Okay, so yesterday I talked about the fact that I needed to clean up we're done all that Gary's here
now today we're gonna turn a
55-gallon barrel into a filter but the 375 gallon tank. The things are kind of torn apart right now
Just kind of doing some organization also going to streamline some lighting options for both of these tanks in the coming days
But I mentioned we're going to take out all of this equipment here and replace it
Well currently we're just running the Bashi sump this is gonna be brought inside
We're gonna run that on the saltwater aquarium eventually
which is going to be on the other side of the wall watch yesterday's video to catch up and then of course we're gonna take
That 55-gallon barrel and place it here. We're gonna free up a massive amount of space make it more usable and less claustrophobic
Of course
so really I just wanted to challenge myself to turning a 55-gallon barrel and using that as the sole filtration for the
375 that currently houses a bunch of little clown loaches
There's the pusher back there. A lot of people been wondering where it is. Did you seal?
this tech needs to be cleaned again, there is
And a bunch of vieja I want to do this as cheap as possible
and I don't want to use any tools, which I think is important because a lot of you guys don't have any tools and/or
a lot of money or resources
so let's make this build as cheap as we can and as
Practical as we can easy maintenance and be able to run a massive tank
I'm gonna have to run out and see what we can find because I need media baskets of some sort
the initial plan here is to take this 55-gallon barrel, which actually has a sealable lid I
Want to put the pump on the inside water flows in through the top gets down to goes through
Various levels of biological media and then of course gets to the bottom where the pump returns it back out the top
Now I could go ahead and drill through the side have the pump on the outside
But then we're getting into using tools and whatnot. And I want this to be as simple as possible
We could throw it together in minutes type of deal plus maintenance to be a complete breeze
We'll see what happens first and foremost though. I just need to take dimensions inner dimensions are about 20 inches wide
I'm gonna go with 19
Just in case
something's like
20.5 inches or something
I think I'm gonna look for laundry baskets of some sort and I've got about 34 inches of depth to play with so
34 by 19. Let's go find something Gary. Okay, so when it comes to needing something
Needing supplies and whatnot. All I usually always take the dimensions of what I'm building or what I need it for
I'll take those notes and put them in my phone or I'll write them down worst thing is to get there and
Forget the dimensions of what you're actually building
so always
always write down or take a note in your phone or whatever the case might be the dimensions before you leave the house now because
We have the measurements. I
Come over to these measure what I need and then I bring it back just borrowing it
Okay
Okay, so what I was thinking about doing is taking a couple of stacked baskets, but they're all like rectangular and whatnots
And I was thinking well
Maybe we can get
Some buckets that are the right dimensions drill holes in them. Then I thought these here these would be perfect
This one has some larger holes. We'll check this one out. I
Can use almost any size media in there. I could even turn it into a fluid ice chamber
inside of the barrel now cross
I think I measured it as 20 or 19. What was it like teen? She was 19 across how tall is it?
no this
23:23. We gotta go 29. That's fine. The pumps can go under it. How was it?
18 that one's perfect. Alright go with that. You ready Gary? Yeah, I'm ready. We're a team
And an item not bad not bad so far the barrel cost about $40 and then those two baskets for about 30 bucks total
So we're into this for 70 bucks
Canadian so that's probably around 50 bucks American. I think that's gonna be total besides like biological media. All right, so
This is gonna be a lot smaller in here than I thought also the measurements have to be off
Really though, I could have hung it
but I think what I'm gonna do here is
Drop this in all the way to the bottom if I move this out of the way, there's room for the pump
No problem pump return can come up through the side here. Well, then I need the pre-filter which is going to
Filter out particles and whatnot. I'm gonna somehow fix that to this and
the way it'll look here is
We've got about four inches or three inches that go down into the media basket
This might seem like a waste of space but when you think about it, do you really need this much?
Biological media for a 375 answers simply no
We'll be able to put what 30 liters of media in here. No problem, which is more than what it currently has
And the reason why this is gonna be down so deep is
that when an
Aquarium with an overflow shuts off water from the main aquarium still has to drain so I only planned on running this bucket
Filter - or this barrel filter - maybe 75% We'll see what happens
I'll have to try out some different water levels
but I'm gonna drill holes through the bottom of this which is going to force the water to go through the media and
Then seep out the sides
Obviously, I'm not gonna get
Full contact with the media of course water is always going to flow in the path of least resistance
Which means it's going to come through through the media that'll go down as far as you can and start to disperse
But that's kind of how the sump works
anyways
Let me show you so as water enters the sump it has to flow through these media baskets or if these are actually pre-filter socks
Goes through them and then overflows over now
Obviously, we have a ton of biological media here, but it doesn't mean it's all coming in contact
with the water and
then of course another
Media chamber as well. So it's gonna work the same way
It's not a pressurized canister filter where the water is forced to go down through the media
Will have some aerobic and anaerobic activity happening within this barrel, which is going to prove to be beneficial over time
I've been running this aquarium
specifically and
Exclusively just like that to see how it's going to perform as doing
Just well and with the barrel though, we're gonna be doubling the amount of media in it
Now typically speaking to drill a thin plastic. I'd use a step drill, but I
Can't find it. So
We're just gonna use a spade bit
much Messier, but I
need to drill holes so that the
Water can pass through it. This again is the
Pre-filter, I do like the fact that the end the sides are closed which means in order for water to get out of here
It's literally gonna have to fill the bucket overflow
But that pressure is gonna push down on this these holes making my pre-filter last a lot longer
Just go ahead and drill all these
That should do it. Okay now for the actual biological media, I'm gonna take out all of these ceramic
Blocks, is it by Marine Corps? There's three of them in there and then a bunch of the marine pure water bowls
Now this is a highly porous
ceramic block and each one of these ours actually supports supposedly supposed to support a
hundred gallons
We'll see how it works on so far I do like it it's very very pricey
But again, I wanted to try it then of course they come in the ball form as well
again, highly porous but
Man, did these things ever break apart not very good with friction or anything
But they are a submerged media meant to be kept in a static state. So what I think I'm gonna do here is
I've got two of the blocks in here so far, and I've surrounded it in the balls. I
Think this final block
On top of it like this and I keep going
That about half filled it. You see I believe it or not. It's still quite light even though it's draining water
They hold and retain a tremendous amount of water
But this is more than enough biological media that I need for this tank, but it's not gonna stop there
See how much room we got here
I'm just gonna keep trying to reuse
media that I already have and I
Have a ton of these bio balls, which is a plastic media. However these float
So what we're gonna do
anyways
Let's fill the rest of this up with these
Or at least as much as I can
And what will happen is these will serve as a biological media as well as a support system for
The basket itself and at this point
You know what the I might as well
On the sides and everything they're gonna fun
I'm only using this type of media because I have it I might as well use it if I didn't have any of this media
I'd go to the dollar store and pick up
hundreds of
Plastic pot. Scrubby's, you know those plastic round things
I've shown you to use in the past probably work even a little bit better than these
But again, I already have them. I don't wanna spend any more money than I have to so
That's perfect. All right for now the pre-filter some polyester filling showed you guys this before toss it into the top
Section here and this is gonna filter out all the fine particles. Now again water levels. Probably only gonna go to here if this clogs
which is doubtful water will overflow and
Stay within the barrel not a big deal. So I mean we're in this for about 50 bucks
Of course
We're using a lot of biological media that's technically pretty expensive and then we're gonna use a really nice pump
But you know, this wasn't that bad of idea now how I imagine the maintenance going on. This is
Once a week or every few days I rip this out
I put it back in I get I'd buy big bags of this for very little money every time I change it
It must might cost me 20 cents something along those lines as for maintenance above and beyond that
Of course, we need to rinse out the biological media every once in a while
so what I think I'll do is I'll pick up the basket here and
I think I'll just pick it up and shake it with water still in here and I'll have the pump drain this entire bucket of
Everything that's in it, then fill it back up
Instead of having to remove everything, but if I did I can always remove the whole
Basket take it out set it aside and spray it with aquarium water. Just as you would clean anything else
not sure how I like the bio-balls being in there like that, but they're not gonna cause any harm and again,
They're gonna explode so they're not gonna mess with the sump just a little bit of extra biological media as well
So see how it goes. So there you have it. That's gonna do it for today. I think
Built the filter complete is ready to set and run tomorrow. You guys will see us ripping it out that entire
filtration room removing the entire racking system as well as the existing sump and of course installing the new
Barrel filter getting it up and running and seeing if all of this works
Let me know in the comments section below what you guys think of this filter so far. Do you think it's gonna work?
What are some changes or anything you would have done?
But for 50 bucks, I mean, you can't beat it. I'm pretty happy and it's technically pretty compact
It's only twenty inches all the way around not that bad as opposed to taking up
Five by two so 10 square feet versus what four or two square feet something along those lines
But I hope you guys enjoyed today's video so far
I'll see you guys tomorrow or we get this up and running if you want to see that you're not subscribed to this channel yet
I highly suggest you do so you do not miss it