DIY Pre filter for canisters, or power vac

[dawnmarie]

Nice build, allot of original thought.
But for the money invested you could have simply bought a whole house water filter and had your choice of micron rated cartridges for use.

BINGO.
The only downside is Whole house water filters installed on the suction side of the pump/canister create significant reduction in flow even with new cartridges. If this turns out to be true for this DIY then it would be of limited value.But as a prefilter for a power vac it could save you some money and time.

 

[hmt321]

I have 2 eheim 2028's and a fluval 404 on my 125, when it was a heavily planted tank i would have to wash out the filter sponges monthly or i would see a big loss of flow. To get at the filters i had to disconnect them, and get them out from under the tank (they are quite heavy filled with water)

with this pre-filter I could extend the time between filter maintenance for quite some time, also saves my back!!

I toyed around with the house filter idea, but i am unsure how long the cartridges would last, and how easy they are to clean out.

 

[boldtogether]

That is where I was headed. If you use a 100 PPM sock this ought to extend service interval. There must be a reason the manufacturer(Fluval) gives flow rates with and without filter media, 607 Gph with and 925 Gph without. I'm not dissing an FX-5, I'm just trying to understand the concept. Does somebody want to explain to me the difference or correlation between PPI and PPM ?

PPI= parts per inch(particulates?)?Pores Per Inch?
PPM=parts per million(concentration/Mgallons)?
Not sure if thats correct but why would you run a filter without media? Circulation? I've seen that filter listed at 600gph on one site and 925gph at another. In your experience which is it because the the flow is ABSOLUTELY affected by coarse or fine.

 

[JakeH]

When rating sponges, I believe PPI is "pores per inch". PPM is usually "parts per million" when referring to water chemistry & dissolved compounds. I've never seen sponges rated using PPM, but I'm in the US, so maybe "pores per meter" or "pores per millimeter"? Would make sense, but cause serious conversion math!

 

[Jgray152]

First, those 10ppi sponges are most certainly already housing BB & doing double-duty as bio/mech. So, I dont think the sock will increase or decrease the bio capacity significantly.

Yes but when you clean the sponges, you will remove a lot of the BB that is on the sponges.

I don't agree with pre-filters, they clog up quicker, requires more maintenance, makes a canister filter useless for mechanical filtration.