heather Posted June 1, 2005 Report Share Posted June 1, 2005 Any opinions on inline prefilters? Check this one out http://www.kencofish.com/5gal.htm I'm thinking about putting this or something similar on. Prefilters are thought to help the media in your canister last longer, and/or to be more effective because they dont have to deal with so much rubbish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted June 1, 2005 Report Share Posted June 1, 2005 Looks quite similar to the filter socks that we've got on our swimming pool skimmers. Seems like a good principle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted June 1, 2005 Report Share Posted June 1, 2005 Prefilters are good. But this setup looks really big and ugly, plus if you have it outside your tank whats to stop it from syphoning the tank. Why not buy some dacron (sp?) from spotlight or any sewing shop, it is the same as filter wool, but far far cheaper, then use a rubberband to attach it to your filter intake. Just don't forget to replace every week or two. (Yes this does still look ugly in your tank). The next option is to buy a inline pool filter from bunnings etc, they are basically a sealed cannister with a replaceable pleated filter, it would be simple to put this somewhere in the filter intake hose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted June 1, 2005 Report Share Posted June 1, 2005 Prefilters are good. But this setup looks really big and ugly, plus if you have it outside your tank whats to stop it from syphoning the tank. It was my understanding that it would be full of water, airtight and connected to your cannister filter, it wouldn't siphon out because the output for the filter would be in the tank anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted June 1, 2005 Report Share Posted June 1, 2005 Yep, but assumes your seals are all good and that you put the lid on tight every time. Buckets aren't designed to have this much pressure on their seal, look at any canister filter, they all have 'O' rings and locking clips to keep the seal. Proberly it would work fine 99% of the time, but I wouldn't want to risk being the 1%.......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heather Posted June 2, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2005 Ok so having a prefilter is a good thing and agree that this one lacks finesse. I will look at doing it another way - maybe slimline with pvc pipe. What media should be in them? Floss, sponge, carbon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted June 2, 2005 Report Share Posted June 2, 2005 The prefilter is a machanical filter rather than biological, the idea is to stop large particals of stuff getting to the biological media and clogging the pores, it also lowers the number of large particals getting to the machanical (sponge) put inside your filter saving you from having to pull the filter apart as often to clean it. So what you are looking for is away of setting it up so that it is very easy to get into and clean, otherwise you might as well just pull the filter apart and clean that. So in it needs be sponge, floss, or a pleated filter cartridge. By far the simplist way for you to do this would be to buy one of those round sponges that are used in some small internal filters and stick it over the end of your filter intake, it would only cost a couple of $ and be very easy to get to and clean. If you find it makes a huge difference but looks too ugly then do something more complicated later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted June 2, 2005 Report Share Posted June 2, 2005 pre-filter (or sediment filter) is a definate especially if you are running RO/DI. a typical water filtration system is pre-filter -> carbon filter -> reverse osmosis (RO) membrane -> deionized resin (DI). the pre-filter, as suphew states removes the large particles and assists stopping the RO from becoming clogged. RO typically removes 95% of bad stuff, DI resin removes 99%. RO prior to DI is not necessary but will mean the DI resin will last alot longer. if you are doing DIY on this stuff, make sure you understand how it all works prior to building one. if possible get a TDS (total disolved solids) meter to measure the ppm of crap being removed from your water. read this link - it relates to RO/DI for saltwater tank top-up water but should give you the idea on how it all fits together: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-05/rhf/index.htm to be honest, for a freshwater system just go along to Microlene and buy a couple of filters from them. They are not expensive and will take out the majority of bad stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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