My Diy Sand Filter. I'm sick of filter socks!!!
- Thread starter cabinetman123
- Start date
cabinetman123
Member
I guess if someone was worried after the backflush a small amount of salt water could be ran thru and let go to drain before opening return to tank.
Horace
New member
If it were me, at minimum i would run it through a carbon filter first. But more than likely I would instead use RO water (not DI). Water is cheap, and not worth the risk of adding heavy metals and other dissolved materials. While I agree the amount is likely pretty small, i personally would rather not. Over time the amount of residual water you are leaving in your sand is probably more than you would think. I bet there is at least a few cups of that unfiltered water left behind each time you do it. That adds up.....
cabinetman123
Member
I used my tap water for over a year for top off so I don't think I got much to worry about.
Horace
New member
if thats the case, my advice would be to have your water tested by Triton and see
. I would suspect you have some stuff in there you dont know about already.
cabinetman123
Member
if thats the case, my advice would be to have your water tested by Triton and see
I would suspect you have some stuff in there you dont know about already.
Ya. Likely find some copper seeing how this whole system was coppered about 4 months ago. Rock and all.
cabinetman123
Member
Again. In case this gets lost. My new experiment with the sand filter. Dosing viniger relying on the sand filter to filter out the bacteria. The video explains it way better. And for those just finding my videos. This tank was coppered 4 months ago using cuprimine and then treated with cuprisorb. I've done it before to my old 300 and never experienced any problems. Here's the vid
http://youtu.be/D_KRC-jbdiA
http://youtu.be/D_KRC-jbdiA
Horace
New member
damn....im a little shocked your corals are OK. Surely there is residual copper. Did you have corals in there when you did the copper treatment?
cabinetman123
Member
No all the coral was out. I had it in the 150. I used seachem cuprimine. And after a month I used cuprisorb for about a week or so and about a week later all the coral went back in. Haven't looked back.
Ron Reefman
Active member
Horace is absolutely right about the introduction of contaminates from the tap water. But IMHO he is seriously overthinking the situation. You have what, 500 gallon of saltwater in your entire system? And how much tap water would be left in the sand filter after it's drained? Maybe a couple fluid ounces? So the dilution is what, about 60:1 in a gallon and you have 500 gallons so 30,000:1. And that's tap water with low levels of contamination to saltwater at 30,000:1. You could flush it with pure vinegar and it wouldn't be a problem.
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cabinetman123
Member
I had to chuckle at it to be truthful.
Happyschneider
New member
I see a bucket of sand in my future! At least if I get my fish room 
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing!
Horace
New member
I think the estimate of a few fluid oz is way short....I would bet at least a few cups of water are held in the sand. Now if a few cups every few days is an issue or not..thats diff story, but i bet its far more than just a few oz. Sand holds a lot of water.
I think Horace has a very valid point. People seem to forget that elements can building up in tanks much quicker than in an ocean. I recommend reading this:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php
Horace
New member
Regardless of the debate on using tap water etc, I think this idea is pretty damn cool. I have been doing a great deal of brainstorming on it, and think this could be taken to another level. If you were able to get valves that are programmable, you could have a reef controller backflush this thing for you every day. This way, you would never have to manually backflush it, and it would would remove risk of this thing creating nitrates from all the O2 rich water running through the collected waste. Plus it likely wouldnt have to backflush very long because its only 1 day worth of crap built up. I actually have a programmable 3/4" hose valve already that could be used to turn the fresh water on/off, but what I dont have is a large valve for the 1.5" PVC return you have there. I have to do some thinking on this, but this would be awesome
Regardless of the debate on using tap water etc, I think this idea is pretty damn cool. I have been doing a great deal of brainstorming on it, and think this could be taken to another level. If you were able to get valves that are programmable, you could have a reef controller backflush this thing for you every day. This way, you would never have to manually backflush it, and it would would remove risk of this thing creating nitrates from all the O2 rich water running through the collected waste. Plus it likely wouldnt have to backflush very long because its only 1 day worth of crap built up. I actually have a programmable 3/4" hose valve already that could be used to turn the fresh water on/off, but what I dont have is a large valve for the 1.5" PVC return you have there. I have to do some thinking on this, but this would be awesome
I was thinking of something the on the same lines. What about backflushing when you do a water change? Just reverse the flow and have a valve switch from tank return to drain. This way you don't have to worry about wasting RODI/Fresh saltwater to backflush. Than you can just re-fill with fresh Salt water when your are done backflushing. You can deff automate something like this with a controller.
Ron Reefman
Active member
Backflushing with tank water and adding new saltwater is an interesting idea. But it seems to me, if you are going to add that much (whatever it takes to do the backflush) in new saltwater on a daily or even once every 4 or 5 days like CM does, you may not even need a filter of any kind!
cabinetman123
Member
I dont do water changes that often so I would prefer the fresh water method for sure. If I build on of these, I still plan to use RO, or at minimum carbon filtered water for the flush though...call me paranoid, but better safe than sorry
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