My Diy Sand Filter. I'm sick of filter socks!!!

[cabinetman123]

Originally Posted by Horace

if thats the case, my advice would be to have your water tested by Triton and see .

I would suspect you have some stuff in there you dont know about already.

Ya. Likely find some copper seeing how this whole system was coppered about 4 months ago. Rock and all.

[cabinetman123]

Again. In case this gets lost. My new experiment with the sand filter. Dosing viniger relying on the sand filter to filter out the bacteria. The video explains it way better. And for those just finding my videos. This tank was coppered 4 months ago using cuprimine and then treated with cuprisorb. I've done it before to my old 300 and never experienced any problems. Here's the vid
http://youtu.be/D_KRC-jbdiA

[Horace]

Originally Posted by cabinetman123

Ya. Likely find some copper seeing how this whole system was coppered about 4 months ago. Rock and all.

damn....im a little shocked your corals are OK. Surely there is residual copper. Did you have corals in there when you did the copper treatment?

[cabinetman123]

Originally Posted by Horace

damn....im a little shocked your corals are OK. Surely there is residual copper. Did you have corals in there when you did the copper treatment?

No all the coral was out. I had it in the 150. I used seachem cuprimine. And after a month I used cuprisorb for about a week or so and about a week later all the coral went back in. Haven't looked back.

[Ron Reefman]

Horace is absolutely right about the introduction of contaminates from the tap water. But IMHO he is seriously overthinking the situation. You have what, 500 gallon of saltwater in your entire system? And how much tap water would be left in the sand filter after it's drained? Maybe a couple fluid ounces? So the dilution is what, about 60:1 in a gallon and you have 500 gallons so 30,000:1. And that's tap water with low levels of contamination to saltwater at 30,000:1. You could flush it with pure vinegar and it wouldn't be a problem.

[cabinetman123]

Originally Posted by Ron Reefman

Horace is absolutely right about the introduction of contaminates from the tap water. But IMHO he is seriously overthinking the situation. You have what, 500 gallon of saltwater in your entire system? And how much tap water would be left in the sand filter after it's drained? Maybe a couple fluid ounces? So the dilution is what, about 60:1 in a gallon and you have 500 gallons so 30,000:1. And that's tap water with low levels of contamination to saltwater at 30,000:1. You could flush it with pure vinegar and it wouldn't be a problem.

I had to chuckle at it to be truthful.

[plecoco]

Bookmarked this for inspiration.

[Happyschneider]

I see a bucket of sand in my future! At least if I get my fish room

Thanks for sharing!

[Horace]

Originally Posted by cabinetman123

I had to chuckle at it to be truthful.

I think the estimate of a few fluid oz is way short....I would bet at least a few cups of water are held in the sand. Now if a few cups every few days is an issue or not..thats diff story, but i bet its far more than just a few oz. Sand holds a lot of water.

[stage3-s4]

I think Horace has a very valid point. People seem to forget that elements can building up in tanks much quicker than in an ocean. I recommend reading this:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

[Horace]

Regardless of the debate on using tap water etc, I think this idea is pretty damn cool. I have been doing a great deal of brainstorming on it, and think this could be taken to another level. If you were able to get valves that are programmable, you could have a reef controller backflush this thing for you every day. This way, you would never have to manually backflush it, and it would would remove risk of this thing creating nitrates from all the O2 rich water running through the collected waste. Plus it likely wouldnt have to backflush very long because its only 1 day worth of crap built up. I actually have a programmable 3/4" hose valve already that could be used to turn the fresh water on/off, but what I dont have is a large valve for the 1.5" PVC return you have there. I have to do some thinking on this, but this would be awesome

[stage3-s4]

Originally Posted by Horace

Regardless of the debate on using tap water etc, I think this idea is pretty damn cool. I have been doing a great deal of brainstorming on it, and think this could be taken to another level. If you were able to get valves that are programmable, you could have a reef controller backflush this thing for you every day. This way, you would never have to manually backflush it, and it would would remove risk of this thing creating nitrates from all the O2 rich water running through the collected waste. Plus it likely wouldnt have to backflush very long because its only 1 day worth of crap built up. I actually have a programmable 3/4" hose valve already that could be used to turn the fresh water on/off, but what I dont have is a large valve for the 1.5" PVC return you have there. I have to do some thinking on this, but this would be awesome

I was thinking of something the on the same lines. What about backflushing when you do a water change? Just reverse the flow and have a valve switch from tank return to drain. This way you don't have to worry about wasting RODI/Fresh saltwater to backflush. Than you can just re-fill with fresh Salt water when your are done backflushing. You can deff automate something like this with a controller.

[Ron Reefman]

Backflushing with tank water and adding new saltwater is an interesting idea. But it seems to me, if you are going to add that much (whatever it takes to do the backflush) in new saltwater on a daily or even once every 4 or 5 days like CM does, you may not even need a filter of any kind!

[Horace]

I dont do water changes that often so I would prefer the fresh water method for sure. If I build on of these, I still plan to use RO, or at minimum carbon filtered water for the flush though...call me paranoid, but better safe than sorry

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[cabinetman123]

Originally Posted by Horace

I dont do water changes that often so I would prefer the fresh water method for sure. If I build on of these, I still plan to use RO, or at minimum carbon filtered water for the flush though...call me paranoid, but better safe than sorry

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In a perfect world your way is the best for sure.

[Horace]

CM. If we can find a way for the apex to do auto back flush...then we are cooking with Gas.........

And because it's automated, it could do one every night to avoid nitrate buildup

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[cabinetman123]

Originally Posted by Horace

CM. If we can find a way for the apex to do auto back flush...then we are cooking with Gas...........

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I'm cooking with gas now man. I don't wanna complicate things. I don't mind taking a few mins to backflush at all.

[cabinetman123]

As far as the nitrates building up its not going to be any worst than filter socks.

[Horace]

Originally Posted by cabinetman123

I'm cooking with gas now man. I don't wanna complicate things. I don't mind taking a few mins to backflush at all.

Automation man....i want the tank to run itself ;P

[karimwassef]

Originally Posted by Horace

Automation man....i want the tank to run itself ;P

+1 that's my goal too. I'll do some big things occasionally but I want to focus on gardening my reef, not maintaining it.

[Horace]

Originally Posted by cabinetman123

As far as the nitrates building up its not going to be any worst than filter socks.

I'm not saying it is worse, but ideally u would change out filter socks every day. Most don't because it's a pita to do so. However with your setup, and some automation, you could easily set it up to back flush every day, so it would actually be better than using socks. I don't think there is any way short of a robot that could change socks . So you get best of both worlds by adding automation.

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[Ron Reefman]

Originally Posted by Horace

I'm not saying it is worse, but ideally u would change out filter socks every day. Most don't because it's a pita to do so. However with your setup, and some automation, you could easily set it up to back flush every day, so it would actually be better than using socks. I don't think there is any way short of a robot that could change socks . So you get best of both worlds by adding automation.

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The trick is getting the automation done at a price that makes sense. And doing the automation on the cheap is probably a very bad idea, set it, leave it and then it goes crapola and you don't even notice till it's to late. Besides, I like keeping my hands on the system, it's like driving a manual transmission car, it helps keep your head in the game... well, for me anyway.

[Horace]

Originally Posted by Ron Reefman

The trick is getting the automation done at a price that makes sense. And doing the automation on the cheap is probably a very bad idea, set it, leave it and then it goes crapola and you don't even notice till it's to late. Besides, I like keeping my hands on the system, it's like driving a manual transmission car, it helps keep your head in the game... well, for me anyway.

No doubt something like this needs to be done right. Assuming I do automate it...it's going to be solid...and have fail-safes built in. It won't be cheap. Nothing in this hobby is. That being said, I put a high value on my time, do spending a few hundred extra to minimize the amount of maintenance I need to do makes the hobby more enjoyable and long term I feel results in more success.



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[shifty51008]

I may have skipped this when I skimmed the thread but I would replace that brass valve before you kill your tank

[cabinetman123]

Originally Posted by Horace

Automation man....i want the tank to run itself ;P

Lol. Power to ya. I'd be worried something would screw up.