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DIY Water Polisher


cokecowboy70

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Just wanted to pass on something I learned the other day that was a marvellous success.

A friend rang me saying his saltwater aquarium was cloudy. He overstocked it with fish. I turned up and couldnt even see fish near the front glass.

I recently read about using a water filter cartridge attached to a powerhead to act as a diatom replacement.

I went to Bunnings and for $6.50 I bought a 5 micron cartridge. I took it back to my friend's place, added the powerhead and let it work.

His tank is huge. Over 1,000 litres. Within 20 minutes, the cartridge was almost black. I rinsed it under a running tap to clean it and began again. After 5 hours, the tank was almost crystal clear. The water filter had been rinsed out 5 times.

He left it running and when I arrived the next afternoon, the water was magnificent.

I was amazed that a small powerhead rated at 1,400 lph and a water filter cartridged rated at 900 lph worked so incredibly well on a huge tank.

Obviously a person should maintain water quality to prevent such problems, but this was a fantastic solution to a problem outside of my control.

I hope this may offer help or ideas to others in the future.

Rob

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Just wanted to pass on something I learned the other day that was a marvellous success.

A friend rang me saying his saltwater aquarium was cloudy. He overstocked it with fish. I turned up and couldnt even see fish near the front glass.

I recently read about using a water filter cartridge attached to a powerhead to act as a diatom replacement.

I went to Bunnings and for $6.50 I bought a 5 micron cartridge. I took it back to my friend's place, added the powerhead and let it work.

His tank is huge. Over 1,000 litres. Within 20 minutes, the cartridge was almost black. I rinsed it under a running tap to clean it and began again. After 5 hours, the tank was almost crystal clear. The water filter had been rinsed out 5 times.

He left it running and when I arrived the next afternoon, the water was magnificent.

I was amazed that a small powerhead rated at 1,400 lph and a water filter cartridged rated at 900 lph worked so incredibly well on a huge tank.

Obviously a person should maintain water quality to prevent such problems, but this was a fantastic solution to a problem outside of my control.

I hope this may offer help or ideas to others in the future.

Rob

yes sounds like a good idea :yes:

im not sure what kind of filtration your friend is useing but tell him /her to add some cotton wool to there canister, sump, powerhead or hang on filter somewhere at the final stage of the filtration

i know with all my tanks i use 2 type of filtration this helps if 1 brakes down or mostly that i olter the cleaning of them keep bacteria plus i always have the second for buffing the water

i am going to try the micron cartridge tho to see hopefully cleaning might be less frequent or quality might be beter

thank you for that info !

p.s

what brand or size did you use ?

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i know with all my tanks i use 2 type of filtration this helps if 1 brakes down or mostly that i olter the cleaning of them keep bacteria plus i always have the second for buffing the water

Can you run that through a 5 micron filter to make it clearer?

:dntknw::lol4::dntknw:

Josh

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i know with all my tanks i use 2 type of filtration this helps if 1 brakes down or mostly that i olter the cleaning of them keep bacteria plus i always have the second for buffing the water

Can you run that through a 5 micron filter to make it clearer?

:dntknw::lol4::dntknw:

Josh

:blink il'd lov to answer you question !

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would the filter strip any important minerals from the tank? would it affect the GH or KH?

Excellent point Louie.

I would experiment and check water parameters b4 and after using such a filter. Many of these types of filter blocks are designed to remove almost everything. Having said that however, at 5 microns and a cost of $6.50 it's unlikely to do much more than remove suspended solids etc.

I think the idea has real merit for use in such situations (pending test results).

Really appreciate you passing your experiences on. :thumbup:

Regards Cafa

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  • 1 month later...

hi,,.

been thinking of building something similar.

did u ever do and tests to see if it affected the water at all.

went looking at bunnings today and couldnt find any filters at that prices in the water filter secton, where did u find them??

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Just wanted to pass on something I learned the other day that was a marvellous success.

A friend rang me saying his saltwater aquarium was cloudy. He overstocked it with fish. I turned up and couldnt even see fish near the front glass.

I recently read about using a water filter cartridge attached to a powerhead to act as a diatom replacement.

I went to Bunnings and for $6.50 I bought a 5 micron cartridge. I took it back to my friend's place, added the powerhead and let it work.

His tank is huge. Over 1,000 litres. Within 20 minutes, the cartridge was almost black. I rinsed it under a running tap to clean it and began again. After 5 hours, the tank was almost crystal clear. The water filter had been rinsed out 5 times.

He left it running and when I arrived the next afternoon, the water was magnificent.

I was amazed that a small powerhead rated at 1,400 lph and a water filter cartridged rated at 900 lph worked so incredibly well on a huge tank.

Obviously a person should maintain water quality to prevent such problems, but this was a fantastic solution to a problem outside of my control.

I hope this may offer help or ideas to others in the future.

Rob

Thanks Rob, I enjoyed reading your idea. You put the whole water filter under water in the tank?

and just pumped the water through it was the power head? How easy was it to clean when you rinsed it.

Your friend should work out why the tank got so cloudy. Was it particulate matter or a bacterial bloom (what size bacteria are in a bloom?)?

Craig

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