seriously, go SEARCH for dumber things than what i have said to get upset over. go yell at someone that put their water in the tank the same day as their first fish and new filter media.
DIY canister?
- Thread starter swede
- Start date
Jgray152;3173421; said:Yes the magnum uses 4 METAL clips/clamps to hold down the lid. The plastic bucket DOES NOT. Why do you think you don't see canister filters with "Snap on snap off" lids?
Reply: the metal clams are extremely thin and and withstand less presure than the 5 gallon bucket. take alook at the psi of paint sprayers if you don't believe me.
Also, the magnum 350 has a lot less surface area under the lid than a 5 gallon bucket so you don't have as much force pushing against the lid as you do with a 5 gallon bucket lid. Something you have not thought of in the ...... "design".
reply: absolutely incorrect, the presure in larger volume canister is reduced when using the same pump comparison. physics trump your random thought.
My Fluval 304 has TWO plastic clamps to hold down a lid with more surface area than the mag 350.
reply: covered above increase volume decreases pressure. take a 1500gph pump and use 1/2 inch tubing then use the same with 3/4 inch which do you think will have more pressure? pumps decrease in pressure/gph/head as volume and length of tubing is increased in the loop
Point is, clamping the lid will yield success.
reply: then why didn't you simply say clamp the lid on the 5-gal rather than go off on arant about your hatred for 5 gal canisters?
Yup, and I have engineered designs.
reply: great now here's a cookie. wtf does that have to do with the rice in china? if you did your homework and one failed than you should have figured out the reason and re-engineerd it to work, if not your comment is a lie.
True, but you actually don't loose as much as you think.
reply: actually I lost more than I thought when I used them indoors. my pond pumps outdoors have 25' of head so they don't notice as much.
I agree to a point, but not because of flow loss.
Reply: if not for flow loss then why?
PVC is not restrictive at all. Its the 90 degree fittings that could pose a very very slight restriction.
reply: not just the 90's but every fitting restricts flow not by gargantuan amounts sure, but it's easy to lose a few feet of head by a porly designed pvc setup. for aquarium pumps that range in the 10 and under head range, that's alot.
Also placing the outlet higher than the inlet above the tank will increase pressure
never said placing the outlet higher I meant putting it on the same table, stand etc. the tank is typically taller than the canister.
reply in orange
This is funny, but on a lighter note, mine did not fail using a 750gph pump and 5' of head height, ive also had good experience using salt buckets and you can get those for free or darn close to it from most LFS good luck if you attempt the project
THX! I most likely will get a package deal that has a filter included and we will see how good the filtration is and build from there. many tanks that come with stands on CL are actually being sold with canisters that i have found. But i would like to build one sometime even just for fun
Your point? I made my point about why the clips are thin and why they are not designed to need to handle the amount of force in a 5 gallon bucket.
You are forgetting when the pump is off. Also, depending on the pump used and the flow rate, the pressure against the lid may not drop very much. Sorry, I am correct.
Where are you going with this? This is common sense.
I have no hatred toward 5 gallon canisters. I am working on one as well. I was simply saying your standard bucket/lid combo will fail depending on head pressure. The rest of you don't believe me.
So go ahead.
I did my homework so mine DID NOT fail. I tested a standard bucket just for the hell of it without any engineering and it failed.
Without knowing your entire setup and without you testing each possible restriction, I can't agree.
Ease of plumbing. Vinyl is much easier.
A VERY VERY Poorly design system maybe. Fittings usually have a smooth transition.
So your going to throw it together and see what happends. lol
Go ahead and use the bucket and standard lid. Hopefully it works out for you. I speak from my experience and from others experience.
by standard lid you do mean a pop on lid? or one that actually screws down with a large rubber gasket?
like this one?
http://premiumaquaticsde.com/Images/DSC01579.JPG
like this one?
http://premiumaquaticsde.com/Images/DSC01579.JPG
One that pops on.
Granted, there are pop on lids of many types. So there may be some out there that ... "could" work but I wouldn't bet my fish on it. That screw top lid seems nice. I have been looking at the Gamma Seal lids. Although these have a ring that pops on, the rings fits tighter than anything I know. Not to sure how well the whole thing would work under pressure. I will be getting on to test it.
https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/emergency_supplies/gamma_seal_lid.htm
Granted, there are pop on lids of many types. So there may be some out there that ... "could" work but I wouldn't bet my fish on it. That screw top lid seems nice. I have been looking at the Gamma Seal lids. Although these have a ring that pops on, the rings fits tighter than anything I know. Not to sure how well the whole thing would work under pressure. I will be getting on to test it.
https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/emergency_supplies/gamma_seal_lid.htm
What about making the top of the canister higher than the water level in the tank. I was thinking about using a 5' pieice of 4" pvc. Capping the bottom and runnig the overflow into the "tower". I was planning on using pot scrubbies as media, but I'm afraid they'd compress too much being stacked that high.
Saw this on another site, thought this was a pretty decent idea.
Saw this on another site, thought this was a pretty decent idea.
If its strictly for biological filtration, than a 4" PVC pipe would do fine since its not filtering solids. Especially if the top will be above the water line, you can have the current real rough starting at the top for agitation, possibly to increase the disolved oxygen in the water to help with bio filtration as well. 4" PVC would be useless for mechanical filtration as the cross sectional surface area is to small and would clog up quick. At least for large tanks. Small tanks it would do fine.
Pot scrubbies may compress a tiny bit IF you have a good amount of flow running through the filter tower, but nothing that you need to be worried about. Even if they did compress more, it won't hurt anything.
There might be some possible issues you may want to keep in mind. Not thinking of anything right now but I am sure I could. They would be thing you may want to build "safeties" for the "just in case" issue if you know what I mean.
Pot scrubbies may compress a tiny bit IF you have a good amount of flow running through the filter tower, but nothing that you need to be worried about. Even if they did compress more, it won't hurt anything.
There might be some possible issues you may want to keep in mind. Not thinking of anything right now but I am sure I could. They would be thing you may want to build "safeties" for the "just in case" issue if you know what I mean.
