Odyssea CFS 500 Can-filter review and circumference modification

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CWO4GUNNER

USN/USCG 1974-2004 Weps
Earlier I mentioned that this filter had arrived and I would be doing a comprehensive test like I did for the Sunsun. Unlike the Sunsun the CFS 500 is a bottom pump design that pulls water from top to bottom and potentially from all directions if modified. Modifications to increase this filters surface area by 300% around it circumference were conducted using the media provided. later mods will include a basket version which will increase surface are by 500% for full 360 degree circumference filtration .
Below the box which is thick cardboard well packed and has its own carry handle with instructions printed on the box.

Below I work the stiff tight valves with Vaseline lube at all moving points and work the valve gently free and brake it in for use. this will help avoid braking by being to strong handed. Always work a valve free with gentle back and forth pressure. Never force a valve free.


Below I cut the outflow fitting neck down because its necessary and allows more flow and the hose to fit more snug eliminating the need
for a clamp.



Below the inflow tube is fitted using Vaseline and the clamp is easily pre-tightened then slipped on tightly and effectively rather then trying to use pliers which damages the clamp. using this method no metal clamps are needed.

Below the clamp first sized by hand and then slipped on for very tight service. note telescoping down tube extension attached.

Bedtime, more to follow later
 

CWO4GUNNER

USN/USCG 1974-2004 Weps
Couldn't sleep so lets continue....
Below we finish our lubing with the lid double o-ring.

Now lets move onto the media modifications I spoke of earlier. Below notice that both top and bottom sponge that sit inside the canister aligned in one position have been glued together by me the night before using 4 drops of waterproof Gorilla Glue. This was necessary so that the sponges could be cut and trimmed as one sponge since alignment of the cutting and trimming are critical. Below you see top and bottom sponge glued together.

Below in order to make strait cuts on the sponge a strait edge and lines should be drawn to make strait cuts. The lines below represent area small sections that will be cut down perpendicular to the lines to a depth of 1 inch then horizontally removing each long loaf.


Below a common bread knife from the kitchen is often used to cut upholstery foam. By making short sawing motions back and forth the knife will cut easily into the foam removing what you have drawn, but will not work if you try and use the knife in one direction only chopping and stabbing will also not work.

By sawing each line down to the depth of 1 to 1.5 inches then from the bottom of the desired perpendicular cut of each line a cut is made horizontally and each segment come out to make one large removed section. Note that the section removed leaves 1/3 of the bottom black section uncut ( to length of bread knife above photo) to prevent bypass at the bottom where the floor of the canister is raised.

Below the process is repeated 3 times so that water channels are created to carry water to these 3 surface areas previously blocked from use but now increase the surface area by 300% without compromising filter alignment.
 

CWO4GUNNER

USN/USCG 1974-2004 Weps
Now for the top blue filter pad. The filter-pad below used to block all other potential surface are from receiving water effectively, but is necessary to cap off dirt taking a short cut dirty to the intake strainer.

Below I trace out the sponge cuts against the the blue filter pad so that alignment for water flow is not interrupted. The blue pad is then carefully split in two so that there is room for 1 layer of Poly blanket.




Below the blue and white combo filter pad is placed into position for use.

Now Im sleepy, to be continued, goodnight...
 

Haydn24

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Jun 28, 2010
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Haydn
Looks good! Great mods :)
 

CWO4GUNNER

USN/USCG 1974-2004 Weps
Thanks Hayden, Im really impressed with this filter so far, not just with its potential but what it has demonstrated in testing.

To recap a couple of points I forgot to mention earlier, both the black O-rings that come on the ends of the canister fittings for HON on tank that connect to the big green hoses and also the red O-rings on the ends of the orange connector valves that connect to the big green hoses, are not needed and should be removed before trying to shove the these fittings into the green hoses. These o-rings were never intended for use with a soft hose and will twist, deform interfere with the hose/connector seal and cause a leak. Remember we are only talking about the small thin black and red O-rings on fittings that would mate up with the big green hoses. They are not needed becasue the chevron-grooved end fitting that go into the ends of the green hoses along with the slide on plastic clamps make perfect intended seal then, while the o-rings were intended for hard connections between hard pipe surfaces.

Below black o-rings seen on table removed from end of connector neck-down that was cut off .


Below end of orange valve connector intended to be clamped into green hose you will see the small thin red o-ring, remove them as they will cause leaks. These are the ONLY O-rings that should be removed.

 
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CWO4GUNNER

USN/USCG 1974-2004 Weps
OK to resume...

Using the media configuration as shown earlier I used two 5 gallon bottles to test real world GPH with a 5 feet of head pressure load from the floor. The water source bottle on the floor was full and the canister was primed to the top. The photo below is just to show you the test setup which was actually already completed, and why the different water levels in each bottle as the water equalized after the pump was shut down encase you wondering.

The test results were amazing IMO. The canister pump pushing against both media and head pressure was able to easily pump 5 gallons of water without fanfare to the top bottle in 1 minute and 15 seconds or 1.25 minutes repeatedly which come to 240 GPH.
The canister pump was also able to pump its own content against head pressure and empty 60 % of its own water content restricted only by the fact the the media would not allow 40% of the locked up water to reach the pump, making the canister much lighter for maintenance removal. The only other canister that I have tested capable of pumping its own water content back to tank for light and easy services is the FX5. I am very very very impressed with the design (primarily), the build, and as a result static test performance of this canister.
Long and short term aquarium testing still needed and the design of a 360 degree circumference basket that will hold both 360 fiber padding for approx 280 square inches of surface area compared to the stock 38 square inches of surface area in its original design. And inside the basket granular media such as rings, under development.
 

mott

AC Members
Apr 7, 2008
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Pretty cool, just wondering why did you cut the top blue pre filter? Wouldn't you want to catch as much debris as possible before the circumference sponge?
 

CWO4GUNNER

USN/USCG 1974-2004 Weps
To be perfectly honest I did not want to use it at all unless I could rap the entire filter in padding but something was needed to take up space and keep the whole filter-pack snug. Opening up the circumference of filter means that the top will have to match the sides as far as shape, to close off the top as originally designed would render the circumference surface are almost moot becasue you'd be blocking it off in series with a small 40 square inch filter pad in the same way a multi-basket filter is only as affective as its most restrictive singe basket, the rest don't do much.

The blue padding is still going to filter, it just has to wait a little while until the rest of the 150 square inches of opened-up surface area gets its share of clogging dirt. This is why in the future a basket will be designed and used to cover the entire surface area in blue padding and polishing poly-wool and it will not only do a much better job polishing the water but it will not lose any GPH for a long-long time, just like an industrial filter.

PS, here is a hose comparison between the Sunsun hose and CSF500, the Sunsun hose slipping easily inside the CSF500 7/8" ID hose almost a full inch inside diameter something I forgot to post earlier.
 
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taksan

AC Members
Mar 24, 2005
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Can you explain exactly how this mod increases the surface area? I would have thought the water flows down through the pads to the pump at the bottom? Wouldn't cutting the pads actually reduce the surface are (less pad volume less surface as foam's surface area is mostly internal). Also wouldn't cutting holes allow water to bypass the top pads down the sides ?
I'm sure you know what your doing but I'm having a bit of trouble picturing exactly what the benefit of this mod is.
 

CWO4GUNNER

USN/USCG 1974-2004 Weps
Its not easy to explain geometric surface area and hydraulic theory 101 in a post, but even I who sat at the front of the class and asked all the hard questions as to why, the instructor would sigh an and say, "I appreciate your enthusiasm in class Petty Officer but I don't have time to explain every proven theory including the geometric theory of surface area, your just going to have to accept it so the class can move on" . So believe me I understand where your coming from.

The best explanation I can give to you is that given what I had to work with I would have preferred that the sponge was tall enough to take up the spacing the filter pad takes up. So imagine there was never a blue filter pad involved becasue the sponge was taller, and after making the cut modifications to the sponge for greater surface area filtering, I told you that the filter would work ever better if we re-blocked the first inch of the holes we just cut with sponge we had just removed, would that seem logical to you?
 
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