Water fall seive screen at 500 gph

[Jez1992]

I don't really understand what you are trying to do which would be better than the standard.......
1. Good mechanical filtration....
2. Followed by bio....
3. Pump back to tank.

If you are running filter socks AFTER your bio then that would suggest to me that you are getting a lot of crud coming out of your bio side, when in reality your first stage of mechanical shouldn't be letting any crud into your bio side in the first place.

And you say a lot of uneaten 1/8" pellet's are finding their way down there. I'd be attacking that problem first. Food's expensive enough as it is without most of it flooding into your sump.

I'm thinking what would be easier that changing out cheap filter floss every other day on your mechanical side and having your pump on a timer so it switches off for 10 mins or so at feeding times every morning or whenever you feed.

What he is doing through this is removing the waste from the system completely.

I am in the UK and I have a koi sieve like this, 300 micron, to pre filter the water in my ray pond and they work great.

As opposed to socks or sponges, which trap the waste and then allow it to break down in to the system, the sieve catches the waste which is removed from the water column and taken down a separate drain. They are self cleaning as the water flow pushes the water gently down the drain.

Filter floss can work if held above the water level so the waste doesn't break down and changed daily as you said, however I feel this is bad for the environment as is binned each day, and on big tanks expensive.

Although these koi sieve are expensive to buy they are very reliable.

I have attached a sieve of the same sieve I use as well as diagram of how it works.

 

[esoxlucius]

Yeah, I get it now. Basically the water from the tank hits a fine screen, at an angle, and the water goes straight through the screen but any contaminants hit the screen and because it's at an angle the bits skid across the screen into a safe area out of the flow. Screen micronage determines size of contaminants filtered. And like you say, if the contaminants are out of the system they can't have a knock on effect and prematurely increase your nitrates.

What would be interesting though is if two identical tanks were set up and one was bog standard filtration and the other had the sieve method. How many extra days could you get out of the sieve method before having to do a water change?

 

[Jez1992]

Yeah, I get it now. Basically the water from the tank hits a fine screen, at an angle, and the water goes straight through the screen but any contaminants hit the screen and because it's at an angle the bits skid across the screen into a safe area out of the flow. Screen micronage determines size of contaminants filtered. And like you say, if the contaminants are out of the system they can't have a knock on effect and prematurely increase your nitrates.

What would be interesting though is if two identical tanks were set up and one was bog standard filtration and the other had the sieve method. How many extra days could you get out of the sieve method before having to do a water change?

I'm not sure on that as don't test my water at all.

However a friend of mine has the same set up on his ray tank, a sieve, into a bead filter, then back to tank. Before this he has a standard sump filter.
Once sieve installed his nitrates dropped massively as waste removed from water column.

I definitely think for big tanks, 500gal+ with big predators it is worthwhile as waste is large so easy removed by sieve and works well, however for smaller tanks I don't know if it would be worthwhile as a water change is so easy on a smaller tank!

 

[esoxlucius]

Personally, although it is a great idea, I was put off a little bit by the fact he has to clean the sieve twice a day! That's maintainance twice a day as opposed to my much preferred once per week. Now if this sieve method could be adapted so it does it's job BUT only needs cleaning once per week I think i'd be sold on it. Very interesting concept though.

 

[markstrimaran]

fact he has to clean the sieve twice a day! That's maintainance

Yes this is a very inexpensive nonwedgewire screen. I have been quoted $200.00 for a minimum factory order , from china.

I will someday find a used cetus sieve and cut a 5" x 12" piece.

So far the sprayer nozzle cleans it up in about 10 seconds.

'm not sure on that as don't test my water

This tank has been up and running for 2 years, with documented nitrate accumulation rates.

Historically remains between 15ppm to 30ppm on a 40% weekly WC. Depending on the nitrite ppm content of the county water supply.

The biggest change will be provided by the algea scrubber getting first dibs on ammonia, before the bio balls.

 

[markstrimaran]

Playing around with screen styles and waterfall wier ledge.
A meniscus breaker.
Got it set up with about 95% flow though on a clean screen.

 

[markstrimaran]

Day 2 and still flowing at 95%. It seams to form a low vacume on the clean side of the screen.

 

[markstrimaran]

Trying out a small 3" polyfloss, as waste catcher.

 

[markstrimaran]

Putting the sieve through some serious clean up.

I power wash everything about once a month. Instead of vacuuming.

 

[markstrimaran]

A back pressure trial. One nice thing about this sump is the 1.5" rim that prevents spills from over flowing.