Filtration Part 3

Lets take a look at the configuration of filter media. Over the years my preferred method is go sponge-less at the inflow. Many people who had seen my sump tank is not convinced it will work. but this has been done for more than 6 years. The reason I go sponge-less is because my inhabitant are most time monsters with very bad eating habits. Debris will be flying everywhere and if they are filtered at the sponge, they will rot there. So to over come this I let the debris go directly into my sump tank, in my sump tank I've a section for live fish and ghost shrimp. These will be my cleaner crew. At the end of the section I do keep a flat sponge to filtered out rubbish leaving the sump tank and food material caught there will be minimal.

At the first compartment I've added K-1 since last year. How good is K-1? I'm running spongeless and my cleaning crew used to be all fatty. Since I've added K-1 they will crushed everything to bits and pieces and now I've to resort to feeding my cleaning crew. Kinda counter the purpose of them in the first place.

The middle compartment I've a large 17" x 6" UGF plate, substrate, clean up crew and a sponge. You'll need to siphon the sand monthly.

My sump tank are specifically designed to have a dead flow in the middle so food debris will be caught in this area, and also where I can keep substrate. This is not a new technique and I've used this since 15 years ago on my marine setup which is known as deep sand bed. I've just modify this to freshwater use.

In the back section is only pump and nothing else.

My main biological filter is in the internal over flow, this is the most oxygenated area and perfect for Beneficial Bacteria. From my set up you will notice I do not cluttered my media, packed them like crazy. When you packed them up you will not gain anything. So why waste your money? As a matter of fact BB don't thrive in low oxygen area, these areas are invitation for bad bacteria to breed. And this will be a time bomb to your system.

So there you have it, a cheap but perfectly set up sump tank, no need to spend tons of money on media, solved those floating food debris problem which can be poisonous when not dealt with.

0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite, my perfect nitrate factory.

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