Habitat - Indoor :: homemade filters

[mikey]

ok it's kinda sketchy, but i think it will work.

That's the one i was going to build. BUT. Yesterday i tried out the pump and it did work, pumping and sucking from the laundry tub. Needed lots of priming though. Worked good till a seal let go in the pump and sprayed and leaked water all over. Cost is $127.00 for repair parts. Soo, i'm stalled yet again. Next plan, i guess wait till funds allow and get a proper pump, then build the filter. so typical.

[pkneeyahx]

the DIY canister sucks.. seriously. I did it. I actually had to build two and have them hooked up in series to handle the load. I'll post pictures of the whole setup at a later date. my photo CDs are packed away.

in no way should you compare the DIY canister to the XP3.. if you want to build yourself a powerful filter and have the head room.. go with a trickle filter. If you build the trickle filter just right, it'll filter more water than any conventional filter on the market.

basically the gist of the trickle filter is a sump to pump water up into the filter housing. the filter housing is about 3 or 4 buckets with holes drilled out in the bottom, each bucket has a screen mesh with filter medium in it.. then stack the buckets into eachother. drill a 1 " hole through all of the buckets and slide a piece of PVC pipe horizontally to keep them together and to hang the apparatus.

be sure to have the holes in the bottom bucket big..

your only friend afterwards is electricity and gravity. :]

the sump pumps the turtle water up into the bucket housing.. then it trickles through the filter medium in the different buckets and then finally back into the water.

this idea requires it be hung directly over the tank.

forget the DIY canister.. that's just a waste of time and money and you'll be cleaning the thing out twice a week.

This is a funny story. when i bought my XP3 to replace my DIY canister, I threw the hole thing except the pump in the garbage room of my apartment building at the time. I then had to go out about 20 minutes later on an errand and it was gone! I hope someone didn't plan on using it for drinking water!!! hahahha...

anyways.. good luck with your ideas. I'll post some pics later..

[pkneeyahx]

here goes.. I'll add more as I go.

the single canister housing behind my old setup.
no pics were taken of the dual canisters in series.


this was my sump.. picked it up at a flea market for
20 bucks.. it's from the little giant pump company..
here is a link to the exact model


the canister & sump


the sump again... looks like a worker droid. I zip
tied it to the suction cup holder for this Eheim
Powerball filter I thought would be good... wrong!
Eheim powerballs suck!


a picture during cleanup.. notice the 2x8 floating
piece of wood i was using as a basking ramp.. oh those
were the days.


canister behind tank


constructing the hood.. actually, I was raising it up
on a little frame to allow more room for willy to bask.



all together and fairly blurry.


notice how green the water was then? the canister needed
constant attention. so I then went out and bought the XP3


clean as a whistle!!
and of course the last picture was after i had the bright idea
to expand the setup. i did have a 130g tank of which i cracked..
I'll have to post the pics of the 130g in the photos section..
as a message to those of what NOT to do. :]

and yes, in the last pic.. the walls were white. I was all packed up
and ready to move into my house and the last things i had to tear down was pkneeyahx.ca at the time was on that chopping block stand, and
willies tank..

I gotta quit reminiscing of those days! Plus.. it's all too much info!!

Enjoy!!

[Stacey]

Sorry this is off topic but Adam the last pic with your cat behind the turtles tank........freaky!:twisted:

[mikey]

Oh, i've already passed on the canister type last nite. Thoughts are on I guess it's a trickle type filter.
I was thinking on pumping with a pond pump into a storage bin of unknown size right now, filled with media. This "filter" will be above the tank level and hosed back to the tank. I'll need some help from you all with the filter media once i get the idea moving ($$).


pk, do you have any pics of the bucket filter?

[pkneeyahx]

I can't find the pics of the bucket filter for some unknown reason. BUT.

I'll recreate the filter for you today. I wont actually build it, but I'll do a mock assembly, take pics and then post them here. Cool?

I still have the preferred buckets in the basement.

[pkneeyahx]

I'm half done the filter.. here is what I've done so far;
http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=419

I have some other stuff to do today, but I'll finish this up later and post more pics.

[mikey]

neat. So whats the media to go in the layers? How long until you would see some results from something like this?

[pkneeyahx]

the media could be anything you want..

Layer 3
Ceramic Rings or bio wheels on top of sponges with mesh liner underneath.

Layer 2
ammonia & activated carbon bags with mesh liner underneath.

Layer 1
this last layer will have another assortment of finer sponge with thin mesh liner.

the plastic mesh liners can be found at pretty much any craft & liesure store..

results depend on the kind of pump being used. but it works like a champ.l