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Modified side drop


Chuckmeister

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Just like to show off my new tank a little. Its a 5*3*2 that has had two internal modified side drops installed and designed by a mate of mine, Pacco. Onya Pacco smile.gif

This filter is a huge improvement on the other design as it no longer has any internal plumbing in it that you have to squeeze filter material around. I can now drop in bags of media instead of packing stuff around a piece of PVC piping. This makes it easier to choose and maintain your media. One of the bigger bonus's though is the fact that it has a prefilter. Just lift the the black verticle filter out and wash under the tap/bucket. This beasty has about 80Ltrs of media and has 12 airstones with room for another four and pumps out conservatively 3000 Ltrs a side. Its way overkill but its the way I like it smile.gif

I've currently got 50Ltrs of aquaclay balls and coral,sponge and filterwool as media so it should be able to handle anything I throw at it smile.gif

Here are a few Pics

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And here is a little prototype 14 inch tank that Pacco made recently. This one has a seperate compartment for the heater to sit in near the uplift so everything is concealed in one unit with plenty of water flowing around it.. For a display tank maybe smoked glass would be a better choice wink.gif

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Anyway I'm pretty happy with the filter and will post up some pics when the tank is decorated and full of fish

I dont know of any technical detail but pacco has kindly written an article on the tanks construction or he may answer here wink.gif

Chuck

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nice work!

Where's this article you said pacco has written Chuck, am I blind? huh.gif

I might look into these side drops a bit more for my next tanks, air is much cheaper than pumps

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Hi Ash smile.gif The article is actually on the Perth forum.

toufic - The great thing about this is the little maintanence I will have to do. I would say that I would have to maybe strip down this filter no quicker than maybe once a year. I dont know though because its new to me as well but I would be suspecting maybe even longer times between. This filter effectively has two prefilters. That verticle sponge is one of the biggest size black/blue type sponges you get at you LFS. Its quite a serious sized sponge. The water gets pulled up that and overflows over the top into the second disposable media, filter wool.Then pull through the balls and coral to be uplifted out of the tank. The disposable media and the fact it is very easy to do maintenance is the major benifit. You might get a little bio slime inside but time will tell.

To put this filter in perspective one of the new 2080 eheims has approx 12Ltrs of media and about 1.5Ltrs of Prefilter or the 2260 that has 18Ltrs of Media so in short this will easily stock what I want smile.gif

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This system pumps out something in hte range of 3000l from each side drop. One at each end...I cant see circulation being an issue.

Awesome mod to an already effective filter.

Dave

(It appears Ash beat me to it... dry.gifsmile.gifbigsmile.gif )

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Looks good Chuck.

How long did it take to clear the tank?

Wouldn't all the crap that get's court in the sponge between cleans, be released back into the tank when you remove the sponge to clean it? I don't want to criticise it, but I thought it may be something to think.

dntknw.gif

Other then that, and provided you keep us updated with how it works (photo's thumbup.gif ) I reckon its a top idea and would probably use them in my room.

Also did you / do you need to use 10mm glass for the sidedrop? Or would equal water pressure on each side allow you to use thinner glass?

Thanks

Josh

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josh - in the article on the perth forum, it states the side drop is made from 3mm & 6mm (if I read that right) as in same pressure, no problemo

Toufic - it's air driven, no water pump, only a hefty air pump or blower I'd assume.

how much grunt is needed for this to work?

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The plan with it is to also have a layer of filter wool on the top of the larger filter partition (on top of where the aquaclay is in Chucks). This way when you pull the prefilter sponge up out of the first partition to clean it, any residual crap that comes off it should be pulled up and onto the filter wool by the water flow. You then rinse and replace the pre filter sponge, then throw away the old filter wool and replace it.

The air required is completely dependent on what flow rate you want and the number of uplifts.

Cheers

Pacco

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wink.gif toufic - No more noisy than any air driven filter...might not be good for a general lounge but I'm used to aquaclears which make a racket IMO.....wink.gif

Josh - I put in 25 kg of unwashed coral sand tonight which clouded straight away. About 3/4 of an hour later the cloud had disapated by 3/4. I thought that was about as best as I've ever had.

Ash - Its built entirely off 6mm and has held togehter without and issue..so far. even though the tank is deep it has quite a lot of structure to the filter and doesn't have any long panels that have enough area to flex. My fish (exochochromis anagenys) go in tomoorow and my chrstyi and caeruleus come upstairs into my display tank so I will update pics as soon as I get a camera or someone wants to come around for a photo shoot wink.gif

Chuck

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nice lookin fish for it!

Now that I've re-read, the only mention of 3mm was to stick the sides of the mesh down at the top of the uplifts.

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Fabulous idea of running the uplift in a cavity rather than a pipe!!!!!!!!!!

THis appears to be definite improvement over conventional designs, it eliminates so many of the problems associated with them.

How do you know each one does 3000 per hour?

Keep up the good work, and now I cant wait to put my own spin on the idea.

Craig Douglas.

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Hi Craig smile.gif The flow is only an estimation but going by the amount of water cascading over the top there is some serious water flowing through the filter. Bear in mind that there are 8 seperate uplifts with double airstones in each. The water drop is about two inchs internally and is pulling almost all the two foot draw.

I put the fish in today. After about 5 minutes my C caeruleus was trying to spawn. I went with A cristyi and C caeruleus in the end and the anagenys get to stay in my display tank. I've got some H oxyrhynchus that are growing up that may go in but I'm not sure as yet. The christy are one of the more agressive Haps I've had.

All in all I'm very happy with the filter. I'll keep this post updated as it beds in.

Chuck

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok I have it up and running and it works well. I am using 4 airstones off a 4 outlet (cheapo) airpump and it is doing the job nicely.

My honest opinion...

1. It was a lot more messing around (time and effort) to construct than the "normal" dropside.

2. It took longer to clear the 4 x 18 x18 than it took to clear the 4 x 2 x 2 with a normal dropside (both had lysofoss added on fill day and both have the same brand of pump on them).

3. It is more expensive than a "normal" dropside...the sponge cost $25.00 (~ $45.00 retail) as opposed to about $16.00 for pvc fittings and drilled holes (~$50.00 retail).

4. I envisage crap dropping out of the sponge back into the tank when I try to lift it out to clean it. I also had to cut a piece of strap off to access the sponge easily, without excessively squeezing it when removing/replacing after cleaning. Also, if your clearance is slight, I advise cutting your sponge in half so that it comes out in two pieces!

5. It doesn't look "pretty". The normal dropside (across a back corner) is easier to "hide" and less obtrusive.

I guess it's a personal opinion as to whether it works better or not. In Charlie's case, he has excess air from a blower in his fishroom, therefore it is very efficient and effective for him to run. The average person wouldn't have this situation and to achieve the flow rates that he has, they would need to be buying large airpumps to individually run each tank. I am slowly converting my tanks over to air, but that will be the last of this particular design that I use.

JMO though.

Andrea smile.gif

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  • 2 weeks later...

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