LifeGard Aquatics mechanical filtration unit

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I have reconsidered my answer. Cut a piece of coarse pretty ridged filter pad that is the height of compartment "A" plus a couple of inches. Shove this in compartment "A" against the partition wall shared with compartment "B". Quick, easy, no mods required and simple to maintain!

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Further tweak. Cut the pad wider and fold it into a U shape as shown.
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Oughtsix said:
Even further tweak. Get rid of the filter socks altogether and fill compartment "B" with filter floss after adding the coarse filter pad to compartment "A".
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That's pretty much what I was suggesting I'm my post. Replace the socks with with lighting defuser and use floss on top. This is by far the easiest maintenance setup you can have.. It just so happens to be the exact way I have my sump setup:naughty::naughty:

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Here's the kind from the home improvement stores, similar to the one you list.
DDF3B98F-DFF9-4C24-9135-D1E00F5AECB3_1_201_a.jpeg
The one above is ready to be changed out, the one below is the cartridge that was previously used and just as crudded up as the one above,
I soaked it in bleach, and let it dry.
CB0BF4E8-9080-4C83-848E-7539867E3E75_1_201_a.jpeg
Where I live the cartridges like the one above are @ $7 each so I bleach and reuse until they fall apart (unravel)
the actual housing unit runs about $30+/-.
 
duanes said:
Here's the kind from the home improvement stores, similar to the one you list.
View attachment 1434417
The one above is ready to be changed out, the one below is the cartridge that was previously used and just as crudded up as the one above,
I soaked it in bleach, and let it dry.
View attachment 1434418
Where I live the cartridges like the one above are @ $7 each so I bleach and reuse until they fall apart (unravel)
the actual housing unit runs about $30+/-.
Click to expand...

How often do those cartridges last for you when filtering fish water?
 
My 180 gal tank is heavily planted, outside on the patio in the elements where leaves, dirt etc fall in, with about 10 messy 5-7" cichlids, so even with the prefilter Porret foam, if I get 3 weeks on a cartridge, I consider that quite long.
Since every tank and aquarist maintenance schedule is different, it'd be hard to generalize
An inside understocked tank, I might expect many more weeks, a tank with large well fed fish 2 weeks might be good.
 
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Oughtsix said:
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.

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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.
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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.
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great idea on stuffing the drain pipe full of what ever material that is. It is not fine enough to get plugged and enough to ketch lard debre. are far as the sump goes you are right on the way it is designed water flows in the first closed chamber and over the top of the sock. I will be running this sump backwards and the sock chamber side as the return pump
 
Oughtsix said:
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.

View attachment 1434390
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interested. but would be a completly different idea thow right because in a pond set up the pump is in the pond and water is pumped up to the filter
 
duanes said:
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.
View attachment 1434392
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.
Click to expand...
it is not really that i do not like cleaning the filter socks. It is that i dont like having a bucket full of dirty socks around just being germ factories untill they are all washed at one time.
 
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