I got an inquiry earlier this year from Luis who was building a DIY Shower or Trickle Filter for his bait tank. Here’s what he was planning.
Need your advice if you don’t mine I’m using 6 lbs of Biohome ultimate marine I bought from you ,4 liters of seachem matrix bio all media and 400 bio balls filter median 1.5 and the sponge media coarse medium fine I also bought from you my question is I have aDIY trickle filter set up in a 20 gallon plastic drum for my 50 gallon bait tank can you help me with how would you set the media in the best way for the best possible filtration
I got back to him with this:
I assume the water is trickling down from above and then leaving the drum at the bottom. If this is the case, you will want to place the Foam Filter Set at the top, Coarse on top, then Medium and finally Fine.
I see the standard diameter for a 20 gallon drum is 18.25″ so that makes the mechanical filtration a little tricky. The Foam Filter Sheets are only 13″x13″. Hopefully you can fabricate a frame with a 13″ x 13″ recess in the middle to hold the Foam while covering the rest of the drum.
I would place the Biohome® at the bottom, then the Matrix and finally the Bioballs right below the Foam. You’ll want to clean this filter every month or two to remove the debris from the Foam and rinse off any that gets through to the media.
Hope that helps. Thanks for your orders.
Luis came back with a few more questions.
Can Biohome ultimate marine be used in a trickle filter this is how I’m planning to set it up sponge filters on top coarse medium fine next tray bioballs next tray seachem matrix and next tray Biohome ultimate marine then sump and back to my saltwater 50 gallon bait tank
Bioballs 100
Seachem matrix 2 liter
Biohome marine 11 kg And do you recommend to use carbon if yes where would you recommend me to place it at like between what media
That sounds like a good plan. All of that stuff in front of the Biohome® should keep it pretty clean. I can’t see any need to add carbon.
Send me some photos and let me know how it works out. Hope you have a great bait season.
And he did. These show how he setup his bait tank system:
