DIY Total Tank Water Change Filter System

[Serrecko]

Okay, after setting up two 125 gallon tanks, and doing loads of water changes where the only thing to really benefit were the weeds in my backyard, I thought I needed a new way to do these things.

Here is what I came up with. I am still refining the idea a little, and will put up a new video in a week or so, I already see some tweaks that are needed, you will get the idea how this works, and how it actually saves a LOT of water. PLUS you can filter 100% of the water in your tank with very little input on your part. If your pump is set to handle your siphon, it basically just involves about 5 minutes to get things set up, and based upon your own calculations, gallons per minute for the pump, you can figure out how long it will take to totally cycle your water.

Oh, and the fish... they are happy as well.

[jlpropst00]

Pretty cool. It does a great job of getting junk out of the tank, but its purely mechanical and chemical filtration. With recycling your water you never remove the nitrate that has built up in the water like you would with a normal water change. I'm curious as to what your nitrate levels would be after doing this for an extended period of time. As far as a filter though, if you could get it to run 24/7 and add some type of media for bacteria to populate, you would have an awesome filter. I've seen a few similar to yours on YouTube. Thanks for sharing i'm looking forward to the update.

[Serrecko]

I haven't checked my nitrate levels, but then again, I stopped doing them. I used to test it once a week, and after about 6 months of checking, and doing water changes, and not doing water changes and checking again... it was always okay.

I have a 20 gallon sump under my main shark tank that filters the tank about 3 times an hour. This setup was just used to keep from getting the muck out, but not taking out tons of water with it.

The idea here is to have a mid-way point of tank cleaning. I run all of my tank water through a RO system, then through another filter system, and then it goes in the tank. So just getting 75 gallons ready takes a lot of time. This system allows me to clean out the tank, keep most of the water, and when I do do a water change, it's just a water change.

What this is, more or less, is a 3 foot high Brita filter, with a little bit of Pur filtration ideas tossed in.

That will be another test of an idea soon. Creating a three stage water system where I actually use Brita canisters in 5 gallon buckets. It will be slow as everything, but worthy of a test. At least I think so.