Everybody Joey here again and welcome back
So I get a lot of questions on
Aquarium filtration some different methods on how to build certain types of filters
Number one request is always. How can I make the cheapest filter possible yet? Have it still being effective well?
The number one filter that I keep coming [back] to on that specific question is really simple
It's not [a] new idea, and it's been around for a while
the Wet [Drive] filter
they're so easy to make and
they're extremely effective for
[me] they're in the top three best types of filters you can possibly have on your freshwater aquarium now
[what] is a
Wet/dry or what is a trickle tower? They're both very similar a wet/dry means that
the Filters Media is
Half submerged and half emerged essentially giving its name
Wet/dry
So some of the filter Media is dry
The rest is wet by dry. I don't mean dry. It's really wet, but it's exposed to the [air]
What's a trickle tower?
Basically it's a [wet/dry] without the wet. [it's] just the tower and all of the media is
Above the water surface now, how can you go about making a?
Wet/dry and
Doing it as cheaply as possible to be blunt well
Again, this is not a new idea
This is idea has been around for a while a lot of people [are] doing it
And have been doing it and will [continue] doing it based on its effects to its efficiency its effectiveness and its price
Basically all that you really need is
a tower like this they come in several different sizes
[several] different several different styles as well, basically all it is this one's a sterilite
Drawer, it's a storage drawer essentially all the drawers slide out
And what we're going to do is not what this [was] intended to be but it works fantastically?
now
Rubbermaid also makes them you see them all the time. You know exactly what I mean now that you've seen it
Now how does it work well?
This is the tower portion to the filter essentially water is going to flow from the top down through through the bottom
But how [does] it do that [well]?
You're going to drill a hole in the top your water is going to enter there
It first gets to it gets to the first drawer here, and that's going to be your mechanical drawer by mechanical
I mean of course
Filtering the particulate matter out of the water
Essentially giving your water a clear look
now given that work on the
You know on the theme of cheap and keeping this cost effective. I highly recommend using filter floss in here
Filter floss is cheap and extremely effective, so we're going to just pack that full of filter floss
After it's done being mechanically filter it then moves on to the biological filtration
You can basically use whatever drawers you can have five six drawers
You know you really only need two one for mechanical one for biological, but in the next drawer
I would do biological as well as in the third drawer for [tour] bitch or all biological in
This store you're going to have your biological media
The biological media that you would use
Ideally since we're on the theme of keeping money in mind is going to be plastic hot Scrubby's
basically all those are are the plastic version of pot Scrubbers that are extremely cheap and
Basically made it the same material as bio-balls
Accepting on far more surface area [the] only downside to them as they have [a] tendency to clog a lot faster than [bioballs]
If you have a good pre-filter, that's not going to happen
your pot [Scrubby's] to fill this up you usually get about [six] for a dollar at your local dollar store, so
You're thinking about maybe ten dollars where the pot [Scrubby's] another 15 for the tower. We're going at 25 bucks
Which is really good then you need there some some can be anything from a glass tank
An Acrylic tank or anything that holds water I recommend a rubbermaid tote based on the fact that it's cheap
[I] don't have one but I have a small [ten] gallon [tanks]. We're just going to throw it in there just for a visual
so
That's it. You're done. That's your filter now. How does it work? Well very simply I?
Mentioned earlier that you're going to be drilling a hole in the top of the tower here this is for water to enter
But how does it keep getting down well?
quite simply
We're going to drill holes in the bottom of each drawer
We're drilling several tiny holes evenly spaced about an inch or half inch apart
What we want this to create is a raining effect, and I'm going to show you that later on in the video
Now how many holes do you need and what size should they be how do you know when you have enough flow and the holes?
Are the proper size well to start off you want to make your holes?
evenly spaced and
With a smaller drill bit if you look in one of my past videos on how to make a drip plate
I explained all of this in there, so go look for that video before you start drilling your your
your drawers
so
Starting off small with smaller holes is there's one reason and one reason only for that is because if they're not big enough
You can make them bigger
You started off too big and there's nothing you can do you're already too big you can't shrink them or anything like that
You know you got to chuck it and get another drawer. That's basically just a little tip
Do that to all the drawers so water comes in through the top it flows through your mechanical media rains down to the next
The next drawer and rains over all of your media
Now what's this what this is doing is creating a highly
oxygenated environment for your aerobic Bacteria
Aerobic Bacteria the more oxygen they get the more efficient they're going to be this is why a triple tower or a
Wet/dry is extremely efficient and a top choice amongst Aquarius
So that's basically it starts at the top flows all the way through the media. That's it
again
You know including the tower media and a rubbermaid tote you're looking at [$40] or less. You're done
All you need is your pump to pump the water back up to your main aquarium [now]
What if your aquarium is not drilled or you don't have an overflow where you have no way to get your water from the top
Tank to the bottom well. I showed you how to drill an aquarium. That's made of acrylic
I showed you how to drill an aquarium. That's made of glass
I showed you how to do the overflows, so you're covered there
But if you don't want to drill your tank you also have the option of adding a PVC
Overflow show you how to make that as well, and [it's] cheap and cost effective check my videos out if you haven't seen that already
what if you don't want to do any of that you just don't want itself but you want to take advantage of an
Efficient filter like [this] well obviously you're not going to be able to put a rubbermaid on top of your aquarium
Too big you know the weights not really an issue the tanks already heavy
It's just you know it could cause some [problems] if it fell so what we're going to do there is
Simply Grab another smaller bin
all it needs to be is you know shallow and big enough to fit [your] tower into
Just like that now this can go on top of your aquarium
The reason why we need this drawers because very simple reason there might come a time when these or start to overflow because they clogged
It's not very common, and I've never had it happen
But we always want to consider the worst case scenario when we're designing and building something [ourselves], so water could necessarily
Overflow out of the Tower
What that's going to do is create a big message is just sitting on top of your tank by itself. That's why we have this
[when] we have this bigger drawer below it. There's two reasons for it one to catch the water two to channel the water
Down into the aquarium now what I mean by Channeling is pretty simple once water is done
Flowing through your tower, it's going to start collecting in here
So we're going to need a bulkhead or a hole with some sort of a hose
Leading back into your aquarium, and that can go right on top. So that's that basically it allows you to have a
Large capacity filter you know in a triple towels [tower] style without having a sump or needing to plumb your aquarium
So basically everybody can have it
back - I forgot to mention
How do you know when you have enough water?
in your tower drawers
Before you have to you know stop drilling
Well, basically you'll know through trial and error. You're going to start drilling
You're going to make sure they're evenly spaced and throughout the entire surface of the bottom drawer
Once that's done
you're going to turn the filter on have water start flowing through it at the ideal flow rate that you're looking for and
See what happens?
not enough holes and the water is going to start raising and it's just going to flood too much holes and
Or too big of holes and the water is not going to fall out of all the holes
And it's not going to be evenly distributed amongst the media just going to be falling in one spot
You're not going to get the efficiency of this filter
What you want is about a half inch of water to collect in?
Each bin, that's when you know you have enough water. It sits at a [half-inch]. It doesn't keep rising slowly it sits there
You know quarter inch to a half inch of water pooling in each drawer is perfect
So that's essentially it that's going to be your answer to
taking advantage of a [sump] system
or a trick triple tower system without putting the money out so
unless now let's get into
Seeing one in action. I'm going to show you one that I've used and that I do use
In action and how it works [so] [we're] going to get onto that right now
Okay, so this is what the tank will look like if you are running a sump
Obviously, you're going to need some water in there, so your heater can be submerged and so can your pump
But here's a little tip notice the bottom drawer is
Missing the reason for that is simple because some tanks
Some sumps aren't going to be a big enough to allow both the tower, and you know a 20 inch 18 inch long heater
So the bottom drawer is removed so the heater can slide right under it
Water level is raised up to the bottom drawer. So that you don't hear the water hitting
The water exiting the tower in and splashing down into the sun
I'm going to go ahead and remove this drawer here
So you can see what the water looks like when it's raining down
So basically let's imagine that we're turning the pump on and water starts to flow out of it
I'm just going to pour it in with a little bucket here
so water is evenly raining down and
raining over the next drawer from there it enters the second drawer and
That rains over the bottom you can have as many drawers as you want
Notice that the flow is coming up nice and evenly and that's what you're looking for. That's what you want to accomplish
So that's basically it
Obviously, it's not going [to] be this noisy when there's media in it in fact. It's absolutely silent you won't hear anything
now
This here filter is going to be just as efficient and does the exact same thing as you've seen my other
filters do
If you've seen some of my other triple tower filters where I built large acrylic really nice looking filters
This is the same thing just not as pretty
So that was it guys
Again like I just mentioned the wet/dry filter or trickle trickle tower however. You're going to be using it is
Not as pretty as some of the acrylic filters I built
But it is just as efficient and it does the exact same thing
Anyways, I hope the video helped you guys out
I hope you enjoyed it
And I hope you find some use from it if you'd like to see more projects or find out
What other people are doing in [terms] of?
Do-it-yourself projects or simply want to ask some questions and meet some fellow fish keepers like yourself be sure to check out
Diy fish keepers [comm] that's my website you'll find me there if you're looking for me
Anyways, thanks for watching [and] we'll see us next time