Wet/Dry made with kitty litter box!

suzi1780

Member
Here is my new wet/dry that was made for me. Sorry if some of you have seen these pics, I posted them on another board but wasn't getting my question answered :thinking: Anyway should I add LR to my sump? Is there anyway to create a fuge down here? Can I like separte my sump into parts (small ones) anyone have pics of something like this? Can I put another 10g next to it and create a fuge with some sort of thingie that take water from my sump puts it into the fuge and then pump water back to my tank from the fuge? Or do I really need a fuge? I have a skimmer, hob, 60lbs of lr, and the wet/dry. I am 55g fowlr and the sump is a 10g. As for the pics, my blower in my sump has a piece of lr on it because it was floating. Also there is a pic of my kitty checking out my sump. Sorry for all the questions :scared:




 

zenway9

Member
i really want a setup like this for my 50 gallon...can you give me a step by step on how you set this up?
 

suzi1780

Member
Yes it does. There are holes in the top and bottom, and inside the kitty box there is plastic grading, and foam, then some bio balls. I can't remember it layer for layer but I will take a look when I get home. The litter box is from Target, it is their brand and was the smallest one I could find to fit into the 10g. The litter box seems to work very well and hey, I have 5 cats so I certaintly can use the litter!
 

kdfrosty

Active Member
Here's a quick breakdown of how I think that this might work.
He uses an overflow box to deliver water to the kitty litter box. Inside the kitty litter box there are hopefully a couple of layers of eggcrate, seperated from eachother by about 6 inches. The first layer of eggcrate holds some type of media (carbon), while the second layer of eggcrate holds bioballs (though ideally LR rubble). There are holes in the bottom of the kitty litter box to feed into the actual sump. A prefilter sponge is against the holes in the kitty litter box letting water flow though while trapping additional particles. This is the basic idea of a wet/dry.
Am I right on or did I give you ideas?
 

gregzbobo

Member
what are you keeping/plan to keep in your display tank? If fish only, that looks like it would work fine, but if you wish to keep corals, you can replace the bio-balls with live rock and perhaps put a few more pieces of liverock next to your pump. Bioballs tend to become nitrate factories and we all know nitrate isn't generally good for reef-type tanks. For fish only though bioballs work pretty well, but live rock would also work too. I don't think you would need anything but base rock though, since its mostly for filtration, and not part of your display.
 

suzi1780

Member
right now I am fish only, I would like to go reef but I think I will wait for a year and let my tank establish. I will take a take a pic of the instead of the litter box tonight when I get home.
 

suzi1780

Member
okay here are the layers:
first holes of top of litter box

there a layer of eggcrate? I guess that is what this is...

then a layer of foam

then another layer of eggcrate

then the bio balls that are sitting on another layer of eggcrate

There are holes in the bottom of the bucket and lasty this is how the bucket sits in the tank... there are a few inchs between the bucket and the bottom of the tank
 

mitzel

Active Member
Technically you could add a refugium to the set up and it would deffinetly not hurt with waste processing . I'm not sure how it would actually set up . but this looks like a good little set up.
 

suzi1780

Member
Thanks! I was thinking of putting in two dividers, I will drill holes into the dividers and glue them into the 10g and add lv, lr into the middle of the tank. Not sure if it is really worth it, I am not sure that I could get enough in there to make a difference because from what I measure I only have 5" with the bucket and blower.
 

tjake68

Member
looks good but i use a10 gallon tank make 2 sections one for bioballs 3ichs from bottom of tank about 4-5inches wide next section go 3inches from top put your filter pads leave room in middle for sump last make small section for uplift pump 3inches from bottom you an put a sponge in it if u want i put live rock in sump uv and protienskimmer it will cost u about 20 bucks to make wetdry not including pumps bio balls and other equipment it works excellant i have made several for my friends and myself it is so basic and easy to make just go to lfs and look at some wetdrys for basic designs all they are is tanks with dividers i dont have a cammera but if i borrow one ill post pics u can also use eggcrates were bioballs go its up to u
 
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