AC 110 / AC70 - one gripe

[sushiray]

anyone experience this?

when you put in the insert media holder, it snaps in near the bottom to stay in place. but it has the hole grids on the side & an opening at the top under the finger holder part, so the side panel facing the intake side, water & debris flows thru above the media. & also the side panel is not tight against the box compartment so water & debris can also flows thru the edges.

I know this cuz I placed media floss at these openings (grid holes, opening at top of panel & thin strip at both edges) & when I went to clean/replace, it was full of dirt.

this is my gripe - so that means all the crud/debris/hubris/planari it sucks up doesn't ALL necessarily go thru the bottom channel then up thru the media.

but I also placed media floss over the sponge but beneath my scrubbies - result is it captures a lot of crud cuz it's all darkened. the sponge itself is too porous allowing much of the crud to pass thru. next change I am going to place the media floss after the sponge & scrubbie to see how good the scrubbie does. so this is not my gripe tho. I can adapt to this.

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199424&page=2

 

[DavidZ]

I have been using AC110 and 70 for 4yrs, don't see the problem
I think you might be overdoing it!
I have the sponge on the bottom, then bio-media, or pot scrubbers, with a strip of floss in between, and you through out the floss every 2-3 weeks, done!
What is the problem?
I wash the whole thing in a bucket of tank water once a month, done!

 

[vampie]

The amount of bypass Aquaclear has by default is one of the reasons I don't use them anymore.

 

[fishorama]

I use floss in some ACs on top of the sponge & below the biomax things & a second sponge on the very top. Yes it gets cruddy fast, that's why it's there.

Sushiray, is this in your discus tank? I rinse my ACs every week or 2 since my juvie discus get fed so often. I also use prefilters on the intakes & rinse them at least every other day. Lots of food particles & poo too, little darlings that they are.

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

This is true in stock format but by doubling the surface area and using the weight of the water behind the sponge rather then from beneath, the sponge is both held in place naturally and the larger surface are translates to better throughput filtering.

Couple this with a poly quilt layer and you have a vastly improved polishing "AquaClear 110 Supreme" LOL. Note the filtered dirt just after only 15 days. So IMO what I was once going to clean and sell, I now find effective and viabale.

 

[sushiray]

I have been using AC110 and 70 for 4yrs, don't see the problem
I think you might be overdoing it!
I have the sponge on the bottom, then bio-media, or pot scrubbers, with a strip of floss in between, and you through out the floss every 2-3 weeks, done!
What is the problem?
I wash the whole thing in a bucket of tank water once a month, done!

well, as I had described, 1. the midlevel grating (the ooo's), 2. the opening at the top tab (a) (guess it can be called the overflow from the intake side) & 3./4. the side edges of the panel allows water flow into the filter box side (i) 5. besides the intended water flow from the intake side bottoms up(5). that's 4 pts of entry.

intake tube
===[]...l
......[]...l
......[]...v downward flow
......[]
___[_a__]__
i[.............]i...........water surface
i[.............]i...........bio rings
i[..grating..]i..........bio rings
i[..ooooo...]i..........poly filter floss
i[..ooooo...]i..........scrubbie
i[.............]i.......l..sponge
i[.............]i.......l..sponge
i[.............]i.......l..sponge
xx-----5--->>>>..l....(left to right water flow upward)

when you look at the schematic on the box, the midlevel grating is suppose to allow water flow back into the intake side when you reduce the intake to 50% which supposedly will circulate back downwards & circle its way back bottoms up. I did not find this to be the case. I found the flow actually goes the other way. thus the need for poly floss at this entry (ooo)

pt. a is the opening at the top tab which also allows water flow from the intake side into the media box side. thus the need for poly floss at this entry (ooo)

all pts labeled (i) are the side edges where there is spacing between the panel & the filter box, another source of water flow from the intake side to the media box side. thus the need for poly floss at this entry (ooo)

plse don't mis-understand, the intake downward flow then rightward flow at the bottom then upward flow thru the media layers works well enough as intended (as evidenced by the use of a full layer of poly floss).

it is those previously mentioned 4pts of water flow entry that I had a problem with.

not sure if my qwerty keyboard diagram will come out clearly to illustrate my gripe.

 

[sushiray]

This is true in stock format but by doubling the surface area and using the weight of the water behind the sponge rather then from beneath, the sponge is both held in place naturally and the larger surface are translates to better throughput filtering.

Couple this with a poly quilt layer and you have a vastly improved polishing "AquaClear 110 Supreme" LOL. Note the filtered dirt just after only 15 days. So IMO what I was once going to clean and sell, I now find effective and viabale.

I looked at your ACmod, interesting.

the pics you posted shows the poly floss pretty gunked up at the bottom layer which is above your doubled up standing sponges.

so with the back water flowing freely thru your mechanical media I see it does the job - which also looks like easier to maintain.

but this shows that the AC sponge is so porous that there is the need for the poly floss. even tho your sponges are taut against the panel with the grid holes that will not capture the smaller debris so the need for the way you laid your poly floss. in fact you have the poly floss high enough so it also will cover the top of the panel.

looks like you don't use any bio media/ceramic rings?

thinking on my next w/c filter change to try your set up.

thks