[Killietalk] RE: Killietalk Digest, Vol 14, Issue 14 -- small filters

["Koran, David HQ02" <David_Koran at HQ02.USACE.ARMY.MIL>]

With tons of "containers" in need of filters I took a tip from the
C(hicago)KA posting some time ago and ran with it.  With this killie
obsession I find myself spending a lot of time in the plumbing departments
of the home supply stores.  I probably have as good a supply of CPVC and PVC
fittings as most Lowe's or Home Depot's.  One variety was to simply take a
1/2" CPVC tee fitting and cut a small section of 1/2" CPVC pipe and fit it
into the unpaired hole and glue a small piece of the small plastic airline
tubing to the inside of the piece of pipe and you have a pretty inexpensive
filter.  Use filter floss in the other two openings and you have a
moderately effective, inexpensive filter.  However, an improvement on that
is to get the tees that are 3/4"x3/4"x1/2" so you have a larger mouth on the
business end of your filter.  Secondly, fit this to a street union elbow
(has one male end) and you have a JT filter where the airstem stands
upright.  You now have a fairly low profile filter that works well in
shoeboxes.  Tee and street union are about 60 cents.  You can substitute a
foam plug for the filter floss.

In my 2 gallon plastic tanks I use a "corner" PVC tee (a tee off an elbow)
and in this case I again go with a 3/4"x3/4"x1/2"(1/2" joint is threaded)
although the 3x1/2" variety will work just as well.  These run about $1.35
to $1.50 each at the Home Depot or Lowe's.  For the threaded up right I plug
my lift tube here by way of using the 1/2" CPVC threaded adapters to take
the joint to pipe.  I haven't looked for the non-threaded variety simply
because the 1/2" PVC pipe is a more wide open bore than the CPVC.  Again I
outfit the CPVC with a piece of plastic tubing to connect to my airline
tubing and glue that 1-1/2" piece to the CPVC.  A further enhancement is to
take a very small strip of the plastic embroidery cloth and U-fit it down
the lift tube to keep your fish from exploring and getting trapped in the
lift tube.  Again, use filter floss in your 3/4" openings.  They do make a
1"x1"x1/2" corner tee if you feel the 3/4" variety is insufficient.  I think
they work as effectively as any filter and all you need to do is change
plugs of floss periodically.  Some time ago I also purchased a set of cork
borers.  These are used to cut holes through corks or rubber stoppers in the
lab.  Only because I remember them from my teaching days did I consider
purchasing them in the first place.  A set will cost you about $60, but it
will enable you to cut plugs and disks quickly and precisely.  I have cut
disks from the embroidery cloth and cut another hole to fit around the air
stem and thus make the lift tube impervious to "exploration" and and with
the mesh, still work as an airlift tube.  The second place I use it is to
cut holes in tank covers for air tubing or feeding openings.  I don't use it
for the styrene covers but again it works for the embroidery cloth and can
also work for the vinyl plastic shoebox and sweater box covers.

Variations on this theme by some friends:  Gary Bartell's varietion on the
corner filter is to take the 1/2" PVC plug instead of the adapter and drill
two holes, one for the air in and plastic inlet tube and a larger one for
the air (lift).  Lee Harper simply takes a 1/2" standard PVC tee and drills
it on the side to accept the lift tube and drills the lift tube to accept
the air intake plastic tube.  BOth would work fairly well.  I use my design
in that I make a bunch of the 1-1/2" CPVC pipes with glued in 1/8" clear
plastic inlet tubing to connect to the vinyl airtubing because I break
tubing occasionally so the stem is broken at the top of the 1/2" CPVC pipe
and replacing this part with a new piece is pretty easy.

Finally, Dripworks has plastic valves that are barbed on one end and
threaded 10-32 on the other so you can drill/tap them into an air manifold.
In a package of 50 they work out to about 53-60 cents each.

Dave Koran

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