DIY 6 gallon bucket canister filter.

[Jgray152]

Just for you Jones!

The DIY section seemed dead so I had to bring it back to life some how

BTW, the Fx5 is running great, I have not finished the cover. I will need to buy some weldon 10 probubly and when I do that I will use it on both this filter and the fx5.

So I decided on a 6 gallon bucket for canister filter. Im going to use a Gamma Seal lid and the plumbing is as follows. Slight changes have been made whic are not pictured and that is just that the intake and output are on the same side of the bucket. Structual reinforment will be done with acrylic on the inside of the bucket. I don't want this collapsing in on its self under negitive pressures.

The bucket and lid should be here friday..aka, tomarrow

here is a pic from USPlastics.com


This is a sketch of what the filter setup "could" look like. Change probubly will be made as I go along. The water will swirl inside the bucket.


I will use an external pump that will pump about 1000-1200 GPH. The pump will be located on the output side of the canister filter. The filter will purge itself without the pump but may not purge 100%. Should purge enough to prime the pump. With the pump on, the small purge tube you see should allow air to be evacuated from the top surface and replaced with the water coming in from the intake.

So I bought some stuff to start the build. The bucket that is in the pictures below is NOT the bucket I will be using. Its only for a temp solution to see if the bulkhead fittings will work.

Here are the bulkheads. I had to use a 1 1/4 inch intake so the ID of the barbed fitting would be atleast 1" instead of 3/4" if I had went with a 1" barbed.

I may just copy the output style for use as an intake instead of what I have.








I ordered the bucket and the gamma seal lid and I will hook this up to my Fx5 just so I can have some negitive and positive pressures running through it to test it out.

Moving the fittings back and forth doesn't cause them to leak at all. This is something I was worried about. So Moving hoses around while they are hooked to the filter won't cause the filter to leak. The bucket just flexs a bit.

The 90* barbed fitting is not pointing at the angle I would like it to be. A 45* would work better but I couldnt find any. I Will keep my eyes open or maybe PVCfittings.com has something that is female threaded on one side and slip fitting on the other at a 45* angle.

I filled the bucket with water and it holds great.

Here is a picture of the purge tube

[wifishman]

very nice, im very interested in seeing how this works! how big of a tank will this be hooked to, how many feet between pump and tank... im just currious as to how much turnover you will have... is this for a freshwater or saltwater application?

[Jgray152]

Freshwater 180 gallon tank. There will be about 6 cycles per hour in the tank.

The velocity through the filter will be about .5" per second. This should hold upto 18 Liters of bio media. At 10" deep, there will be about 20 seconds of contact time. Maybe a little less between the water and bio media.

About 4' of head on the pump.

[Jgray152]

Well the bucket and the lid came in today.

I did some work on the bucket. The purge tube you see I may redo. I think its a little short.

[jones57742]

Originally Posted by Jgray152

The velocity through the filter will be about .5" per second. ... there will be about 20 seconds of contact time.

Jg:

The velocity and contact period values which I published in your previous thread were just my estimates based upon wastewater treatment plant design as modified by my experience and many experiments in the home/office aquarium world.

The above quote implies to me that you have found a definitive source for these values???

TR

[Jgray152]

Nope, but 15-20 seconds seems like an "OK" contact time considering the volume of water that will be flowing through.

The bucket is indeed much more durable than I was expecting it to be. Most buckets I have delt with are flimsy but this one is very rigid. I don't see any reason for bracing but I may anyways.

[Jgray152]

I calculated the bio capacity wrong. I first said it was 18L but thats not right. It would only be around 14L.

I decided do something a little different. Instead of using coarse and slightly coarse filter foam/fiber pads to remove large waste, why not use filter socks or even 800 micron media bags on the inlet? This way I can eliminate 3" off the mechanical filtration and put that 3" into the bio filter compartment. Now instead of 10" high it will be 13" high compartment. I figured for a 10.75" diameter since the bucket is about 10" on the bottom and almost 12 at the top. That will give me just over 19L of bio capacity. I like that number better than 14L. After all, this is suppose to be a "big" filter.

The filter media bag I will use will be 4" diameter by 12" long. That will give me about 150 sq inch surface area compaired to the 108 sq inch surface area of filter pads laying flat. I could also go with a 7"x14" bag which would give me about 538sq in area.

I would have to figure out how to secure it to the inlet and I think I will use those spring loaded round clamps. I have to find them online or in the auto store. You can unclip them with your fingers.

[Jgray152]

here is a picture of what it could look like.



this is the clamp I was going to use

[Jgray152]

Im not going to use the wire clamp pictured above, I found some and you need plyers to remove it because its so stiff. I think a barbed fitting with a good thick rubber band may do the trick.

I did some more quick work to it. I decided to continue with the 1.25" barbed fitting for the filter bag and just use a 1.25" -> 1" bushing to reduce to a 1" pipe on the outside of the bucket.



Using a bushing will cause a large chamber to form within the barbed fitting, counduit fitting and bushing which could cause turbulance in flow. So to remedy this I just cut a small piece of 1" pipe to fit inside this assembly and it worked and fit perfect. The fit is a tad looser than normal but some glue or silicone at both ends of the pipe will keep it secure. Pictured Below;



I also don't think I will need to upper seporation tray. I will do without for now and see how it works.

[jones57742]

Jg:

Please keep up your play by play!

I would have commented but I have not picked up on anything adverse with respect to your thinking.

TR

[Jgray152]

Thanks jones

Imliking this filter a lot better than the fx5 already. Maybe its because I have to build it from scratch.

I had this in my head for months and on paper for another month or two. I have gone through about 5-6 different designs till I came up with this one.

If you have any idea, by all means let me know. Im very open to them

[jones57742]

Originally Posted by Jgray152

If you have any idea, by all means let me know. Im very open to them

and I thought that you were an intelligent feller!!

[Jgray152]

haha. NEW ideas I could incorperate into the filter.

Never would I ever want you to change MY design! hehehe

[k-dawg-]

Originally Posted by jones57742

Jg:

Please keep up your play by play!

I would have commented but I have not picked up on anything adverse with respect to your thinking.

TR

Yea still following as well!