i got this idea for a filter. since i cant buy one ill just make one.

the arrows in the diagram indicate the water movement.

[attachmentid=7125]

er well im not experienced or anything but it looks as though it should be fine.. i do like the little doodles of fish there at the side
good luck with it!

The pump should be placed as far away from the filter as you can to get the best circulation.You might want to replace the lava rock with some other media as it is very heavy and not as effective as other bio media, springflow is good its bout 35 dollars a box, or you can get those nylon pot scrubbers 6 for a dollar at the dollar store. you could get, also you would want to install a drain on the filter for easy maintenance. Looks like a good and simple filter though.

lol i didnt want to wait for you guys to reply so i made it but upsidedown.

lava rock is very good mechanical media and I'm glad you made it upsidedown, it would be a lot easier for maintenance. I would not suggest to put floss on the last stage (as it is now right at the bottom). When it clog you are in big trouble.

hmm ok thanks for the advice. now im thinking about adding a sort of overflow chanmer think if it does clog.

Thats a very good idea and it will work great!

Here are some tips:

--Floss on top, then lava rock. Water feeds in at the top and trickles down through the media and out the outflow pipe/tubing. This is what is known as trickle or wet/dry filtration.

--Lava rock is perhaps the cheapest, best media for biological filtration. Crush into pea sized chunks for the most amount of area for colonization of beneficial bacteria. Be sure to rinse it VERY, VERY well before using in the filter. Lava rock slivers are VERY sharp and will cause gill and/or intestinal problems. Once well rinsed, is completely safe.

--filter floss or pre-filter sponge is what is termed as mechanical filtration, not lava rock.

--Try to keep the outflow to the pond a larger diameter than the inflow pipe/tubing so that clogging/overflowing does not become a problem.

--You could very well eliminate the floss in the filter if you were to employ a sponge pre-filter on the intake that sits in the pond. This makes for cleaning easy as you do not have to even tougc the filter to rinse the sponge/floss.


Hope this helps!

Paul

so what i should do is just full the bucket im using with just a bunch of lava rock?

im gonna finish up my prefilter with floss and sponge tommorrow.

thanks for all the replys

Are you doing a trickle tower filter or an overflow filter? lava rock would be more suited for a trickle tower filter whereas i see there are better alternatives for an uplfow filter like nylon scrubbies that have a much high surface area, arent as heavy, and does not need to be replaced so often.

im gonna do the trickle one. so if i have a prefilter attatched then i could just fill the bucket with lava rock?

heres a pic

Looks good. Just make sure the water is being distributed over the lava rock evenly and that the lava rock is not ever submerged.

ok thanks. how long till i need to replace the rock each time?

I don't know how often it needs to be replaced in a trickle tower filter but i read somewhere..somewhere..that they are replaced every month in a filter..I dunno where but somewhere. But I think the lava rock last longer than that.

You will never have to replace the lavarock. The only thing that would need replacing would be the floss.

There are ways to evenly distribute the water over ALL of the media in the bucket. You can make a small splitter or spraybar that sprays the water inside of the bucket, not completely necessary but it helps loads.


Paul

ok thanks

Good idea, cheap too.