Filtration Archives - Page 2 of 3

Pentek Whole House Water Filter Installation 6

CrowlinNovember 7, 2018May 14, 20196 Comments

**Important note: I am not a licensed plumber and this plumbing configuration may not meet building codes in your area. Please check your local regulations before taking on a project like this**

Why Add a Whole House Water Filter

The city water in my area is somewhat hard and sometimes has a chemical odor out of the tap, so I installed a whole house filter system to bring down sediment levels. This means we no longer need to keep a brita filter in the fridge for our drinking water, and I know the water going into all of my aquariums has had the heavy sediment removed.

This system is installed in front of my house's water heater. Removing sediment before water reaches the hot water tank reduces buildup inside, which can extend the life of the appliance.

The installation was pretty simple and I'll go over everything I used for the project here.

Supplies

This system uses two Pentek big blue 20" filter housings with a dual stage 50 / 5 micron sediment filter cartridge in front of a radial flow carbon cartridge. All of the filter parts used are listed below:

Sharkbite fittings and PEX tubing made the plumbing really simple. The process was the same as my fish room sink plumbing project (I listed the tools out in that post). The only difference is here I am working with the water supply line before my water heater, so it is 3/4" pipe rather than 1/2".

Mounting the Filter Housings

The first step was to secure a piece of plywood to the wall to support the weight of the lag screws that hold up the filter brackets. I used wood screws to attach the wood to the studs behind the drywall. Then I used 1/4" x 1" stainless lag screws and washers to attach the filter brackets to the wood. I tied the two housing tops together with a section of PEX before mounting them so that they would be level with each other on the wall.

With the housings mounted, all I had to do was plumb the system into the cold water line coming into the fish room.

Plumbing

Its important to "dry fit" all of your connections before making the pinch clamp connections, in case you need to make changes. Once a piece of PEX is clamped onto a fitting, its difficult (though not impossible) to remove. A 10 foot stick of PEX tubing is cheaper than a brass fitting, so cutting a new piece while testing out your configuration isn't a big deal.

My system has a bypass line with a ball valve above the filter housings so that I can shut off the flow to the filters. Without a bypass, changing the filters would require shutting off the water to the entire house. There is also a ball valve on either side of the filters so that they can be entirely isolated. Water will still flow to all of the downstream fixtures while I change the cartridges.

Sketch out your fish room plumbing before you start — Sketch out your plumbing before you start

I recommend drawing out your plan on paper before you start making connections. This should include the direction of flow through the system. The handle of a ball valve in the open position should point in the direction of water flow. The picture above shows all 3 valves open, but the bypass valve at the top remains closed while the filters are in use.

After I finished the bypass plumbing, I extended the PEX lines up to the ceiling to join with my cold water supply. I made the connection to the copper pipe using a 3/4" sharkbite fitting on both ends of the system.

This project took me a few days because I took my time figuring out where I wanted to tap into my existing pipes, but the actual plumbing could be completed in an afternoon if you have it planned out. Based on my usage the filter cartridges should last somewhere between 3-6 months. So I should only have to touch the system a few times a year.

DIY 20 Gallon Sump Setup 8

CrowlinOctober 15, 2018October 16, 20188 Comments

I built a DIY sump filter for my 90 gallon freshwater aquarium using a standard Aqueon 20 long tank. There are a lot of great advantages to using a sump filter, especially on larger systems. A sump can hold several times more filter media than a hang on back or canister filter. Sumps also allow you to remove equipment, like heaters, from the display tank so that it is out of sight. Finally, since a sump can technically be any container that holds water, there is a lot of room for customization.

Overflow Plumbing

This system is using an Eshopps Eclipse (Medium) overflow, which requires drilling a hole for a 1.5" bulkhead. The overflow has two 1 inch bulkheads, which allows for a Herbie style overflow setup. With this configuration, the primary overflow valve is set partially closed, so that the water level in the overflow box rises to the top of the red secondary, or emergency, standpipe.

The partially closed ball valve limits the flow through the strainer, maintaining a siphon that runs quietly. A small amount of water flows down the open emergency standpipe. This configuration is popular in reef tanks for its quiet operation and ability to handle a lot of flow without worrying about a clogged strainer causing the display tank to overfill.

Sump Design

This sump is built from a standard size Aqueon 20-long, with three glass baffles siliconed in place to create the different sections. The first two baffles force water flowing into the sump down through the mechanical media and then up into the second section. The third baffle sets the minimum water level in the sump at about 6", or half the height of the tank. This leaves room for roughly 9 gallons of water to overflow from the display tank into the sump in the event of a power failure or pump failure.

Egg crate style lighting diffuser creates dividers that hold the media in place and keep it off the heaters. I cut sections of the lighting diffuser down using wire snips, and attached the pieces to each other with zip ties. The first section has a platform that holds the media up above the bottom of the first baffle.

The second section of the sump holds the bio media and heaters. Here I made a platform for the media to sit on, as well as a divider for the heaters. I also made an air driven circulation device using an old sponge filter housing without the sponges. The two intake tubes sit on the glass bottom of the sump below the diffuser, pulling water from the bottom up to the top of the media. The idea was to create more movement across the media and oxygenate the water before it gets returned to the aquarium.

Filtration Media

This sump is using a combination of polyester quilt batting, thick sponges, bio rings, and lava rock for filtration. Water flows from the overflow pipes into a basket that holds a layer of polyester batting, which catches most debris and fine particles before they get into the rest of the sump. I covered how cheap and awesome quilt batting is as a filter media in my post about DIY filter hacks.

The bottom of the filter basket is lined with a 1 inch think coarse sponge. This traps debris the batting didn't catch and allows the water to drain evenly through the sides and bottom into the 3 inch layer of sponges below.

In the second chamber is 7 pounds of lava rock, with 4 one-pound bags of bio rings on top. Lava rock is highly porous and often used in pond filters because it is cheap to buy in bulk. I picked up a 7 lb bag for less than $10 at a home improvement store. I got the bags of bio rings, as well as the coarse sponge for the filter basket, from aquariumcoop.com.

The heaters are positioned in front of the bio media so they are easily visible and accessible if I need to make an adjustment. The final chamber houses the pump, which sends the water back up to the display. This section has extra space I can use to add activated carbon, purigen, or any extra media I may want to cycle.

The entire build for this DIY sump cost me under $100, not including the submersible pump ($20) and overflow ($110). Compare that to canister filters like the Fluval FX4 that, while effective, run well over $250 and provide virtually none of the advantages of a DIY sump.

Drilling a 90 Gallon Aquarium for an Overflow Box 4

CrowlinSeptember 21, 2018October 6, 20184 Comments

My 90 gallon freshwater aquarium is filtered by a sump made from a 20 gallon long tank. Details on that build will be posted soon. I bought the tank second hand and it came with an Eshopps hang on back overflow, but I decided to drill it after doing a lot of research about different plumbing options. I don't want to have to worry about losing siphon in a HOB overflow, and the Eshopps Eclipse overflow box I chose takes up less space inside the tank and looks cleaner.

I bought this aquarium used, so I was not sure what brand it was, but based on the dimensions and the design I believe its a standard Aqueon 90 gallon. This is important to know so that you can determine whether or not the glass is tempered. Aqueon has a great reference sheet that lists the dimensions of all of their tanks and whether they have tempered bottoms. I still checked the sides of the tank with polarized glasses and a cellphone in sunlight to make sure they were not tempered.

Drilling the Tank

The Eshopps Eclipse overflow comes with an included drilling template and diamond coated hole saw. This helped tremendously because it eliminated the need for me to measure and mark where I wanted to drill. I also didn't have to make my own template to get the hole started. The template is a piece of acrylic with a hole sized for a 1.5" bulkhead.

To drill the hole I clamped the template onto the inside of the back wall of the tank. With this kit, its important to push the top of the template up to the inside rim of the tank so that the water level isn't set too low. I didn't want to lay such a large aquarium on its side, so I drilled the hole with it upright. I clamped a hose onto the rim of the tank to keep a stream of water on the drill bit.

The actual drilling was similar to what I covered in my post about drilling 10 gallon aquariums. It took about 15 minutes to drill all the way through the glass. The side of a 90 gallon tank is about 3/8" thick, and I didn't want to go too fast and crack it. I ended up with a nice clean hole for the overflow bulkhead.

I decided not to drill the tank for a return - because I will probably want to make a spray bar or play around with different returns - so this was the only hole I had to make. Having a drilled overflow makes me feel a lot better about the risk of the tank overflowing. Below is a shot of the overflow box on the back of the tank. I'll go into more detail on the plumbing and filtration for this aquarium in a later update.