Will this work?

[JamisonSmith]

Hello all,

I am in the process of adding to my basement rack system and I am contemplating adding a bio-tower for additional biological filtration. I have attached a picture of the set-up. My question is this: If I add the Bio-tower in the manner that I have drawn it, will the water level in the bio-tower equalize with the water level in the sump? I plan on adding a 1 inch bulkhead at the bottom of the tower that will drain into a 1 inch bulkhead on the lower portion of the side of the sump. I am planning on feeding it from either the by-by-pass from the pump directly back to the sump (as the pump is plenty of power for future tanks to be added), or I can feed it off of the line that feeds the lower level of tanks. Any thoughts? Thanks for any help.
Jamison

 

[~Flighty~]

what is a bio tower?

 

[JamisonSmith]

Sorry Cindy for not defining this from the beginning. It is a tower full of bio-balls or other highly poreous material, aka a trickle filter. I doubt that many folks here are still using them as they are known to be a nitrate factory, but for large amounts of bio-load they are from what I have read the best at handling, and this system will not be attached to my reef, just fish breeding system.

 

[marco67]

I would consider just a couple of adjustments,
a) it's probably just not shown in the drawing but add a vent "stack" to the end of eact drain run.
b) I wouldn't feed the tower with the main pump, it will make it hard to get a consistant flow, every time to add or subtract a tank it will be effected. Consider a dedicated pump.
c) I'm not sure what your intended use is but if you will have big swings in bio load consider adding a fluidized sand bed, they are great for adapting quickly to something like slamming the system with 100 fish at once.

edit I should have read closer.....
yes the water level in the tower will be same as sump. The submerged media will be wasted, consider raising the whole assy or adding egg crate at the water line.

 

[JamisonSmith]

Marco,

Thanks for the tips! I was hoping that you would chime in with your experience.
a) It is not listed in the diagram but, yes the top of the drain pipes are open for venting, I didn't have this at first and man, did it make a difference.
b)Sounds good. Thanks.
c)I have thought about having a fluidized bed and I was concerned about power outages and all of the bacteria suddenly dying, versus a bio-tower which I could easily pour water over occasionally, or have a small pump running a small amount of water over it. Do you think that it would warrant having both but being able to isolate or shut-off either in the event that I need to take one off-line? I do plan on getting a generator at some point, but really can't afford it at this point.
From your experience, do you think water levels will equalize in the bio-tower and the sump so that a portion of the bio-tower will always be underwater to the same level as the water level in the sump? Hopefully this makes sense. This is what I am concerned with as then it is not working as effective as it should (or could) be.

Thanks again for the tips. Let me know if you think of anyhting else.

Jamison

 

[marco67]

"From your experience, do you think water levels will equalize in the bio-tower and the sump so that a portion of the bio-tower will always be underwater to the same level as the water level in the sump?"
If I'm understanding your digram correctly, yes, and I think it's a problem ...can you raise the tower higher than the sump?
Sand filter crashing is a legit concern, not only in a long term outage, but after short term they can tend not to want to fluidize again. There are a number of designs that help with the restart, I don't have links handy but do a search and I'm sure you'll find some good reading.