Diy 10 Min Water Filter

[Matthew5664]

Where I live in Guilford the tap water was reading about 50mg/l of NO3 so I took it upon myself to try and make a filter

I took 1 length of 2" PVC pipe I had laying around and fixed it off the wall by 5" with some battening and clips

On the bottom end I tapes a nylon gauze and filled the pipe with 6" of Crushed coral (PH buffer)

Gauze was placed on top of that and I cut and empted 4 Brita water filters into the pipe
(Could use DI resin beads)

With that in some carbon sponges were cut into 'chunks' and put in and compacted down with a smaller bit of pipe

On this I added some filter wool just a little too big to stop the carbon from pushing up.

Then as a water holding vessle i used a 2.5/ miniral water bottel with the bottom cut off. Could conect a hose to the top but would have to ajust the flow to match that of the filter. (Might get a bit wet if not)

The first 6 litres I put through in went down the drain and the went about filling my 18 litre barrel for the water change and after testing

NO3 - undetectable
PO4 - undetectable
PH - 7 (ish)

Thinking from now on my fish will enjoy this water more.

All in all cost me £12.56 not bad I think. How long it will last is another question

(All the filter water is treated with de-chlorinator and aerated for 24 hours with a air stone before use)

Here's a little pic

 

[ncjharris]

Guilford the tap water was reading about 50mg/l of NO3

Blimey. I am 10 mins from Guildford down the Hogs Back, and my nitrite isn't that bad.
Or at least it wasn't when I last tested my tap water.

Good little device by the way, how did you get the stuff out of the Britta filters - brute force?

 

[Matthew5664]

Saw the top off ( go 3 or 4 cm befor the beeds )but be very carful not to spill it all over the kitchen D'OH Take for ever to clean!

Try holing it in a vice? I suppose

I'm in GU1 now but used to live to Puttenham down your way!

 

[OohFeeshy]

Mm, looks good, I might try the same sort of thing but with peat instead of crushed coral. But, what about when you want/need to regenerate the ion exchange resin? Maybe put it at the bottom so you only need to soak the bottom bit in a salt solution?

 

[Matthew5664]

good call OohFeeshy have to work that in in vretion 1.1

 

[Arfie]

Do you need to dechlorinate?

I think Brita filters take chlorine and chloramine out of the water, so you shouldn't need to add the dechlor

One other point though is that Brita themsleves do not recommend using water filtered by their filters for use in fishtanks, check out the info on their t'internet site, just type fish into their search box.

Great idea btw.

Arfie

 

[Matthew5664]

thanks for the feedback Arfie was not sure the brita filters out the chloramine witch I know theams water put in so just being on the safe side!

As for brita saying its no good for the fish I think thats to do with the drop in Ca and Ph might affect the fish if from the unfiltered water..

Might be wrong feel free to 'Av a go'

 

[bUcky]

interesting, i need something like that for my pond. but do you need to dechlorinate?

 

[Matthew5664]

I'm not sure if this filter with get all heavy metels and the chloramine out of the water so to be better safe that sorry I used it, You could tank the chance and see what happens but i don't want to be responsable for any losses you may have if any ofcorse

 

[Matthew5664]

Well took a chance and all is fine so i guess the chloramine is filtered out!

and Ive done 50l of water so far and NO3 and PO4 are still 0