DIY Moving Bed Filters. Do I Need More?

HI Everyone,

I just received my order of pre-hit female guppies, 2 Half Black Yellow Leopards and 1 Green Lyretail. Beautiful healthy girls who will eventually be paired with the males I have of the same types. By looking at them I figure they'll drop their fry about one week apart for each. I think I have about two weeks before I'll see any new babes.

So I've set up a small 10 gallon "nursery" that I can divide into sections just for the birthing time, especially if the two most ready females drop at the same time. This will allow me to grow out the fry in separate sections until they can be moved to their respective tanks. Maybe not the best way to do this, but I am newly learning and this will be the beginning of my guppy breeding program. So I expect that I'll change things up as we (meaning my guppies and I ) move forward.

I made two DIY moving bed filters for the tank using the exact same principles outlined by the Pond Guru in this video:

I understand these are slower to cycle, but that's fine. I'm watching water parameters closely and have been adding nitrifying bacteria as suggested by a well-known guppy breeder. I use bio balls with Biohome Ultimate and sponges/filter floss in my other tanks, but this won't work for the moving bed filters.

Anyway, I've noticed the water becomes cloudy even after doing water changes. Perhaps it's the media inside creating fine debris as it moves together and this is being bubbled out into the water column. Having no prior experience with these types of filters I'm not sure. The tank is in my office where there is no window light and the only light above it is a full spectrum aquarium light. The tank is bare bottom with no plants or ornaments. Of course, the water parameters right now are zero in everything. I'm watching for the spikes as I dose with the bacteria.

Here's my question: Should I attach these moving beds to another type of filter or set up to help keep the wear cleaner? Or is this just what happens in the beginnings of using moving bed filters inside a tank? I read online that it was suggested to one person with a larger aquarium to attach his moving bed filter to an Eheim 2215. The suggestion was to help with a water flow problem, but I don't have a water flow problem at all. Should I do something like this with a smaller one like the Eheim 2215, or is there another way to make the moving bed system less "dirty"?

Thank you for your suggestions and help!

 

That's an awesome looking filter. I totally want one now.

While it looks like a great home for BB, I suspect it may be a less than optimal mechanical filter as the tiny holes at the bottom are the only source for floating bits of waste to be sucked into it. A sponge filter by comparison is sucking in water and waste from its entire surface area. Maybe there's a way you can mod it to attach a sponge to the base? Or run a separate airline to a sponge filter?

I haven't used air-operated filters at all so I can't offer a tested solution, this is just an idea! Hopefully someone with more experience can offer a better solution.

 

HI notMidas, Thanks for your interest and suggestions. Yeah. I've been doing some research and think that adding a sponge on the bottom is a good idea. Or I could change around my media that's inside. I'm using a sponge and filter floss with the moving media. I should have them in the reverse order. In mine the ceramic and sintered glass media is not really moving well yet. I understand from other vids made by PondGuru that it takes a while for the bacteria to build up thereby creating a slicker surface on the round shaped media, which will aid in movement. I've been dosing this new aquarium with nitrifying bacteria, but I might just take the filters apart and add Bio Balls that I get from Great Wave Engineering. For me, to save some bucks AND have great filtration is what my aI'm is right now. It's fun to experiment too. An empty tank is a great place to do that. Don't want to kill any fish! I'm also thinking of starting a sponge stack in this tank so I can have media ready when I need it for other tanks. I've started a guppy breeding program, so I'm adding tanks a couple at a time. So far I've been very able to control all fry, and the male + female separations by female drops with dividers. Soon I'll need a rack system! Thanks for your input!

Anyone else with lots of experience have ideas or suggestion? I'd be very grateful.

 

Are you feeding the bacteria with ammonia or are the fish already in there? Did I miss that? I'm tired, forgive me if you already specified

 

HI Kwig,

Now they are in the tank since one of them started to drop her fry. The dividers are working very well. I was a bit worried that the fry to get back on the other side with the 3 females, but they cannot get through. Anyway, the tank is not cycled yet. Very disconcerting, but I'm watching it like a hawk. I'm not feeding the bacteria with ammonia now that the fish are in that tank. I'm doing a water change everyday now that I'm feeding the fry. Any ideas about my original query would be great. Thanks! Hope you got some rest.

 

With DIY stuff it's really hard to know what work and for how much. It's mostly trial and error.
I'm guessing unless someone has tried and tested the same thing to the t the way you have it no one can answer your question and you will have to play it safe or test it your self taken the risk and watching closely.

That said I have some DIY moving bed's in my tanks. 1.5liter(I think) square water bottles with straws roughed up by sand paper and 2 slid into 1 for more surfaces area. They seem to work for moving BB from one tank to the other but they don't clean the tank I'd say. I can't tell you how well they work the way I have mine or how well yours will at the different media will make a differences the size pump will make a differences same with the amount. That all being said I also don't normally use mine alone. I have hob and/or sumps on the tank. I do have one as the only filter in my Betta's 5 gallon that's working fine for the BB but it's doing nothing for cleaning any left over food. I should add the one in my Betta tank is very small.

 

HI yasha,

Sounds like you're very creative and industrious! As of now, I have three of the DIY moving bed filters running in three breeding tanks. I was concerned about how efficient that would be. But after using them since first posting this thread, they've improved. You're right. DIY is a trial and error situation. I've continued to modify the design to where they are now working very well. Each one has less ceramic/sintered glass media balls so that there is more movement inside the bottles. I made sure that the filter floss and sponge are below the air intake so that as the water is pulled through the particles will be caught in the filter media. I drill the intake holed a little larger so that larger particles can be caught, and I added a course sponge on the outside around the base so that it covers the intake holes. So far no fry care to be around the sponge, so I haven't needed to ruin the idea of using it by covering it with a fine mesh material. Et voila! Clean tanks!!! All I need to do is to perform daily maintenance which is to suck up the uneaten food and poo from the bare tank bottom's and all is well. Since they are breeding tanks, I have to keep them pristine for the health of the growing fish and the adult females. I have beautiful fry! Thanks for your input!

 

I just really like messing with the DIY stuff. It gives me something to do and some times works better then stuff you can buy in the stores.

Here's what mine looks like, I also used coffee straws In a new small one as the old small one the straws are just to big. My air pump is 1.5L/m But you can see how little one is moving on that very the other 3. I don't have the one with the small coffee straws in there but their the little mixing straws. I did the same thing with all of them sanded the straws and folded 2 straws in to one.

Also made a DIY HOB and its a lot better then most hob. I tried it a few ways but this is how I have it atm. It's a lot better as I have the filter floss and pot scrubbies I also added a plant. I also had the pvc pipe running to the far end of the tank so it wouldn't put out and suck up the same clean water but fully cycle the tank. I changed that when I put it in my gouramis tank however as I didn't want the water movement by his nest. The pump is a 540gph at half.




I also added some air tubing coming out of one of the pvc pipes that slowly pours in to a little nest box with the babies in it so the water also stays cycled in them.


You see the intake a overflow outlet/hook to stabilize it on the tank and the main pipe the water comes out that I normally have running to the opposite side of the tank.



This was another Idea for filtering and or fry. Powerhead to left side where it comes out a tall pvc on to filter floss then to the area with the fry and draining out the other pvc in to the tank. I used it for ghost shrimp for awhile.

Hope you don't mind my sharing with you I figured you may also like the DIY stuff and like a few of the ideas. Some could use a few changes and I'm always messing with them, but a few works very well for me.

 

Wow! Awesome innovation! Thank you for sharing with me. How long does it take to build up beneficial bacteria in your moving bed filters? I changed from adding bottled beneficial bacteria to seeding mine with Great Wave Engineering's Filter Balls, which are beneficial bacteria in a gelatin base. The round balls work very well, although they are broken down faster with the kind of ceramic/sintered glass media I'm using. But my water parameters are beginning to settle down. I'm pleased overall. I modified my store bought HOB. It's great. But I like how you made yours from bare essentials. Very nice. I like my main tank to be really nice looking. I'm moving toward all glass intakes, etc. with a canister. For now though, I'm just focusing on my breeding arrangement. Thanks for sharing your DIYs, yasha! The scrubbies idea is supreme!

 

I'm not to sure how long the BB took. My best guess unassisted it took around a month.By unassisted I mean I added no type of BB/pieces with BB on them. Just making it and adding it to the tank.

I've watched a few videos on people fixing up HOB to make them better but it still doesn't fix the problem(what I and a few others see as a problem) with the clean water coming out so close to where it gets sucked up that it seems like your cleaning more cleaned water. If you have one on the left and right side of the tank the middle just seems like its not getting cycled as much. That's what I like about mine can make sure the water has to move the whole tank before filtering it again. It was a lot cheaper to but that's not always the case. Well the materials for the final (for now) Idea I did use money on trying different stuff to it would add up to more then just buying one if you tank all my trying into a count. I started with a powerhead inside pulling water up throw a pvc pipe with holes so intake more like a HOB. I just fond that not to work with the powerhead as it was messier and took up room in the HOB. So how'd you fix up your HOB? I always find the way people do stuff differently and how they work interesting. I have a normal HOB on one of my 29 gallon and all I've done with it is make a plastic canvas filter flows to put in over the charcoal one it came with that fell to pieces.

I like the look of my movies beds they can be fun to watch in a way. Other then that I have a few tanks where I like to hide everything with plants and others where I don't mind to much if stuff is in the tank. My 40 gallon with the pvc overflow to the wet/dry sump My plan is to glue rocks around the part of the pvc in the tank so it looks a little less like a pvc pipe. I already have a 2nd one one made and glued just have to glue the rocks then I can replace the one in the tank this way my filter only has to be off for a small time.

I have my own Idea on a way I want to try to build a small breeding rack but it has to wait till I can find room to put it . Want to use it with my cherry barb.

 

HI yasha, Sorry I have to be brief. I'm grad school and have much work to do.

I did a very simple modification, if you want to really call it that. I used a wide HOB filter so that the intake is about 5 inches to one side of the centrally located outflow. I use a course sponge on the intake, which is also about half way down into the water column. Since the interior is fairly clear of tabs, slits, and so forth for holding media that is prescribed to use for that model, I use media bags that sit side-by-side that are filled with BioHome Ultimate that was started with the BB filter balls I mention before. I leave one area open on the far end of the HOB so I can put in and take out bags of activated charcoal or other things, as needed. On top of the entire row of side-by-side media bags, I layered filtration media, course, medium and fine. It works very well for my tank and the water is crystal clear. Oh, and to circulate the water around the tank my water circulator is positioned to the right of the intake so that all water moves around the tank back to the intake. This also works to move the CO2 bubbles a little bit more than the outflow is capable of. I have no dead spots, and the fish love it when the circulator cycles on and off through out the day.

Thanks again for sharing. Talk soon!

 

Sounds cool. I would love to see a picture if you ever have time to. No big deal if you don't.