LifeGard Aquatics mechanical filtration unit

[skillzizzo]

Hello out there fish heads. I have seen these kind of products around for years and no one seems to realy use them. I am setting up a new sump and looking to not use the filter sock portion because well i just hate them, clean them, wash them, bla bla bla is just a pain. I am looking to put one of these inline straight from the over flow to the lifegard then drain into the sump and go from there. Problem is i can not seem to find any videos on how these work as far as how much of a pain, and how much of a mess they are to clean, even a diagram of all the pieces i can not find. Any one have one set up with an explanation video thanks guys, and ladies

Canister & Power Filters for Saltwater Aquariums | Mechanical & Chemical Filtration

Improve water clarity, remove debris, and support healthy biological filtration with powerful multi-stage filters built for performance and ease of maintenance.

www.marinedepot.com

 

[Oughtsix]

My experience with cartridge filters is they plug up REALLY quick. If you are going to try one I would recommend a pretty decent pre-filter in front of it.

The cartridge filters that I have tried need considerable pressure to operate. The gravity feed from an overflow would almost certainly not be sufficient to push any decent quantity of water through this filter.

To me the advantage of filter socks, sponges or filter pads that need constant ongoing cleaning is that you are removing the debris from the water column BEFORE it has a chance to break down to nitrogen compounds. The trick is finding the setup that makes cleaning the mechanical as quick and easy as possible. Storing a ton of debris in a canister while it breaks down into nitrogen compounds is a big negative for water quality and fish health.

 

[heffesuita]

Hello Oughtsix thanks for t he reply. Need a 30 infront of that name and then u are one of my favorite riffles. So reqly these need to be in a closed loop system to work right, with the puml at the end pulling water through it to flow right? My idea will not work then. Can ubsuggest something else that is an inline prefilter that is whqt i am lookingnfor just can not seem to find any thing that is actualy an inline prefilter. I do like to run sponges and filter pads, polishing pads and so forth first but the way this sumpbis designed is jjst not an option for that. Thanks for your time

 

[heffesuita]

 

[heffesuita]

Here are a couolenpics of the sump ibdo not reqlt want to get to far of topic about sumpbdesign thow this is realy about prefiltering before getring tobthe sump

 

[Oughtsix]

Hello Heffesuita,

Yep, that is where my "handle" came from. I am a C&R fan.

This is the simple overflow on my 35g tank. 80% of my filter maintenance is removing these two coarse pads one at a time and rinsing them out which takes about 3 minutes total. I initially put these coarse pads on the intake to keep the guppy fry out of the sump but then found that the majority of the gunk is caught be these and in sump filter pad cleaning frequency went way down. When this pre-filter gets gunked up the tank water level does rise a bit but in 5 years I have never come close to flooding the tank.





Here is the new "ghost" inspired overflow box that I have chosen for my current 180g build. I really like way the coarse filter mat works for the above overflow and have been trying to figure out how to adapt something similar to this overflow box. I have considered Velcro and magnets to secure the coarse filter mat to the outside of this box to make it east to pull, clean and replace. I haven't settled on anything yet and am posting it here mostly to spur conversation and solicit different ideas.






I don't know if I have any answers for you but I will throw this out to spur conversation. My understanding of your sump is that water enters compartment "A" then overflows to Compartment "B" where filter socks are kept?

What if you glued (silicone should be plenty strong enough and easy enough to remove if it doesn't work) a small piece of acrylic in location "C". This would raise the overflow wall between "A" and "B" allowing you to put a coarse filter pad or sponge on top of compartment "B" which could be quickly pulled, cleaned then replaced??? You would probably have to put a bit of extra support on top of compartment "B" to hold a filter pad in place and keep it from falling into compartment "B" but the coarse pad I showed above is pretty ridged and would probably not need an extra cross bar for extra support. My belief is the part of the new filter pad closest to the new wall "C" would get plugged first which would force the flow of water ever increasingly into the middle of the pad. I DO see in your other picture there are some slots in the top of the first full height white partition wall (separating "A" and "B" from the rest of the sump) as a failsafe bypass should compartment "B" become completely plugged.

 

[Oughtsix]

P.S. I have run cartridge filters on the water return line from my sump going back into the display tank. So a separate closed loop is not necessary needed. The cartridge filter does need to be directly coupled to the pump though. What I found works excellent for this is a DE Pool filter (link in my signature) but this is for water polishing not coarse mechanical pre-filtration.

 

[Oughtsix]

Being lazy I have researched many pre-filter solutions in the past. By far the coolest solution I have found is a Cetus Sieve. It actually uses the force of the flowing water to push the big debris out of the water stream and out a separate "garbage" hole. I have only seen this implemented for pond filters though. I have often fantasized about making something similar in an aquarium size. I will put this out here to stimulate conversation about pre-filters.

 

[TheWolfman]

The whole idea of a pre-filter for the sump is flood waiting to happen. I would get some lighting diffuser and put it on top of where the socks are supposed to go and use filter floss on top of the lighting diffuser. It will take you all of 30 seconds to change it, and you can throw it away after.

 

[duanes]

If you don't like cleaning filter socks, you my not like the cartridges.
They work very similar to socks in that they collect detritus, and need to be either replaced, bleached or hosed down, just like socks.
But because they are under pressure, you need to stop flow, depressurize the container, to remove the cartridge, and the either clean, or replace it.
To me, they are slightly more labor intensive than socks, an if replacement is your preferred method slightly more expensive than socks.

I clean them just like I did socks, meaning I always have 3, one filtering, one soaking in bleach, and one dry ready to go.
I find hosing them down too intensely shortens their usable life.
As mentioned some kind of prefiltration helps keep them from clogging.
I like to use Porret foam to prefilter mechanically, and put the cartridges on the pump return line sending pre-filtered water back to the tank.
Porret below as mechanical 1st stage filtration to the sump.

There are also whole house filters available at hardware stores like Home Depot, and Lowes that basically work on the same concept, and the cartridges are about half the cost, but catch less fine particulate, but require the same type maintenance.