DIY Moving Bed filter in Aquarium

[mbenjami]

Im gonna setup my aquarium tank again for some tropical fishes. So i made myself an internal moving bed filter setup for the tank. Took some pics and a small video when i tested the moving bed filter in my indoor pond. Works excellent.

[Iceman]

Nice set up; I have seen similar version using K1 media. What type of media do you use ? Does the noise bother the fishes ?

[mbenjami]

Hi iceman

I use bead media, polypropelene Granulate. No noise that bothers the fishes

[Noahsnana]

Step by step build?

[mbenjami]

Step by step build?

I will see if i can make that tonight Noahsnana

[mbenjami]

Oki here is a step by step guide

Filter container

1 Drill a series of 3.5-mm holes around the neck of an empty plastic bottle and around the bottom of the bottle. You can go up some dimensions on the holes in the bottom if you use k1 media. For bead media max will be 3.5 mm or else the bead media will escape the bottle.

2 Drill 2 holes in the side of the bottle for the suction cups so you can attach the filter to the glass. Use a drill bit slightly smaller than the head of the suction cup. Small enough so you need to pry the suction cups in place.

Intake

3 Cut a small piece of 20mm PVC pipe. This pipe goes into the spout on the bottle. Cut it so that it will extend a few cm out of the bottle when it is put into place later.

4 Attach a 20mm 90 elbow on the small piece of pipe.

5 Cut a small piece of 7 cm 20mm pipe. Drill several holes in the pipe.

6 Insert this pipe in the 90 elbow

7 Create a filter sponge of japan mat or some other filter sponge. This should be 8 cm long. Make a 20 mm hole in the middle of the sponge that goes almost completely through the sponge. Put the sponge on the pipe with the holes.

8 Drill a hole at the bottom of the 90 elbow so you can get a air hose thru it.

9 Connect an air stone to the hose and pull the air hose out so much that the top of the airstone is flush with the top of the pipe in paragraph 3

Mounting

10 Fill the filter container 1 / 3 full with biomedia

11 insert the inlet into the spout of the bottle (filter container). If the pipe on the inlet is a little small, you can wrap a few rounds with eg. tape around the pipe so that it fits into the spout.

12 Connect the air hose to an air pump

All the parts are slip fit and not glued, so it will be easy to clean when necessary.

Here are some illustration drawings I've made.

Hope my english is good enough so you folks understand