FINALLY!!! Affordable Help For Large FW Systems...

[vamptrev]

very nice!!

 

[koienterprise]

Hello Everyone,

It was brought to my attention of the interest in the Clarity Unit and thought I would chim in with my experience with them. I first saw these units 6 years ago and bought my first unit then. I can tell you that the purchase of one shipped from Norway into SF CA was well worth the investment. Attached are some pictures of the very first CL-3 unit. It is installed in a 6' koi show tank with 50 tosia koi averaging 4"-5". The unit was installed in the am and picture was taken 1.5 hours later. Enjoy!

 

[koienterprise]

Here is a picure of the same 6' koi tank system with the CL-3 Clarity Unit running 24hrs. Truely a breakthrough in FW PS! I used a large poly bag to collect the foam. I then mix water within the bag to dissolve the foam into a slury mixture. Place into Veg garden and you'll have the best garden in the block! For those reefkeepers that are wondering how this system works on SW systems stay tune while I dig up some commercial system setup photos. I'll hopefully post witin the next couple of days. Great forum by the way!

 

[sostoudt]

Hello Everyone,

It was brought to my attention of the interest in the Clarity Unit and thought I would chim in with my experience with them. I first saw these units 6 years ago and bought my first unit then. I can tell you that the purchase of one shipped from Norway into SF CA was well worth the investment. Attached are some pictures of the very first CL-3 unit. It is installed in a 6' koi show tank with 50 tosia koi averaging 4"-5". The unit was installed in the am and picture was taken 1.5 hours later. Enjoy!

hi thanks for the input.
how much would you say its changed the necessary water changes for your system?

if you could guess how much of the overall fish waste would you say it pulls out? a large amount? a decent amount? nearly all? or just some but its better then nothing?

do you have any expierence or knowledge about saltwater skimmers, so you could compare the two(based on a decent saltwater skimmer)?

thanks

 

[koienterprise]

Water changes have decreased in this system as far as keeping Nitrates and DOC down. With such heavy stocking and feeding rates I would have to almost do a constant trickle of freshwater. With the unit installed I am only doing weekly 15% waterchanges mainly to replemish lost minerals assosiated with the bioreactors. I'm sure waterchanges would also depend on specias of animal you are keeping and overall system desighn/husbanary upkeep. My experience with this system is mainly in freshwater ornimental ponds and LSS for SW crab systems. I would also add that we do not use these sytems as stand alone filters. The unit is advertised as a biofilter as well which actaully happens naturally because of the trickle tower media. However I would strongly recommend mechanical and Biological Filters in addition to the Clarity Unit. I tend to lean toward it being an awsome PS! I give the unit a 9 out of 10 in doing what it is advertised to do...DOC removal! Understand that FW skimming is also influened by atmoshere pressures H and Low as well as feed in water. Oily foods with high fat content and such. As for saltwater PS I can say that they are much more effiecent then whats on the market. Most PS SW use a venturi system or airstone which need larger pump/pumps in doing large 1000gallon+ aquaria. Clarity is unique in the fact that it does not waste energy in pressurizing water through venturi's. The water falling through the unit uses sheathing to accomplish the same tasks a tiny air bubble will do....without the extra energy spent in creating the bubble ( ie. venturi or woodairstone) I am hoping to post pictures of saltwater systems using the unit so that you can see the foam is very consistent. I hope this answers some of your questions.

 

[sostoudt]

Water changes have decreased in this system as far as keeping Nitrates and DOC down. With such heavy stocking and feeding rates I would have to almost do a constant trickle of freshwater. With the unit installed I am only doing weekly 15% waterchanges mainly to replemish lost minerals assosiated with the bioreactors. I'm sure waterchanges would also depend on specias of animal you are keeping and overall system desighn/husbanary upkeep. My experience with this system is mainly in freshwater ornimental ponds and LSS for SW crab systems. I would also add that we do not use these sytems as stand alone filters. The unit is advertised as a biofilter as well which actaully happens naturally because of the trickle tower media. However I would strongly recommend mechanical and Biological Filters in addition to the Clarity Unit. I tend to lean toward it being an awsome PS! I give the unit a 9 out of 10 in doing what it is advertised to do...DOC removal! Understand that FW skimming is also influened by atmoshere pressures H and Low as well as feed in water. Oily foods with high fat content and such. As for saltwater PS I can say that they are much more effiecent then whats on the market. Most PS SW use a venturi system or airstone which need larger pump/pumps in doing large 1000gallon+ aquaria. Clarity is unique in the fact that it does not waste energy in pressurizing water through venturi's. The water falling through the unit uses sheathing to accomplish the same tasks a tiny air bubble will do....without the extra energy spent in creating the bubble ( ie. venturi or woodairstone) I am hoping to post pictures of saltwater systems using the unit so that you can see the foam is very consistent. I hope this answers some of your questions.

i dont see is how it actually facilitates the foam production. it look just a like a trickle filter with a end attachment to skim any foam produced off the surface. but it does seem like it produces foam.

Do you think it would work well if i hooked it up to 1000 gallon cichlid tank?


i am curious, can you adjust the type of foam that comes out of it? as it seems to be very dry skim-mate.




side note if your using a airstone skimmer on your salt i recommend you check out needle-wheel technology.

 

[mkman]

for those interested there is a diagram on the net of how the Clarity works. If anyone here has a large tank, give it a try! Some people use it on their koi ponds!!

 

[spiff]

This think looks like a prime candidate for a DIY unit. Its not pressurized.. its just a glorified trickle filter. If the trick is generating foam, my old sump was a foam generating bastard. It was just water falling 6inches onto matala matting in two spots... it created foam galore. So much that I scrapped it and when canister. But I might do a DIY version of this when I find the right container for it. An old water softener tower would be perfect.

 

[Jgray152]

Hmmm I need to understand the science behind creating the foam. A little info in the previous post but anyone care to chime in ? Do you just need to create excess agitation?

 

[sostoudt]

Hmmm I need to understand the science behind creating the foam. A little info in the previous post but anyone care to chime in ? Do you just need to create excess agitation?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_skimmer


im not sure if the freshwater works the same, since its not pulling the waste to the surface.