Sea Save Aquarium Society's Think Tank

by **seasave** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:37 am

DO IT YOURSELF FILTER SYSTEM SEA SAVE INC. USES

by **seasave** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:38 am

by **seasave** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:39 am

by **seasave** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:41 am

by **seasave** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:42 am

by **seasave** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:43 am

by **seasave** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:49 am

by **seasave** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:51 am

by **seasave** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:52 am

by **seasave** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:57 am

by **seasave** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:58 am

by **seasave** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:59 am

by **seasave** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 9:03 am

ITEMS NEEDED :

BLACK TOTE – HOME DEPOT - $10
3 DRAWER (STERILITE) – TOTE – WAL-MART - $15
1” – STREET ELBOW – LOWES, HOME DEPOT - $1
EGG CRATE (CEILING TILE) – LOWES, HOME DEPOT – $12
HOSE CLAMPS - $1
DOUBLE SYSTEM:
SHOWER DRAINS – $7
2 – 2” COUPLERS – $5
2” PVC PIPE (DEPENDS ON LENGTH) - $5

TOOLS :

DRILL
DRILL PRESS
CUTTERS
POCKET KNIFE

AQUARIUM SUPPLIES :

FILTER PAD (POLY FIBER) - $6
CARBON PAD - $6
PHOSPHATE PAD - $6
BIO BALLS (CORAL LIFE) (5 GAL. BUCKET) - $60
(BAGS OF CARBON) (MARINE LAND/ BLACK DIAMOND))- 68OZ. - $30
3’ CRINKLE HOSE - $25
1” BULK HEAD - $10
THESE ARE APPROX. PRICING

by **seasave** » Sat May 22, 2010 5:34 pm

Greetings & Aquarium Owners Please Read,
After many attempts to battle nitrate problems I finally decided to actually listen to John and build a shelf filter system for my main display reef tank. I could never get nitrates under 40 and that is with very frequent and very large water changes. For example if I would do a water change on Sunday within 3 days the nitrates would be close to 80 which is terrible. I kept blaming the entire problem on my livestock as many of them are messy eaters such as the very large and fat and certainly well fed snowflake eel and lion fish. Sure such fish and their diets do not help but the eel doesn’t eat every day and whatever does not get eaten goes to an army of snails, crabs and pods and a packed large refugium rated for a much larger tank.
I talked to many marine stores and dealers who gave me advice which was on the spectrum of damn stupidity. Lets ponder the obvious on this subject. People who work at a pet store are there for a paycheck and dealers are just pedaling a product. Here is another obvious factor with dealers. The more you kill the more they will sell especially if you are talking about coral and filtration. Lets face it they want you in the dark and keep you there.
Enough was enough with those gurus of the toxic. I reviewed the Invention of the Month page and then talked in detail with John of Sea Save Inc. and not only resolved my problem but added extra dimensions to my display reef tank. I am referring to the do it yourself shelf filters. The task may look difficult but it is really simple to create and the next time you walk into an aquarium store the urge to smash every canister filter in sight comes to mind. Since I am from Texas we like everything bigger so I did not do a 3 shelf system but initially did a 5 shelf filter. When I said initially this is because you can expand the filter by just clicking in additional shelves so now I have a 6 shelf filter and now run low nitrates of approximately 5 and I have never gone above 10.
Other additional benefits are that the media is not submerged in the water as that is a ticking time bomb to release the detrimental materials back into the tank and do much harm. This concept provides a constant shower of water with maximum dispersion and flow this assists in buffering Ph as harmful gas release from the water. Think about it as the majority of gas release is at the surface of the water meaning that the bigger footprint your tank has the better but it is probably not enough and canister filters are sealed so there is no gas exchange. Using the shelf filter system as they are not sealed provides so much surface exchange due to not being sealed gas exchange will never be a problem for you again and your Ph issues will be a thing of the past.
The system also does not need to be powered off to change filters as all you have to do is open the shelf you desire to check or replace filter media. This cannot be done with a canister filter or lets just say if you tried it with a Fluval or Cascade filter you will never do it again. This added bonus of sliding out shelves without turning off the pumps saves time and most importantly becomes a transparent process to the aquarium as flow is not shut off and then turned on.
I have added a schematic of my shelf system as I added it to the refugium and not directly to the tank overflow. This is because I need the living filter but I needed a way to maximize carbon effectiveness and mechanical filtration. If I were to add it directly to the tank and also have the refugium directly to the tank as well there would have been a flow problem it not a flood and the weaker of the two being drained dry. If you do what we call daisy chaining which is just adding such things to the last item added then there is never a risk “BUT” you have to elevate the next item higher than the water level of the first as we are using gravity for the return flow. Sounds a bit complicated but it you look at the schematic and walk the flow in your mind step by step it becomes logical. Total build time was 90 minutes. The step that took the longest was deciding on which pump to buy and my advice is to always go big as you want maximum flow and could always add a ball valve if you think it is too high.
My sincere thanks go to John and Bambi of Sea Save Inc. for not only providing the best advice possible but for actually having the deepest concern for aquatic species and their protection from their most dangerous predator which in most cases are their owners. To protect these animals they share knowledge, educate and continuously develop innovative concepts to ensure that our aquariums not only survive but thrive and expand.

With Deepest Respect and Thanks
John K Swaim

by **seasave** » Sat Jun 12, 2010 12:44 pm

You don't NEED to have a glass ( or acrylic) box, skimmer, or fancy equiptment. Start with GOOD water, GOOD live rock and anybody can have an Instant Reef. Sounds too simple. Come see in it in action.