it has been in my 9th weeks without water change in my 220 gal tank.... however,
i went home last night to find out my tank a little bit cloudy...only to find out
the area was hit with 6 hours power failure.... alas.... i was hit by a manageable
ammonia and nitrite spike, did 50% water change and will test the water again tonight.
my experiment involves from a single stage DIY canisters x 2


to a multi-stage DIY x 4 canisters in series

Well at least we now know filter bacteria don't last 6 hrs ))))

update posting: water clearing up; fishes still hungry as ever;
ammonia=0; nitrite=only slight shade, manageable; nitrate=20 but
that is after 50% w/c yesterday...

now i believe having an overhead canister has a tendency to drain all
water during power failure. the good thing is..the middle canister
retain its water since the intake and discharge point is higher due
to my up-down sequencing......that is where i got my good bacteria
plus the filter from the smaller tank of the wifey...

lol paul you should start mass producing those filters...

Win wrote:

no way Win...too small opening and too small capacity...but i can use them as
an adapter to lift the pump but suction still at the bottom...that way i don't
have to scoop pooh from time to time....

i only need a 6 liter size container or higher with wide sealed lid container.
how can stuff those plastic with media??? and ceramic rings????

PAUL wrote:


lol drop in 1 ring at a time, you should be just fine

but you know what, i was thinking flaten those PEP and use them as cooling
tower fillers for heat exchanger, it will last longer than the normal PVC
fillers... i am just not sure if it is worth trying labor costwise in filling
one cooling exchanger....

PAUL wrote:


cool setup!

What other media do you use inside the bottles, besides the rings?

It should be fairly easy to rig up an anaerobic container onto that, have you not considered it? that will take care of nitrates. another container restrict the flow to a very small amount with small hole and away you go.

marcus wrote:

it had cross my mind but having those stock in my tank, i don't want
to take the risk of having cloudy tank....due to too much bioload...i might
considered making one canister for the purpose alone....

when i a having those plants (aquaponic) i run several container to water
the mapal beds with thin layer of water...perhaps that is the one helping
me cope with low nitrate for 17 months without water change...i didn't
realize that.

Noddy wrote:

But he didn't get an answer yet