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Initially, I was eyeing the Fluval 404 at Pet Co. store. After reading review on the Internet,
I decided that the Eheim ECCO 2235 is the affordable one. I loaded it with the usual gizmo
stuff like ceramic noodle, Ehfisubstrate, biocube,synthetic fiber. Since the bacteria die off
easily with tap water. I don't want to touch the bio filter during filter cleaning. So that where
the idea of having external bio filter coming in. I spend days to come up with an external biofilter
design. The requirements were that it must be alone by it self, easy to clean and drain water off,
have a compartment for water heater, plenty of oxygen for bacteria. Well, after many mind melted and
brain storming sessions. I came up with a perfect design. Click here for the
detailed.
The design called for plenty of oxygen for bacteria, so I placed an air stone under every bio compartment.
The air bubble will push the water up and at the same time provide oxygen to
the bacteria much like a wet/dry bio filter. Since there were 5 bio compartments,
the bacteria will have plenty of time to break down wastes from ammonia all the way to
nitrogen gas. Then the water will be heated from the heater compartment and the heater will be
out of sight. This is a great design. ( or so I thought).
The materials used were 1/4 inch clear acrylic 7 inches wide, 12 inches tall, and 14 inches
long. I have the local acrylic to cut all the pieces for me before hand. I drill hole for the
air stone ports. Then I proceeded to weld the box and it compartment together and test it for
water leak. To tell the story short, the design did not perform as expected. Sure the water held
and there was no leak, but the noise from 5 air pumps were too loud at night. The bio material
plugged up easily causing the water in the compartments to rise to near the over flow mark. When
the water reaches overflow mark the bio filter is bypassed 100%. This is an open flow, gravity
system. I.e. the compartments were not under pressure to flow through. So the water flows slowly
according to the law of physic. Then one day while trying to cleaning the compartments, the bottom
acrylic piece cracked and water start to leak out. Back to drawing board!.
This time the design called for 1/2 inch thick acrylic. The design retain the same number
of compartments and bottom grid to hold the bio cube and rock. This time around ,
the air stone ports were scraped. Well the new box is solid and water tight. However the
problem with the bio cube and rock plugged up still there. So I put the bio cube and rock
back to the Eheim filter and leave the external service tank empty except for the heater.
After many more moons before I removed all bio cube and rock and noodle out of the Eheim filter.
I realized that with all the plant that I got in the tank, I really don't need a bio filter.
The plant will suck up the ammonia and nitrates before the fish even know it there. However,
the external service tank is quite useful by itself besides housing the heater. It can be the
location for liquid fertilise distribution, water polishing carbon, salt distribution, magnesium
sulfate distribution, water change refill, pH check and finally CO2 reactor compartment. Well,
as alway one must improve one' ugly design, I, of course, come up with a future design of
external service tank. It is some what similar to the old design but it deeper by about 4 inches
to increase water pressure in the CO2 reactor. The compartment will consolidated to 2 to 3
compartments.
I recently added as part of my master attack plan, a chemical filter module to
the service tank. It's a water polishing carbon. The module only holds about 2
spoon of carbon. It's design to remove nutrient in the water colum to starve the algae.
And of course it made by the old fashion way, do-it-yourself. (Not a very nice looking though).
Click here for the picture of the chemical module.
If I have to do it again, I would dump the Eheim filter. The Eheim filter is ok but for
a planted fish tank, it's better to have a micron filtration like the Magnum 350 or a DIY
micron filtration ( got it all work out. Sign! Here we go again, I can't stop my self). 2.5
inches of mud paste substrate, 1.25 inches of finer sand like Red Flint #35 and 1/2 inch of
gravel. Build a nicer, more organized , well designed service tank with CO2 reactor and chemical
module.
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