doctorzoidberg
New Member
Hello everyone,
I am a long time lurker here but I finally have something that might be worth sharing! I have had a Fluval Evo 13.5 AIO tank for about 2 years now and I ended up with a second one so I am starting a new build (which I will also retrofit to my other tank if it works well). Anyway, I am an avid 3d printer and I enjoy tinkering and designing things as well so I decided to take a shot at improving the filtration on the Evo.
I had already previously printed some media baskets for the 1st chamber but I have wanted to get a refugium setup in the currently unused middle chamber so I have designed and printed a container for the chaeto for the middle chamber. I have seen that several people have done this in AIO tanks and had some success so I tried throwing some small chaeto in my 1st tank with just a basket and it did ok, but the uneven lighting ended up not working out great as the front would get too much light and the back wouldn't get enough. What I really wanted to get working was to have the chaeto be able to tumble/spin and I have managed to get a prototype working pretty well!
Excuse the crude diagram showing how the filtration is going to be setup but hopefully its clear. Basically, chamber 1 will have the 3 bays, 1 which has room for 2 of the chemi-pure nano packets and the other two will be filled with various ceramic media for the bacteria. I am able to fit probably 4 of the large bio balls and a bunch more of the smaller ceramic discs/cylinders.
The basket I designed has a channel on the left side where the water is forced down to the bottom before coming back up that channel and going into the second chamber.
In the second chamber, I have a 3d printed housing which forces the water to spin as it comes from chamber 1 into chamber 2 and and goes down the bottom of chamber two and then over into the 3rd chamber where the return pump and heater are housed. The chaeto chamber insert also has an opening for one of the submersible LED lights since I did not want to scrape the mesh from the back of the tank. I may change this in the future and move the light to the back depending on how this light works out and if I need a more powerful one.
I am attaching a picture and a video showing how the water is spinning in the second chamber, I actually may need to adjust it as it might be spinning TOO well at the moment. I just tested it with some strings of 3d printing filament while I wait for my chaeto to be delivered.
This video is with the stock return pump.
Anyway, would love to hear what people think or if anyone has any suggestions based on what they've had success or failures with.
Thanks for your time!
I am a long time lurker here but I finally have something that might be worth sharing! I have had a Fluval Evo 13.5 AIO tank for about 2 years now and I ended up with a second one so I am starting a new build (which I will also retrofit to my other tank if it works well). Anyway, I am an avid 3d printer and I enjoy tinkering and designing things as well so I decided to take a shot at improving the filtration on the Evo.
I had already previously printed some media baskets for the 1st chamber but I have wanted to get a refugium setup in the currently unused middle chamber so I have designed and printed a container for the chaeto for the middle chamber. I have seen that several people have done this in AIO tanks and had some success so I tried throwing some small chaeto in my 1st tank with just a basket and it did ok, but the uneven lighting ended up not working out great as the front would get too much light and the back wouldn't get enough. What I really wanted to get working was to have the chaeto be able to tumble/spin and I have managed to get a prototype working pretty well!
Excuse the crude diagram showing how the filtration is going to be setup but hopefully its clear. Basically, chamber 1 will have the 3 bays, 1 which has room for 2 of the chemi-pure nano packets and the other two will be filled with various ceramic media for the bacteria. I am able to fit probably 4 of the large bio balls and a bunch more of the smaller ceramic discs/cylinders.
The basket I designed has a channel on the left side where the water is forced down to the bottom before coming back up that channel and going into the second chamber.
In the second chamber, I have a 3d printed housing which forces the water to spin as it comes from chamber 1 into chamber 2 and and goes down the bottom of chamber two and then over into the 3rd chamber where the return pump and heater are housed. The chaeto chamber insert also has an opening for one of the submersible LED lights since I did not want to scrape the mesh from the back of the tank. I may change this in the future and move the light to the back depending on how this light works out and if I need a more powerful one.
I am attaching a picture and a video showing how the water is spinning in the second chamber, I actually may need to adjust it as it might be spinning TOO well at the moment. I just tested it with some strings of 3d printing filament while I wait for my chaeto to be delivered.
This video is with the stock return pump.
Anyway, would love to hear what people think or if anyone has any suggestions based on what they've had success or failures with.
Thanks for your time!
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