Automated Pea Gravel Bed Cleaner.

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Mavrick813

Mavrick813

Candiru
MFK Member
Dec 28, 2010
980
4
48
Hamilton, NJ
After Months of sitting here reading DIY Projects, Filter Ideas, and what not. I am contemplating tearing down my Oscar tank and reworking my entire Filter scheme.

One of my ideas was to make a 1/2" or smaller PVC Grid that would lay on the bottom of the tank. This grid would be drilled with Hundreds, or Thousands of small maybe 1/8" or 1/16" holes. This would lay under my gravel bed. For the most part this would be a Return line from my sump powered by a Mag 12. However it would be plumbed in a way that I could turn off the Mag and Hook up a 300 PSI airline to it. Say once a week or so instead of Gravel Vac I turn the Air on. It should stir up all the detritous and allow my overflows to send it down to the sump and my 100 Micron Filter Socks would catch it. An hour or so after doing this I would swap out the Sock and Voila! No need to gravel vac.

Here are my concerns.

  1. How much turbulence from an application like this could my Fishes handle?
  2. Would the Detritous being stirred up like this, instead of being vac right out of the tank cause bad things to happen?
  3. Would the constant water flow from the Mag 12 stop Detritous and build up from happening in the first place, Rendering the High PSI Air idea useless?
  4. Would the Air Flow lift my pea gravel and cause it to settle back in wierd piles on the bottom of the tank?


Mike
 
Hello; Sounds like you may re-invent the undergravel filter (UGF) with a twist. I have read posts that describe reversing the flow thru an UGF with a powered flow. I ysed UGF for several decades and find little fault with the experience. I moved to the other filter types thinking that they must be better because they were new to me at the time. The new, at that time, systems do fine, but so did the UGF.
I modified some tubing at one point to feed the intake of a hang on back (hob) power filter wbit the main tube comming from an UGF. It worked fine, but I eventually went back to a hob and an air powered UGF combination. One thing about the UGF is that they do not fail.
Go for it and keep us posted.
 
skjl47 said:
Hello; Sounds like you may re-invent the undergravel filter (UGF) with a twist. I have read posts that describe reversing the flow thru an UGF with a powered flow. I ysed UGF for several decades and find little fault with the experience. I moved to the other filter types thinking that they must be better because they were new to me at the time. The new, at that time, systems do fine, but so did the UGF.
I modified some tubing at one point to feed the intake of a hang on back (hob) power filter wbit the main tube comming from an UGF. It worked fine, but I eventually went back to a hob and an air powered UGF combination. One thing about the UGF is that they do not fail.
Go for it and keep us posted.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the encouragement, It is a reverse twist of a UGF. Instead of trapping everything in the UGF It would be to keep things from settling in the Gravel bed all together.

That being said. I used to do the UGF with 2 Maxi Jet 1200 powering it in a 55G. And for the life of me no matter how often I did water changes / gravel vacs I always had HIGH Nitrates. Mind you I also had 2 Emperor 400 Hobs, Filled with Seachem Matrix, and a Piece of floss.

Under the recomendation of my LFS I removed my fish and 50% of my water and my HOBS to a Holding tank, and Lifted the UGF straight up. Mind you I was doing gravel vacs 1 a week, But the water turned Black / Grey. I did a complete tear down of the tank, let the clean gravel settle, Put the Hobs back and pumped the water back in. Treated with Prime and topped off the tank. I won't ever used a UGF again. My fish have never been healthier, more vibrant or active since I removed it.

Mike
 
It sounds like the pond filter I have seen where they hit the air to it and flush the system out... lol ... I can see the fish ... Holly Chit what was that... An air earthquake.....run.. er um swim ... :)
 
It's like shaking the carpet in the house hoping the central air conditioner will suck up all the dust. You won't get it all. Especially the heavy particles.

The pond gravel filters with air manifold uses a look of water to clear it of detris. The particles will only settle on top of the gravel. I think gravel vac is a lot less painful than making a mess in the tank which you will end up washing more filter socks.

Sorry but I would have to go against the idea. No dis-respect.
 
The only thing I see is that the fish would get shook up quite a bit. 300 lbs of air would be hard on them. My air compressor only goes to 175lbs. I'm thinking about how uncomfortable when 90lbs air blows on me.
 
I think I am going to play with some PVC and a 55G in the yard come spring time. So many valid points but I'm not giving up on this just yet. Even if I bypass the air, the Mag 12 dumping water into the gravel bed should at least reduce detritus build up and settling.

Mike
 
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