Using House Pre Filter to clear water

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Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Apr 27, 2006
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Wondering if anyone has ever used one of those house pre-filters that can be bought at Lowes or HomeDepot? I'm having a lot of trouble with cloudy water and I was looking for something to help polish it. Right now I'm running a wet dry and a FX3. The substrate is sand and although it was really clear for a while I added some sand and it just wasn't cleaned enough. Now there is a haze that I just cant get rid of. Yesterday I spent 3 hours draining and cleaning the tank thinking it was clear, but as soon as I filled the tank the cloudiness came back.

So my thought is to take an Aquaclear 50 power head and attach it to one of these http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=89376-43568-WHCF-DWHV&lpage=none when the water is cloudy. My goal is to avoid the diatom filters because I've heard they often fail. Any input on this or ideas is much appreciated.

The filter on the inside is this http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=57820-43568-WHCF-GD05&lpage=none.

Also If I'm not supposed to hotlink or something just let me know and I'll drop the links! Thanks!
 
Sorry having some issues with the links, atelast I thought I was :) Got to love the internet.
 
with that much filtration you shouldnt have to do that. Have you tested your paramaters to make sure that everything is in check?
 
I am having a similar problem, I dont have sand in my tank, but it has started to have these tiny floating particles in it. Very annoying and just makes the tank look dirty. I know that I have my parameters correct. I have looked at something similar. I work at a paper mill and in some of their catalogs for water treatment I have seen small inline filters to be used in labs, I have thought about using one inline with my rena. The only problem is i havent found one that doesnt use carbon. This one I dont think uses any and is a little cheaper then the ones ive seen at work. If you do go with this setup let me know the results. Thank you.
 
my fist option that I looked into was a diatom filter, I have recently found a pair of Vortex Diatoms for $20 each if your interested I could pass the contact info on, I think that I am going to pursue the diatom as my next coarse of action. also I did look more at what filters were available through lab suppliers at my work, they have inline water filters like the one you linked to, they are called double open end filters. The canister ranges between 10 and 80 depending on size and flow and there are maybe 30 different options as far as media. But I figured I would be able to set up that filtered down to 5 microns and flowed upto 24 gpm, and would cost me about 40, with enough filter media for 18 months. I have the company info if you want it let me know.
 
From what I have read.. the diatoms that fail are mis used... they are ment for use to clear then take out.. Which from what I've read is around an hour at a time..

Most the ones I've read that have failed have been from 24/7 use.. Which they are not made for..

But I don't have any real experience and do not have a cloud problem .. Yet :)
 
I think I am going to go with the Diatom and plumb it into my tank almost as a bypass on my xp3 and then plug it into a heavy duty time and set it to run for an hour right after i feed in the morning and again after the night feeding so 2 maybe 3 hrs of use daily hopefully this will do the trick
 
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