Mechanical Filtration.

[The Taffy Apple]

Morning all, hope this quick thread finds you all well.

Mrs Apple has opted for a tap-water jug and filter for the fridge, apologies for the domestic start to the thread, but stick with me..

What caught my eye was what these 'filters' are and could they be beneficial to a fishkeeper and their tanks in any way. They seem to be a basic sort of carbon/chemical mix in a small bag. Guaranteed for '4 weeks of constant filtration' (so straight away, in the same way as certain tank filtration products, are proving we live in a consumer world!) ands states that they will remove:
Chlorine, Limescale.
Lead, Copper and other metals (so there's a benefit for my shrimp).

We live in soft/very soft water area, with no trace of ammonia and very little NitrAte out of the tap... but could these filters help your regular fishkeeper in ANY way,shape or form? What about water changes, if you had high traces of metal in your tap water? Could you use them for set-ups and W/C's on small (<30L) tanks?

Any opinion or statement, as always, highly appreciated.
Terry.

 

[@ombomb]

if you are worried about filtering your water a small RO unit and relevant buffers would be a much better bet

 

[KittyKat]

The filters you are talking about use an ion exchange resin, similar to what Nitra-Zorb use and the like. I don't know about your specific filter, but mine softens the water some and removes at least nitrates.

From my point of view, they are of little use to the average fishkeeper.. but as an average fishkeeper, I also know that they can be recharged by soaking in salt water (never tried this in practice)

 

[ZoddyZod]

there have been threads about using Britta filters and the like for filtering tank water. I remember reading that it was not at all cost effective due to the amount of water required and how quickly the filter cartridges become exhausted.

However, didn't know that you could recharge them with salt water as KK states above......would save me a small fortune on the things!

 

[The Taffy Apple]

So could the average charcoal bags in our filters be re-used by using salt water?

 

[KittyKat]

No there is no way to recharge the charcoal, only the resins can be recharged with salt water..