Beckett muffler/air cleaner

[Bryan]

Buy a cheap carbon water filter cartridge from home depot, the kind that fit in the typical undersink water filter canisters. the ones that work the best are the cheap ones that have rubber ends and the filter is carbon rolled around a plastic insert.

Plug one end and attach a fitting to the other end so the air inlet can connect to.

The filter cartridge I bought allowed 1/2" PVC fittings to snugly fit without glue. The filter connects to the beckett valve with vinyl tubing.

The filter cartridge acts as a muffler and the carbon inside the cartridge helps to scrub the air of any impurities before it enters the beckett.

My skimmer is virtually silent and the foam is much more consistent, not as prone to air quality issues.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/bpl521/Corals/muffler.JPG

[Delphinus]

What an awesome idea! Thanks for sharing that.

(I'm off to HD right now.... 8) )

[Bryan]

Glad to help. Let me know how it works out!

What an awesome idea! Thanks for sharing that.

(I'm off to HD right now.... 8) )

[Aquattro]

I'll be trying the same thing today

[Bryan]

If you guys happen to pick up the same filter as I use a 1/2" PVC end cap will fit snugly in one side of the filter sealing off the end.

[StirCrazy]

Brian, what kinda carbon filter is that.. I do see a potential problem depending on the type.. for eg. if it is a "carbon block" styal filter is should be ok but they can cost up to 20.00 each.. if it is a GAC (granular actavated carbon) styal they have a very high amount of dust in them and if I recal right most instructions say to rins them for like 5 min befor use to remove the dust (thease are you commen 5 to 10 buck ones)

the problem comes in that if you don't rinse it you will be sucking carbon dust into your tank.. and depending on the quality of carbon used (and I can pretty much be confident in saying a 5 or 10 buck filter will be using a low grade as all it is for is chlorine removel not organic compound removal) it could have negative effects over time.

I think you would be better off building a PVC filter that you can replace the carbon in and use small amounts of a marine grade carbon that you can change once a month or when you do your regular skimmer services.

then you could just use a 1 micron poly filter from HD for 5.00 and have the carbon chamber inline.

but the idea is a good one and I will be loooking into something like I just described.. Thanks for the idea :wink:

Steve

[Bryan]

The cartridges I use are available at Home Depot and are a sheet of Carbon paper wrapped many times around a tube. I forgot to mention that I don't use new ones, i use the ones that have finished their cycle in my water filter.