Diy Mini Trickle Filter

[Bazza57]

HI Everyone & merry Xmas
I am trying to work out how to create a DIY mini trickle filter using an empty Asda cotton wool buds container. We seem to get through quite a lot of these, & the wife keeps throwing them out but they look kinda useful for aquatics.
They are L: 11cm x W: 9cm x D: 4.5cm & made of rigid clear plastic, they seem perfect for making some sort of filter or in-tank isolation unit. Pre-drilled at the bottom, though I intend to add more holes.
They are small enough to hide away under the hood without looking too unsightly I am hoping to connect it to my smallest internal filter (an old fluval 1) I've just got to figure out how to connect the hose to the filter outlet. If the flow is too much, it could be reduced by drilling a few holes in the hose (reducing the flow into the trickle unit - thus making it more efficient).
I propose to use them as a final "polish & conditioner" being fed from pre-filtered water, no sumps in use here as asthetics are what I'm aiming for.
I am also thinking of experimenting with empty CD spools - they remind me of box filters & look too useful to discard- breeding caves anyone?

has anyone else done this yet? all suggestions welcome

 

[VaegaVic]

Perhaps a picture might be a bit helpful, the cotton wool I buy comes in bags from Tesco, so I can't imagine what the item looks like.
Also...Cd..what?

 

[Bazza57]

Perhaps a picture might be a bit helpful, the cotton wool I buy comes in bags from Tesco, so I can't imagine what the item looks like.
Also...Cd..what?

They are the small plastic boxes that the COTTON WOOL BUDS come in.
sorry can't provide a picture - camera is on the blink
turns out that it is not just asda, but most supermarkets supply them this way.
I intend to use them as a final treatment after going through the main filter.
Possibly 2 -3 linked up with a spraybar running through them - any thoughts?

 

[VaegaVic]

Perhaps a picture might be a bit helpful, the cotton wool I buy comes in bags from Tesco, so I can't imagine what the item looks like.
Also...Cd..what?

They are the small plastic boxes that the COTTON WOOL BUDS come in.
sorry can't provide a picture - camera is on the blink
turns out that it is not just asda, but most supermarkets supply them this way.
I intend to use them as a final treatment after going through the main filter.
Possibly 2 -3 linked up with a spraybar running through them - any thoughts?

AH!
Righto, my bad, I misread.

Are we talking the hard plastic or the new flimsy plastic?

For both, my main concern would be trying to attach them to each other without causing damage to any of them, if you catch my drift.

I would personally use them as iso tanks for aggressive fish, put a couple of holes in them and a rubber airline tube around the top, job done.

 

[Bazza57]

Perhaps a picture might be a bit helpful, the cotton wool I buy comes in bags from Tesco, so I can't imagine what the item looks like.
Also...Cd..what?

They are the small plastic boxes that the COTTON WOOL BUDS come in.
sorry can't provide a picture - camera is on the blink
turns out that it is not just asda, but most supermarkets supply them this way.
I intend to use them as a final treatment after going through the main filter.
Possibly 2 -3 linked up with a spraybar running through them - any thoughts?

AH!
Righto, my bad, I misread.

Are we talking the hard plastic or the new flimsy plastic?

For both, my main concern would be trying to attach them to each other without causing damage to any of them, if you catch my drift.

I would personally use them as iso tanks for aggressive fish, put a couple of holes in them and a rubber airline tube around the top, job done.

Hard plastic, but not too brittle, this stuff has a slight flex. You could drill a hole to insert the spraybars through, if you wanted to, you could link the filters by using 1 or 2 30cm spraybars going right through them. They are strong enough to take the abuse. I could stack them to make a tower filter even - but many holes would be needed in the bases + a larger sump at the base.

ISO tanks were my first thought - you could keep a bank of male bettas suspended at the water line in these, but really, they may be too shallow for this, pregnant livebearers perhaps?

 

[VaegaVic]

Perhaps a picture might be a bit helpful, the cotton wool I buy comes in bags from Tesco, so I can't imagine what the item looks like.
Also...Cd..what?

They are the small plastic boxes that the COTTON WOOL BUDS come in.
sorry can't provide a picture - camera is on the blink
turns out that it is not just asda, but most supermarkets supply them this way.
I intend to use them as a final treatment after going through the main filter.
Possibly 2 -3 linked up with a spraybar running through them - any thoughts?

AH!
Righto, my bad, I misread.

Are we talking the hard plastic or the new flimsy plastic?

For both, my main concern would be trying to attach them to each other without causing damage to any of them, if you catch my drift.

I would personally use them as iso tanks for aggressive fish, put a couple of holes in them and a rubber airline tube around the top, job done.

Hard plastic, but not too brittle, this stuff has a slight flex. You could drill a hole to insert the spraybars through, if you wanted to, you could link the filters by using 1 or 2 30cm spraybars going right through them. They are strong enough to take the abuse. I could stack them to make a tower filter even - but many holes would be needed in the bases + a larger sump at the base.

ISO tanks were my first thought - you could keep a bank of male bettas suspended at the water line in these, but really, they may be too shallow for this, pregnant livebearers perhaps?

AH ok, gotcha.
Now I'm all caught up.
So you ideally want to try:

-------[ ]--[ ]--[ ]

Where --- is the spray bar and [ ] are the tubs.
Yea, that should work fine, whack them full of filter wool for a final stage super purifying water, or even include things like Purigen or Zeolite for extra media capabilities.
My main worry would be the noise from the trickle and lack of flow, or perhaps you could design it lack so.

-------[ ]--[ ]--[ ]------

Take off the cap on the end of the spray bar (or chop it off) to allow a high water flow through, but that would only increase flow and adversely affect what you are trying to do in terms of filtration, but would still be a net gain.

Or the other way of doing it is to try and use some of the "extension" spray bar attachments, you know, the part of the spray bar that doesn't have holes, but is still part of it (if that makes sense?) and whack one of these tubs on the end.

-------[ ]

So you effectively have built a "post-filter".

Close to what you were thinking?

 

[Bazza57]

Perhaps a picture might be a bit helpful, the cotton wool I buy comes in bags from Tesco, so I can't imagine what the item looks like.
Also...Cd..what?

They are the small plastic boxes that the COTTON WOOL BUDS come in.
sorry can't provide a picture - camera is on the blink
turns out that it is not just asda, but most supermarkets supply them this way.
I intend to use them as a final treatment after going through the main filter.
Possibly 2 -3 linked up with a spraybar running through them - any thoughts?



AH!
Righto, my bad, I misread.

Are we talking the hard plastic or the new flimsy plastic?

For both, my main concern would be trying to attach them to each other without causing damage to any of them, if you catch my drift.

I would personally use them as iso tanks for aggressive fish, put a couple of holes in them and a rubber airline tube around the top, job done.

Hard plastic, but not too brittle, this stuff has a slight flex. You could drill a hole to insert the spraybars through, if you wanted to, you could link the filters by using 1 or 2 30cm spraybars going right through them. They are strong enough to take the abuse. I could stack them to make a tower filter even - but many holes would be needed in the bases + a larger sump at the base.

ISO tanks were my first thought - you could keep a bank of male bettas suspended at the water line in these, but really, they may be too shallow for this, pregnant livebearers perhaps?

AH ok, gotcha.
Now I'm all caught up.
So you ideally want to try:

-------[ ]--[ ]--[ ]

Where --- is the spray bar and [ ] are the tubs.
Yea, that should work fine, whack them full of filter wool for a final stage super purifying water, or even include things like Purigen or Zeolite for extra media capabilities.
My main worry would be the noise from the trickle and lack of flow, or perhaps you could design it lack so.

-------[ ]--[ ]--[ ]------

Take off the cap on the end of the spray bar (or chop it off) to allow a high water flow through, but that would only increase flow and adversely affect what you are trying to do in terms of filtration, but would still be a net gain.

Or the other way of doing it is to try and use some of the "extension" spray bar attachments, you know, the part of the spray bar that doesn't have holes, but is still part of it (if that makes sense?) and whack one of these tubs on the end.

-------[ ]

So you effectively have built a "post-filter".

Close to what you were thinking?

Yeah, not too far away from what I had in mind, Removing the end cap of the spraybar sounds quite good - should reduce the amount/pressure of water flowing into the trickle filter. The tank I intend to try with is a 36" long x 18" high well planted with vallisneria, hygrophilia corybosa, java fern & bacopa which are currently (no pun intended ) all growing well.
I am not too keen on the quite strong water current at mo - 2 internal filters, Fluval 1 & fluval 2 ,one at each end facing each other(fish love it) plants seem ok despite this wave machine.
This project could divert some of the flow & calm things down a bit.
I think this will be my new years project

 

[VaegaVic]

Perhaps consider going for a cheap external to replace the fluvals and use your new idea at the end of the spray bar.
Super filtration + low current.