1100L/h trunover wouldn't be bad even tho likely wont need it.. I have to see how the overflow from tank to sump performs, that's my limiting factor.

:thumbup:
 
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Here i made a small video with narrative explaination and how the concept works real time. This way it possibly is easier to understand... So the above is not a theory, i have something simular already succesfully running quite some time.

Excuse my Dunglish and beer with me it's my first time ever narrating a video.

Anyway this is how it works, the above will work with some minnor improvements and of course lots bigger emersed plants. :)
 
Slowely but steadily getting there.. Building for my mates daughter and daddy is a bussy Yuppy, wants everything but laks the time. :rolleyes: So it took him about 3 months to find 30 minutes time to help me to kit the darn tank together. Unbelievable!!.. Anyway it's glued yesterday and looking good.

80x48x35 x 8mm optiwhite
DSC_0170.JPG


2mm minimalistic kit beat in the corners.. Still need to clean the outside spils with a razor. It's better to wait a few days to cure the kit. Cutting fresh kit makes a mess..
DSC_0171.JPG


The dimensions are actualy pretty nice.
DSC_0172.JPG


But it's going to loose about 8 to 10 cm width for the build in filter at the back.. Still is about 80x40x35cm volume left, still a nice dimension to work with.. First a few days curing, a test fill, of which i'm not realy afraid.. Than it's time to get the black 6mm thick acrylic panel and pieces to build the filter part.. I ordered some excisting filter stuff from Inovative marine Aqua gadgets filter parts doing exactly what i want it to do.. The filter sock and the filter gaurd to protect the overflow from suking in critters. So no need to reinvent the wheel.. :) To give you an idea where i'm going with this, i taped it to the glas.

DSC_01700.JPG


On to the next step.. If you ask me, can't be soon enough, realy excited to finish this project. And actulay see it work from a technical aspect. But having a yup as helping hand definitively delays things. Sorry for that..
 
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Tim Harrison said:
Not bad at all; a very neat job ;)
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Thanks you Tim..
Well to be honest, there is one little flaw i'm not happy with. I didn't show. :rolleyes: Lukily, it's the backpanels bottom corner at the bottom panel. :oops: I fixed and it aint a problem it's mainly aestetic looking awfull. But when it's finnished nobody will ever see it. It's to the wall behind the filter panel.
 
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