Mesh Bag for Manual Filtering

[jlmawp]

So my tank is pretty small - 9 gallon. When I do a serious cleaning of the tank, I'm not really able to siphon enough of the surfaces before I have pulled 2 gallons of water out that need to be replaced. A lot of the time, I let the sediment and detritus settle at the bottom of a gallon jug, and carefully pour the cleaner water on top back into the tank. I'll do this several times before finally pulling 2 gallons out and putting in 2 fresh gallons of RO/DI saltwater. This process lets me get a decent amount of the gunk out of my tank without having to remove all the water and expose everything to air before having to refill with 6-7 gallons of water every time.

My question is, what would be a good filter to pour this older water through when I'm putting it back in the tank? I'm currently using a very fine metal mesh filter, but I'm noticing that a lot of the finer particles are making their way back into the tank. I'm just looking for something that's sure to catch all the gunk as I pour it back in. I'd like to keep everything out once it's been siphoned out the first time.

Thanks all!

 

[ReefkeeperZ]

you can buy micron filters to whatever size you want to filter it to, but in a pinch since you arent doing huge volumes double up 2 XXlarge coffee filters with a layer of low loft polyester foam (quilt batting) in between the two filters, pour slowly.

 

[jlmawp]

Thanks for the reply. The coffee filter thing isn't a bad idea, but yeah I'd have to have some patience. I'd like to order something from amazon in terms of micron filter. Do you know what gauge would do what I need?

Apologies, not very expert in that area, and none of the reviews really reveal much.

 

[ReefkeeperZ]

the smaller micron size bags are going to remove the most, heres a decent source for them linked below, you can get any size you want, 200micron is for high flow large item capture and you can go all the way down to 1 micron depending on how much you ant out and how slow you want to put the water through it, smaller microns have a much slower flow rate.

https://www.utahbiodieselsupply.com/bagfilters.php

 

[ReefkeeperZ]

for what you are doing I'd go with either a 1 a 5 or a 10, but no larger, the goal is to get as much as possible on the first pass.

 

[jlmawp]

Thanks! Appreciate the help. I’ll get some ordered and go from there.

Apologies, been moving apartments, so I haven’t been perusing the forums this weekend.