upgrade finally question?

mr.reeferman · May 1, 2016

i am upgrading to a 60 gal from a 29 so excited to get it filled but was wondering does anyone know how has anyone ever seen a biological filter made out of a five gal bucket full of crushed live rock and sand an old timer that i got the tank from has a really old setup and all he uses is a filter as described was wondering if anyone has heard of this or not ? sounds kinda legitimate but not real sure how effective it would be ? anyone know anything ?

Humblefish · May 1, 2016

Was he using it with an undergravel filter?

mr.reeferman · May 2, 2016

he had it ran straight into the side of the tank with pvc and used gravity to pull water from the tank and a pump to push it back up
to the tank

Humblefish · May 2, 2016

mr.reeferman said:
he had it ran straight into the side of the tank with pvc and used gravity to pull water from the tank and a pump to push it back up
to the tank

I don't think I'd mess with that. It's probably loaded with nitrates. You want good quality LR (or dry rock) to be the primary bio-filter for your tank.

saltyfilmfolks · May 2, 2016

yea clean it good REAL GOOD.
Its a remote DSB. Deep sand bed.
yea it works very well. its just another place to house bacteria. But likely not a thing you want in you first big upgrade. youll be happier with a nice clean install.
I use a similar technique with a DSB and LR in my fuge, also macros to pull nutrients out of the water coloum.

FWIW you now have a lot of sand and rock already cycled for your Quarantine tank.