Re: [APD] Aquatic-Plants Digest, Vol 28, Issue 58

[Alan and Kim Van Nevel <van_nevel at verizon.net>]

I used a in line house filter on a 150 gallon cichlid tank for a 
while.  The issue was the head pressure and what pump I used to drive 
it.  If I used a maxi-jet 1000 pump, after a few days the back pressure was 
enough to make the pump very noisy.  If I used an external pump (maybe 1/4 
horsepower, probably less, forget the size)  it ran for about a week before 
the flow was reduced significantly.

Soaking the filters in a bleach solution would clean them and allow them to 
be used again, so I had a stock of them and would rotate them through.  The 
bigger issue was the plumbing.  Using barbed fittings eventually led to a 
leak, the other option was to use a plumbing union or  clamps, which made 
filter changing a bit more difficult.



At 07:27 PM 12/31/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>Message: 2
>Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 21:21:57 GMT
>From: "asligh at netzero_net" <asligh at netzero_net>
>Subject: Re: [APD] adding whirlpool prefilteration unit to the return
>To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com
>
>The water filter can take a 20 micron pleated cartridge similiar to the 
>ones that's used for Magnum, Lifeguard, and Ocean Clear. I wouldn't think 
>that would clog as fast as the 5 micron cartridge and certainly not as 
>fast as the 5 micron cartridges or the 2 micron carbon cartridge.
>
>The reason why I became interested in this approach was because the filter 
>is rather cheap; around $16.00.  There's another filter that's a step up 
>from that one that goes for about $33.00. It has a clear canister and 
>built in control valve. The Lifeguard mechanical filter runs in the mid 
>$50s, so the prefilters seem like a bargain to me. Since both the 
>prefilters can use pleated cartridges, then I assumed their performance 
>would be similiar to that of the Lifeguard mechanical filter using a 
>pleated cartridge as well. Another reason why I became interested in 
>useing it is that I can feed the CO2 line into the intake of sump pump. 
>I'm thinking the CO2 wouln't be able to bypass the prefilter. Because the 
>prefitler is driven by it own dedicated pump unit such as traditional 
>canister filters, there wouldn't be a risk of the motor burning up as it 
>did in my Fluval 202 filter and there wouldn't be a way for non-dissolved 
>CO2 to escape into the aquarium as it does with my Eheim 221!
>  7.
>
>On my trip to Lowes today, I was thinking about the "tightness" of the 
>filters and filter cartridges in general. If diatomaceous earth filters 
>used for swimming pools, with a "tightness of 1 micron", then they too 
>would clog frequently if the pool water was filled with algae.   If the 
>water is clear on the other hand, then how long would one need to wait 
>before they would need to flush the filter and replace it with fresh DE? 
>Maybe a couple weeks?  I dunno.  Maybe the key is to have decent water 
>quality to begin with before using the prefilter on the tank with the 5 or 
>2 micron cartridges?
>
>W/B!
>-a
>
>
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