2nd stage for canisters...

[paniza]

Hi,

I use this system for about 3 years with great results.

The ideia is to have a larger substrat area for bacteria.

I have a Fluvial 404 as a 1st stage...there I use only media to clean the water... basically sponge and acrylic fiber.

Water goes out of the 404, in a 2nd stage that is a home made 4” x 22” PVC tube with 3 boxes of EHEIM substrate in it. It fits 5 boxes of substrate no problem.

At least I can unplug the 404 and clean it without risking the bacteria stage.


HTH

[LEM504]

Very interesting!

I can't see how you handled the end caps.

Threaded? Slip fit with "O" rings?

In other words - how do you get into it for service?

Larry

[paniza]

all righty.

This is the 3rd version I have built. The other ones where too expensive.

[paniza]

4" caps.

lower is glued, top locked.

Make sure you let the glue dry completely.

[paniza]

connection close up

[paniza]

locker

[paniza]

top close up

[LEM504]

Many thanks for the quick post of pictures.
Looks easy enough to try -
The blue caps don't look familiar - are they the shipping caps put on at the factory to keep the dirt out??

Thanks

Larry

[MonkeeFish]

what about cleaning???? will u eva have to clean it ????

[AFTICA]

The blue caps will be on the shelf next to the ABS pipe (thats where I seen them last night when I was at the hardware store) - I used one last night to carry all my little hose clamps in to the checkout cause they kept falling through the bottom of the shopping cart ;D

Never noticed the price tag amount...

I suspect cleaning is achieved in the top portion - thats why he did not glue it on but rather used the hose clamp.

Lose much water-flow pressure in this setup? Very interesting.

[paniza]

Aftica is right on the money...

I bought all the parts on Home Depot, they should be all around each other on the shelves.

To clean:

- turn the system off
- unplug the connector of the 404 to make sure the water won't leak from the aquarium
- more the out-2nd-stage hose out of the aquarium to make sure it won't leak from the aquarium
- have a bucket beside of the system because when you unplug the hose, the water from it will have to go in somewhere
- unsrew the lock
- clean the system
- change white tape with new one
- screw lock back

done

TIP: do not screw lock too tight. That will bend the main pipe and water will leak.

It could be easier to clean if you use to flow blockers... like a tap... that they sell in the aquarium stores but on my case I wanted to have a system as cheap as possible. Further more, the more connections you add, the less pressure your system will have.

My water pressure is the same as before.

The hoses are the expensive part of the system. The pipe part costs about CDN$20.

HTH

;D

[ronrca]

What size and type of tank are you running this filter on?

Thanks for the pics! Very good idea for a filter! Have anys pics of the inside? ;)

[paniza]

Hey!

I have one running in a 75g and another running in a 90g aquarium. Basically, it is just an expasion so, I didn't count with it when I did the filtration calculation.

I cleaned one today but didn't take any pictures. Next time I will. ;)

Btw, I'm not liking the eheim hoses, they are creating some brown stuff inside that is a pain to clean and it creates quite a lot. I do not have this problem with the fluvial hoses. I will be writing to eheim today about this... let's see what they say.

I will be building another one of these filters soon. I will try to take some pictures of the making process.




Later,

[paniza]

For the ones that asked about water presure...here is a small movie about it:

www.paniza.com/filmes/canister-water-presure.wmv

I'm holding a vcr tape there...

[YellowClaw]

Does this second filter decrease the level of nitrate? Love your idea and wanted to know all the positive of it.

[paniza]

Hello there,

I'm sorry but this is not any better for nitrate... it is for amonia and nitrite but not nitrate.

For discus, the best way of getting rif of nitrate is doing water changes.

If you have strong fishes and you do not care about grows of them, there are some bacterial pumps that do reverse Nitrate into Amonia.

Again, if you want to have nice huge discus, water change is waht you need.


HTH

[aggie_67]

Since the second stage is just 4" pipe and fits behind the tank have you given any thought to just making it taller and overflow back into the tank? Bottom would be glued, top could be open. With the extra volume you could even use a smaller pipe, 3"?

[paniza]

I beleive tall would work too.

On my case I design to fit under the aquarium.

Cheers,