Experimental new filter

[kendragon]

Finally got a chamber that will fit under the cabinet. This chamber has been altered for low profile. I'm going to fill it with two different grades of glass (coarse and fine). The objective is to get extreme water clarity.

 

[gangster]

Looks pretty intense Ken. The bass seem pretty curious. More details please.

 

[kendragon]

Looks pretty intense Ken. The bass seem pretty curious. More details please.

Top secret. If I tell you I have to kill you.
I've been challenged to come up with a under cabinet filter that is industrial and delivers fine particle removal with easy backwashing. I cannot elaborate on the media yet because it's experimental. But I can say that I have not seen it on this forum. Will advise if I succeed, if not you probably won't see an update.

 

[Angler]

Interesting. I hope you succeed!

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

Agree, looks really intense. Update us soon

 

[KaiserSousay]

Since you are doing your filter shopping at a pool supply store, instead of a cartridge and sand filter, you might consider a diatom unit.
Standard pool filter cartridges just will not remove the fine particulate you seem to be looking for.
Even the sand filter will be hard pressed to get a fish tank to Uber Clarity.
Gotta say, you got quite a bit of money tied up in that equipment.
Even used, that stuff is spendy.

 

[justin guest]

I set up a few systems where I used to work where you could look length ways through a five metre long tank and it looked like there was no water in there. the systems used rapid sand filters (similar to the pic above) in the configuration shown in the following link. The use of one pump for two filters allowed for low flow while filtering which improved clarity, but for high flow when backwashing each filter individually. If you wanted to use only one filter chamber with the same effect, then you would have to rig up a smaller pump for filtering and a larger pump for backwashing.

http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac69/justin_guest/rapid sand filter diagram/rapidsandfilter.jpg

the type of media was 1-2mm sand which worked fine for me. It would be interesting if the media you are testing solved the problem of high water usage during a backwash. It wasn't a problem where i used to work as we used the opportunity to do a water change but that limited the applications to larger systems.

j<><

 

[kendragon]

Since you are doing your filter shopping at a pool supply store, instead of a cartridge and sand filter, you might consider a diatom unit.
Standard pool filter cartridges just will not remove the fine particulate you seem to be looking for.
Even the sand filter will be hard pressed to get a fish tank to Uber Clarity.
Gotta say, you got quite a bit of money tied up in that equipment.
Even used, that stuff is spendy.

Totally agree with you, pool filters do not work for aquaria. It will for a short period but as it clogs maintenance increases making it worse than good.

My filters above, all have been altered. The sand filter in the back contains bio beads and not sand. Very low back pressure allowing use of a low amp (1.3amps) pump. The cartridge filter is my carbon/japanese mat chamber. Again low pressure and great mechanical.
As you can see the two back filter does not fit under the cabinet. So I will attempt to combine the two and make it more compact. This is will mainly benefit people with living room tanks.

Some people put their money in the fish but I seem to dump it all into the filter. Just kidding. I don't pay for any of this stuff. Guess you can say I'm sponsored by manufacturers. You should see my outside pond filters.

I appreciate all the comments. I learn a great deal from feed backs. Keep it coming.

 

[kendragon]

I set up a few systems where I used to work where you could look length ways through a five metre long tank and it looked like there was no water in there. the systems used rapid sand filters (similar to the pic above) in the configuration shown in the following link. The use of one pump for two filters allowed for low flow while filtering which improved clarity, but for high flow when backwashing each filter individually. If you wanted to use only one filter chamber with the same effect, then you would have to rig up a smaller pump for filtering and a larger pump for backwashing.

http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac69/justin_guest/rapid%20sand%20filter%20diagram/rapidsandfilter.jpg

the type of media was 1-2mm sand which worked fine for me. It would be interesting if the media you are testing solved the problem of high water usage during a backwash. It wasn't a problem where i used to work as we used the opportunity to do a water change but that limited the applications to larger systems.

j<><

Energy needed to run a sand filter is high. Many big filters use a two speed pump for backwash as you mentioned and in the process lose a lot of tank water. I've cleaned koi pond sand filters and you need a stick to chip it loose. The pressure in the chamber compresses it to a solid block. Which lead to gas bubble disease in kois. Air gets compressed in the sand filter allowing bubbles to enter the koi's blood stream.
I could incorporate an air blower to break up the media prior to backflushing but this chamber is small enough that pumping 50-100g through it should clean it good. Most of the tanks on MFK are several hundred gallons. We'll see.

 

[rufazz]

i know the media its used for salt water pooles its half crushed sand with fine or coirse glass mixed in its not black ops type of stuff weve been using it in australia for about 2 years in fish tanks