Many of us have have well water that has iron in it. And for those of us that have hard water and iron issues, our well water minus the iron is better for our fish vs. water coming out of a water softener. If we use that water with the iron for make up water, the oxidized iron has the propensity to irritate the gills of fish due to it's microscopic sharp edges, and of course it colors the water a disgusting brown. For those of us that have large systems as myself, we need substantial quantities of make up water, and don't want to wait to allow for the iron to settle in a tank, which is one way to remove it. The following is quicker for me and doesn't leave iron deposits in the bottom of my tank of make up water.
BTW this isn't an original idea on my part, as it's a clarifier used in a recirculating aquaculture systemt in the book Small Scale Aquaculture by Steven Van Gorder, which is used to removed dissolved solids from the system. It seems to do such a good job in my system I thought I would try it out separately as an iron removal device for my make up water. It works fantastic and works faster and faster each time as the the presence of iron in the filter material actually attracts any new iron particles. If you put a bulkhead and hose in the bottom of one of the 55 gallon drums that has the filter material you can drain it periodically and even spray off you filter material in the tank if there gets to be too much iron.
All that is required are a couple of plastic 55 gallon drums (I get them really cheap at a farm supply store), a small magnum pump of 300 gph, some 2 inch PVC and two elbows, and slip connecter for the siphon, a couple of 2 inch end caps, four cinder blocks to raise the drums to allow a drain under one, and keep the other at the same height, and some deer fence netting or something similar to use as filter material.
I cut the tops out of the drums with sabre saw.
I first fill both tanks with well water a few inches below the surface. I connected a garden hose to my well water distribution line in my basement with a garden hose nozzle on the end. You want to spray the water in to oxidize the iron to precipitate it. Then fill the siphon and cap both ends. You could put a 't' on the horizontal piece with a screw in opening to fill, but make sure there is no air leakage (I'd use teflon tape on the threads) or your siphon may quit. Been there done that. Once siphon is filled, cap both ends and set in place. You then remove the end caps to get it to work. Then attach an extended end to the siphon where the slip connecter is. As long as both ends of the siphon or submerged or you place end caps on them you won't have to refill the siphon.
If all the water runs out you've lost your siphon. If it stays put you're good to go to the next step. On the pump side you pack the netting in the barrel around the siphon tube, which also helps it stay in position. Once you've packed all the material in (I use a roll and a half of the deer netting I got from Menards which is relatively cheap) you can lay the pump w/o the foam filter on top of the netting and direct your hose into the other tank.
The 'u'-tube siphon pulls water from the one of the drums to the bottom of the netting of the other drum. The pump resting on top of the netting pulls that water up through the netting and back to the other tank which will be your clarified water.
Here a pics of the apparatus in use. Sorry for the not so good pics. It's fairly dark in the fish tank room and for some reason the pictures ended up with a green tint even with the flash.
Better close up of u-tube siphon from the book Small Scale Aquaculture Steven VanGorder.
Edited by az9, 18 April 2010 - 09:25 PM.
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