I am thinking replace the sponge altogether with a sponge from a Mark V sponge filter (finer pores). Add a layer of matala to the top the entire circumference for coarse mech filtration.
Odyssea CFS 500 Can-filter review and circumference modification
- Thread starter CWO4GUNNER
- Start date
With the right thickness to allow access to the full geometric surface area, you could cover the entire sponge with matala as long as it is in full and complete layers you can use just about anything. But I have to warn you just because something is labeled bio media doesn't mean it works any better then sponge or poly-batting, the bacteria doesn't care about the marketing slogans and it going to colonize your tank to a much greater extent then your filter. In fact if your not in the habit of overfeeding or overstocking you can easily replace all the "bio-media" on a large established cycled tank and it will not spike or make much of any difference. Some of the truly best "bio-media" is the cheapest to buy and most affordable, in fact 1 spoon full of the best bio media known to man cost about $0.05 a spoon and is capable of colonizing more bio then 1 tractor trailer full of the most well advertised bio-media costing 10x as much. The bacteria has been around a long time and has been endowed with the ability to house and colonized itself without our help, quite literally the bacteria knows what its doing far better then we do. Take care of the mechanical and the bacteria will take care of itself.
You misunderstood my intent when I said I would consider using matala. In this particular case, your right, for this application, there are far better media to use for the colonization of bio-media than matala. In this particular instance, my suggestion of using matala has nothing to do with its bio capabilities (or lack there-of). I would be using it as a course pre-filter pad to capture the larger debris and extend the service period of your poly wrapped sponge. It would replace the blue pad you have laying on top of your sponge in which you cut those three "notches" out of. In this particular instance the matala's semi-rigid and self forming structure would eliminate by-pass, and be very easy to clean and re-use. Of course, this may only make sense to those of us that have extra matala laying around, as is the case in many a DIY project.
I can however assure you that there are applications in which matala has no equal. This is primarily the case when desiging much much larger DIY filters with much higher flow rates (3000 gph+) where you want the media to perform the duties of both bio and mechanical filtration, be easy to clean, and have a long serice life. Such is the case with my two 55 gallon drum filters used on my koi pond.
This being said, I do like your design on this mod, the poly wrapped sponge should do a nice job, providing it is sealed well with no by-pass. It's service life before losing a significant amount of flow would need to be tested and is largely dependent on several factors such as load, stocking, and feeding densities. Your mod, in any case will indeed extend that service life due to it's increased surface area. However, just to clarify, and something I am sure you are aware of, you have actually decreased the total surface that would harbor the beneficial bacteria (BB for short), as BB will not only grow on the surface of the sponge, but throughout the entire density of it. Whether or not this is significant I tend to doubt, and the remaining sponge material shoud still be plenty IMHO. Another idea I had was to replace the sponge entirely with a sponge from an air driven sponge filter (mark V), which tend to have much finer pores than those found in these bargain filters. Doing so would add a significant amount of colonization area for the BB, and, more importantly, do a much better job of polishing the water.
I am curious about several things, mainly interior dimensions of the filter, as it can be somewhat a guessing game when dealing with posted pictures. For instance, what is the distance from the outer edge of the centrally located intake tube to: a) the interior edge of the filter chamber... b) the closest point of the exterior edge of the discharge tube. Also, what is both the diameter of the interior filter chamber and the depth of it?
I am seriously thinking of getting one of these and modding it for an entirely different application that would suit my needs. I have always wanted a portable water polishing filter that I could use between several (more than 8) tanks. I want to be able to move the filter to a tank, insert intake and discharge tubes inside the tank and turn on, let run for an hour, turn it off, quickly move the filter to a cleaning area in which I could easily remove the polising media, spray, bleach, then de-chlor, and then setup on a second tank and repeat. I have seen this done with an fx5 mod, however, something approximately 1/2 that size would be easier to work with.
The radius of this cylinder is 4.12 inches or 8.25 inches in diameter across, the inside depth of the cylinder is 10.5 inches deep. Using the geometric formula to determine the potential surface area of a cylinder, this canister has a potential surface are of 384 square inches ideally. But in reality you would have to shave 1/2 inch for room around the top and sides for water flow, so the real world surface area would d be more like 324 square inches. When you compare that with say my Sunsun which has basket surface area of 8x8 inches, the surface are calculation is easy 64 square inches, and that is why industry even large scale commercial breeders use circumference filters becasue you can fit so much surface area into a cylinder on its sides and a cylinder is very strong and easy to make.
What is the distance between the central feed tube and the discharge tube? Thanks for the measurements, they help alot in calculating if my mod is feasable.
Remember there is only 1 tube (pump outflow) that extends inside the canister from the lid's two 7/8 inch inside diameter lid ports which are almost identical and evenly spaced directly across from one another. They sit as ports at opposite ends of the canister lid near the outer rim of the inside canister wall minus 1/4 inch gap between the walls and the canister's 1 outflow tube and 1 inflow port, the other lid port is where dirty tank water siphons into the canister. On the top of the lid you can see both ports in the form of 2 inch tall coupling tubes with double O-rings and an outside diameter of 1-1/8 inch sicking up outside the lid top marked IN and OUT at their bases respectively. From their inside closest tube edges they are spaced 5-3/8 inches apart and from center 6.5 inches apart, and from outside farthest edges 7-11/16 inches apart.
Hope that helps. One thing to add, IMO this canister is hardware built like the FX5 with similar canister wall and lid thickness and valves, but requires a delicate non forceful hand especially to brake in the un-lubricated tight valves. The design of the internal filter operation of the CFS 500 (my mod) is identical to the Mag 350 except its 50% larger and uses a much simpler media design so that rather then dealing with a basket that has to be disassembled and reassembled each time you clean the filter. With the CSF500 you simply reach in and yank out the sponge and media in one piece, rinse it out, replace the polishing pad and pop it back in and start the filter back up for another 5 months. I think this filter would also make the ultimate turtle tank filter
Hope that helps. One thing to add, IMO this canister is hardware built like the FX5 with similar canister wall and lid thickness and valves, but requires a delicate non forceful hand especially to brake in the un-lubricated tight valves. The design of the internal filter operation of the CFS 500 (my mod) is identical to the Mag 350 except its 50% larger and uses a much simpler media design so that rather then dealing with a basket that has to be disassembled and reassembled each time you clean the filter. With the CSF500 you simply reach in and yank out the sponge and media in one piece, rinse it out, replace the polishing pad and pop it back in and start the filter back up for another 5 months. I think this filter would also make the ultimate turtle tank filter
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nc0gnet0, if your thinking of trying to fit it for a standard size cart Iv already tried. the center strainer is too large to fit inside the standard 1 inch inside diameter cart center hole and the canister well too shallow by 1.5 inches, minimum to barley fit 12 inches tall. You might try an Ocean Clear cart as I haven't looked into the diameter and center hole for those carts. If Ocean Clear cart did fit the CFS500 with 360 water access there would be a run on these filters, if so don't post it until you PM me first lol. Anyway the measurement your asking for is the center strainer diameter 1-7/8 inch, and the distance from its edge of the center strainer to the canister wall is 3 inches.
Zigman, its pretty convincing to me that based of the almost identical type materials used in the canister valves and locking lid nuts, this offshore company must be labor contracted to build the FX5 IMO. I decided to call mine mini-me
Zigman, its pretty convincing to me that based of the almost identical type materials used in the canister valves and locking lid nuts, this offshore company must be labor contracted to build the FX5 IMO. I decided to call mine mini-me
Gunner,
What I am thinking of doing is replacing the factory sponge with one that has finer pores.
I pretty much assumed that the center strainers diameter was a bit large to handle a cart.......if I were to go that route I would'nt try to find a cart that fits, rather I would mod the center strainer to fit the cart I wanted to use.
What I am thinking of doing is replacing the factory sponge with one that has finer pores.
I pretty much assumed that the center strainers diameter was a bit large to handle a cart.......if I were to go that route I would'nt try to find a cart that fits, rather I would mod the center strainer to fit the cart I wanted to use.
