DIY Monster Canister Filter!

[Fish Eat Fish]

Lets look at the facts.

A bucket...worked.

Now saying that I will admit it seemed to push the limits of it but it worked none the less.

My DIY plan was successful and there is no argument to that. However while doing the project I discovered some things which could be improved for the next design.

If anyone has a cement floor room with a drain I say build your Canister as I did and enjoy mega flow with decent reliability. Otherwise I would suggest a more sturdy container or some modifications to the system to reduce negative pressure in the canister.

 

[ITHURTZ]

Lets keep this civil guys, its a GREAT thread full of ideas, trys, accomplishments and failures. We all learn from one another so lets not get this locked.

 

[Oreo]

Look at what I made with a conduit piece, male threaded on one side and female slip on the other. You can get slip barb fittings if you wanted to and glue them together.
http://midnightgray.net/images/filters/AquaX10/bulkhead3.jpg

OK, that's not bad. See, one of the advantages to the wide flanges is that they are strong enough to prevent the fitting from being torqued when manipulating the tubing attached. The fitting you're showing has a much better rubber seal, that appears to be a little more forgiving then a regular o-ring.

We are upgrading from 200-300 GPH. 1/2" and 3/4" is not going to work. 1" builkhead would require roughly a 1.75" hole to be drilled. Not a big deal, but than you have the seal portion which would cover about a 2.5" diamter. Pretty large for the radius on a bucket.

Indeed... unless you went to town with the heat gun trick, that would be too much for a 5gal.

The bulk head fittings also have straight threads, not tapered. So, it's a wash on that one.

 

[zennzzo]

OK, that's not bad. See, one of the advantages to the wide flanges is that they are strong enough to prevent the fitting from being torqued when manipulating the tubing attached. The fitting you're showing has a much better rubber seal, that appears to be a little more forgiving then a regular o-ring.



Indeed... unless you went to town with the heat gun trick, that would be too much for a 5gal.

The bulk head fittings also have straight threads, not tapered. So, it's a wash on that one.

OK Oreo, you the man, you have all, see all, know all,
Now all you got to do is back up your stuff with some pix...errr lemme guess you
lost/haven't got/need batteries for/need to get it from your buddy/whatever your camera, right?
So, GOT PIX?...
otherwise you are speaking on pure speculation...untill I see some proof, to me this is all fluff...

 

[Oreo]

Oreo ->

<- Zennzzo = still bitter

 

[Jgray152]

OK, that's not bad. See, one of the advantages to the wide flanges is that they are strong enough to prevent the fitting from being torqued when manipulating the tubing attached. The fitting you're showing has a much better rubber seal, that appears to be a little more forgiving then a regular o-ring.

I agree. O-rings have very little contact surface area but if you get them tight enough you shouldn't have a problem. FEF's o-ring design worked, long term? don't know. maybe.

This is the reason I went with a larger "pop up" oring. More contact area for less chance of leaks when moving hoses around.

Indeed... unless you went to town with the heat gun trick, that would be too much for a 5gal.

We are agreeing?

The bulk head fittings also have straight threads, not tapered. So, it's a wash on that one.

The conduit you could say has pretty straight threads, you can thread 2 conduit piece all the way together without the thread binding like on PVC. If you look at the conduit from the side though, it appears to have tapered threads. The DIY bulkhead above threads all the way without binding.

OK Oreo, you the man, you have all, see all, know all,
Now all you got to do is back up your stuff with some pix...errr lemme guess you
lost/haven't got/need batteries for/need to get it from your buddy/whatever your camera, right?
So, GOT PIX?...
otherwise you are speaking on pure speculation...untill I see some proof, to me this is all fluff...

Oreo did post factual information here..

 

[Oreo]

Zenzzo likes to eat toe cheese.

Indeed I did.

I've been thinking though... just my opinion, but by the time you need a 1" inlet / outlet, I think you also kinda need a bigger bucket. I mean, I can envision a low-stocked large aquarium of fish that like high current. OK, then maybe. But, for me, if I'm going 1" fittings, I'm also going 30gal drum. I'm not certain, but I'd think you could fit 1" bulk head fittings in those OK with some finesse.

 

[Jgray152]

Space is commonly a concern. 1" fittings you can get 1500 GPH or more out of.

At 2000 GPH there is a flow velocity of 1.13" per second in a 12" diameter container. With a bucket the velocity would speed up slightly toward the bottom of the bucket (in my design) since the bucket is not as wide at the bottom compaired to the top.

A 6 gallon bucket that im going to use I would be able to get more than 22 liters of bio media with 4" of mechancial filtration. I believe if I remember the bio media will be 14" deep so thats just about 14+ seconds of contact time for the water to the bio media. Thats really good at 2000 GPH.

I understand what you are getting at. Figuring contact time and flow velocity is what you should do before thinking bigger is better especially when space is a concern

Its all about design. If you don't take lots of time to think about the design that your not going to win and your filter will not be as effective or as efficient as it could be. The "pump in the bucket" design is not very efficient. Your loosing lots of valuable space and scewing up the potential better flow path. This depends on the size of the pump and how you plumb it. Smaller pumps like the Quiet One pumps should work pretty decent if you design around it.

 

[mowielx]

This is my 5 minute solution to the problem.

Ultimately either the flow into or the flow out of the container must be controlled in order to achieve a safe amount of pressure inside the container.

Let me know what you think?

Tom

 

[Jgray152]

Thats...ok if you build a small canister only because the container the canister sits in will be larger nd may take up more space.

Also, the canister will see the most positive pressures when the canister's pump is OFF. When the pump is ON, depending on the flow velocity you can lower the pressure in the canister.