This is a cross between to much time on my hands and a lot of stuff laying around. I have always said I wanted to do a whole tank using all DIY for all parts of the tank. So here is the my DIY filter. I had some 4" pvc left over from another project. And some caps and clean out drains
This is not the cap I am using I used this one to test hole sizes but I wanted to show the type of cap.
The tube is 18"tall and here are some of the other pieces I'll be using as I go along.
I had some egg Crate left over from covering my last tank so I cut some circles out of it
Then I glued a piece of 4" pvc(1/2) to hold the egg crate in the bottom of the tube. This is up side down, but I just wanted to show this part together.
This is it right size up
O.K. know I'm going to add the drain hole in the lower part of the tube. Since I like the way a phos-ban reactor works. I took the same idea and I'm going to have the water come in from the bottom and push it's way up through the media. I drilled a 3/4" hole
Then added the drain
On the inside I screwed the water proof cap on but since it's not made for a round surface I'm going to silicone it all in
I'm going to leave this part for a bit to let it cure. So now I'm going to water proof the bottom using thread tape and silicone
This is it altogether and water tight
And then glued the bottom to the tube
Now on to the top I used a maxi-jet 1200 after I drilled a 3/4" hole in the top and added the drain. To make the maxi-jet fit the drain I used a piece of hose that was 5/8 od and 1/2 id and it fits just right. Then I drilled a 3/16 hole for the power cord. I lined to inside of the hole with a rubber washer. Then I cut off the plug in of the cord and pushed it through the hole.
This is what it looks like from the top
Then siliconed it all in. I'm going to put this a side to cure. Now I'm going to lay out the drain. This was the best way to use some more stuff I had laying around. I used a piece of hose that had a id of a 1/2" so I could tie in some 1/2" cpvc. I also added a ball valve to help control water flow.
I'm going to run this from the tank to the floor so I had to use almost 4' of 1/2" cpvc
This is it running from the tank down.
This is what you will see from inside the tank it's the smallest pipe in the back. And I'm going to tie the return into the return you already see in front, but I'll get to that later.
