Modify OmniOne Whole House Water Filters?

[jbolinger]

Is Polyolefin heat shrink tubing aquarium safe? This is the dark Gray/Black stuff used for electronic wiring.

Anyone have any experience with using it in an aquarium?

I am considering using Omnione whole house water filters (less than $23 at Menards for the transparent ones! Nontransparent even less.) on my tank. Looking at the way they work, the water enters at the outside edge and leaves through the center. I was thinking of canibalizing a filter cartridge and sealing the tube to force the water to the bottom of the canister. In this way I could fill it with Purigen, pot scrubbers, etc.

Jim

[daFrimpster]

not sure about the heat sink stuff but could oyu use an appropriately sized piece of PVC?

[jbolinger]

Originally Posted by daFrimpster

not sure about the heat sink stuff but could oyu use an appropriately sized piece of PVC?

Probably could.

After I posted this I found on another forum (via a google search) a post that mentioned that a 1/2 inch PVC pipe would fit in a Culligan water filter.

Don't know if the ones at Menards are the same size, though. I have seen 2 or 3 different sizes of cartridges in the stores in this area.

Jim

[swylie]

Originally Posted by jbolinger

Probably could.

After I posted this I found on another forum (via a google search) a post that mentioned that a 1/2 inch PVC pipe would fit in a Culligan water filter.

Don't know if the ones at Menards are the same size, though. I have seen 2 or 3 different sizes of cartridges in the stores in this area.

Jim

Have you thought about just using the off-the-shelf filters? Or were you planning to use these for strictly chemical/biological filtration?

Where the heck was the heat shrink going to come into play?

[jbolinger]

Hi, swylie. Hope you day is going better than mine. Slept terrible last night. Then somebody wrapped his car around a tree this morning (icy roads here) causing me to be 1/2 hour late.

Originally Posted by swylie

Have you thought about just using the off-the-shelf filters?

If you mean the 'whole house' filters found at Lowes, Menards, Home Depot, etc., then, yes. That is what I was thinking of.

However.....

Or were you planning to use these for strictly chemical/biological filtration?

...I will also have one (or possibly two seperate)for bio and mechanical filtration.

Where the heck was the heat shrink going to come into play?

If you look at a filter cartridge made of paper-like material, you will see that the paper is wound on a tube made of plastic mesh. I was going to remove the paper and cover the tube with the heatshrink escept for the bottom inch or so. This would force the water to flow all the way down through the media (which I would stuff into the filter). This would also give more room for adding my own media.

I did find an old post on another forum that mentioned that a 1/2 inch pvc pipe will fit into the center of a filter canister, so just drill some holes in the bottom end and there you are. Don't know if 1/2 inch will work with the ones at Menards, but some other size probably would.

[swylie]

Originally Posted by jbolinger

Hi, swylie. Hope you day is going better than mine. Slept terrible last night. Then somebody wrapped his car around a tree this morning (icy roads here) causing me to be 1/2 hour late.


If you mean the 'whole house' filters found at Lowes, Menards, Home Depot, etc., then, yes. That is what I was thinking of.

However.....

...I will also have one (or possibly two seperate)for bio and mechanical filtration.


If you look at a filter cartridge made of paper-like material, you will see that the paper is wound on a tube made of plastic mesh. I was going to remove the paper and cover the tube with the heatshrink escept for the bottom inch or so. This would force the water to flow all the way down through the media (which I would stuff into the filter). This would also give more room for adding my own media.

I did find an old post on another forum that mentioned that a 1/2 inch pvc pipe will fit into the center of a filter canister, so just drill some holes in the bottom end and there you are. Don't know if 1/2 inch will work with the ones at Menards, but some other size probably would.

Thanks, I understand what you're going for now. My recommendation for using off-the-shelf filters was in regard to using a paper filter cartridge for mechanical filtration rather than doing something silly like stripping the paper filter and wrapping the core in filter floss. I totally get the plan to strip the paper filter for bio/chem filtration.

I think the whole thing is probably a pretty good idea. The mech unit would be like a Magnum HOT or 350 or whatever 'cept with an external pump. The filter cartridges are inexpensive. And you know the whole thing is pressure-rated to 100 psi or whatever, so it shouldn't leak.

Why don't you buy one, see if the PVC fits, and return it if it doesn't fit? Or hell, just open it up in the store.