Henri deBruyn mini wet/dry filters

[stormhawk]

I was surfing around the web for other sites done up by fellow killie hobbyists elsewhere and I came across this DIY page by a guy named Ricardo Nuno Santos.

Here's the URL - http://killies.no.sapo.pt/EN/DIY_EN.html

There's several projects of his fully illustrated on the page itself. I think the last project whereby he made this wet-dry filter looks pretty much like something that utilises the wet-dry de Bruyn concept.

[ruyle]

Hi folks, I'm sending the tapes one of which outlines the building of the de Bruyn filter. The other tape is Jim Robinson's flow-thru system for killie fry.
He shows how to drill glass tanks, make valves, etc. The tapes will be airmailed this Wednesday, hopefully take a week to arrive to Ronnie.
Tyrone Genade's pub has the de Bruyn article featured and should be fairly
intuitive as to how to build them.

Lava rock? Go to a store that sells gas barbecue grills: they should have bags of lava rock for sale. De Bruyn mentions ideal size to be 1/2" to 1" in diameter for the lava rock. I would hesitate substituting other media for
the lava rock as de Bruyn (and fellow Floridians) exhort its benefit in these
filters. Landscaping centers should have lava rock, or try looking into volcanoes

Bill
farang9

[zmzfam]

... or try looking into volcanoes

I would love to do that...only if Singapore has some....

[RonWill]

Zul, I've not started on the de Bruyn filters owing to time limitations and partly also because I don't the filters at hand. I've given 2 of the OHFs to Sia Meng but since he's not gonna use 'em, I'll re-collect after his exams.

Have no idea which LFS would have the smaller lava rocks. Can anyone here update us?

Poh San, thanks for becoming a 'garang guni' (rag-and-bone person) on my behalf. It's a waste when people discard things that aren't hopelessly 'dead'. I'll collect 'em from you over the weekdays, work schedule permitting.

Bill, thanks for the tapes. Will let you know when it lands.

De Bruyn mentions ideal size to be 1/2" to 1" in diameter for the lava rock. I would hesitate substituting other media for
the lava rock as de Bruyn (and fellow Floridians) exhort its benefit in these
filters.

Care to expand on the benefits? I'm sure there are other 'curious cats' out there.

[ruyle]

Hi Ron,
Lava rock is plentiful and cheap in the US. De Bruyn and others cite the
fact that it is used as filter media in Florida fish farms. Being porous it has
enormous surface areas to collect beneficial bacteria. Easy availability plus
low cost (free for collection in some areas) plus enormous surface area
are what makes it so popular. You guys in SG could hire a boat and go to
Krakatoa, it'd be fun!

Bill
farang9

[timebomb]

You guys in SG could hire a boat and go to
Krakatoa, it'd be fun!

Krakatoa, East of Java - that was the title of a movie I enjoyed many years ago. Seems like when Krakatoa exploded, it sent shock waves that circled the earth several times.

I don't know if its the same thing but I once bought pumice from Far East nursery at the foot of Caldecott Hill. So no need to go so far as Krakatoa volcano, Caldecott Hill would be good enough Pumice, as far as I know, is either the same or something similar to lava rock. It is highly porous and very bouyant. It floats in water. I mixed them together with peat and base fertiliser and they are under the substrate in my cube tank. Its been years since I do anything to the gravel but the plants are still growing well.

Sia Meng and Au tried to look for pumice sometime back but couldn't find any in the nurseries. Seems like Far East is no longer selling it.

Loh K L

[zmzfam]

Do you have any idea where to get the small lava rocks?

Have no idea which LFS would have the smaller lava rocks. Can anyone here update us?

Ok, to answer my own question and Ron's, I found this link to a lfs PetProvision.
The link is from their on-line mall. Seems cheap enough.

The direction is here.

Hmmm, very near where I stay.

[RonWill]

I'm sending the tapes one of which outlines the building of the de Bruyn filter. The other tape is Jim Robinson's flow-thru system for killie fry.
He shows how to drill glass tanks, make valves, etc. The tapes will be airmailed this Wednesday, hopefully take a week to arrive to Ronnie.

Bill, the tapes arrived today and frankly, I'm surprised it wasn't 'with-held' since you declared the package as 'Videotapes'... pretty 'wet' movies too!

Hopefully, the instructions will guide me along the mods on those OHF over the weekend.

No prizes for guessing what I'll be watching later :wink:

[ruyle]

Glad you got 'em, Ronnie! Of course using those nifty OHF filters for the
containers is cheating That should cut out 3/4 of the work involved
for us in the states: cutting gutters to size, cutting endpieces from pvc sheets, cutting and gluing tubes, etc. Hope to see a pic when you have one
finished!

Bill
farang9

ps You know, I could've written on the customs form: "Debbie does de Bruyn filters XXX" but decided to go with "videotapes."

[ruyle]

Hi folks, I'm building 2 filters: one for a 10 gallon and one for a 15. Here's
some pics of the 10 gallon (hope this works)



and this one



It takes a fairly strong airpump to drive these type of filters but my fish
(A. australe orange) sure seem livelier since I've installed this filter. It
also kept it 3 degreesF cooler than my other tanks.

Bill
farang9

Mod's notes: Image thumbnails created and images hotlinked to Killies.com's gallery 040623

[RonWill]

Hiya Bill, nice pics! but it seems like Angelfire doesn't allow hotlinking now. Lemme see if just the URL alone will work.
http://www.angelfire.com/ban/w_ruyle/de_Bruyn1-2.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/ban/w_ruyle/de_Bruyn2-2.jpg

I notice that the water level is almost to the tank's rim, so I'm guessing that the filter is not set inside, but on the tank... ya?

If you can, take a closer shot of the water output at the air-lift tube and that 'V-trough' (was it a 'V-shape' thingie or did you have to 'fold' it yourself?). Is the trough sealed against the walls of the filter?

The 'ends' of the filter is not flushed with the width of the tank, is that a precaution... in case you need the mop? :wink:

Contrary to common belief, sometimes non-annuals do thrive better when there's some current in the water but that few degrees reduction is a real incentive to get me off my butts and encourage the fish to spawn. The weather lately has been scorching and the heat is killing the sex drive!

Alas... I'm still in the midst of re-organising my tanks and setting up new ones, possibly rigged with 'Henri-filters' (when time allows me to mod the OHFs!). Tank updates, briefly, is at;
http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/fishz/TankUpdates.htm

Oh... and nice lights too! You DIYed 'em yourself too?

[ruyle]

Hi Ronnie,
The filter sets down in the tank about 1 inch (notice the cut outs where it
rests on top of the tank?) I made it 16 inches wide as to the lava bed be-
cause I'm only using one uptube and thought it would be too much to go
the full 20 inches across. Wider tanks, it is wise to use one uptube per 12
inches of tank width (Allen Boatman). The V trough is not glued in, the
uptube is not glued either and don't use silicone cement for this: sand
down parts to be glued and just use pvc cement (using the vile purple
primer is not necessary--Wright Huntley). Sounds like a babbling or
bubbling brook, very restful sounding and when looking thru the side glass
up to the surface of the tank, it does look like rain falling into it No
noticeable current (no plants swaying, etc) with this filter but my fish are
more active, probably due to the increased oxygen. I can see tiny bubbles
of oxygen where the drops hit the surface, tiny like CO2 bubbles out of a
diffuser. The tank has only black lava for substrate and I fert with plantex
plus B, KNO3 (dry) once a week. Plants are very healthy and I'm hoping
that the plants will like this filter--Tom Barr told me they should do fine.
Light strip is DIY: Plastmo raingutter (Canadian) and a 13w cf kit from
AH Supply--6400K bulb.

Very disappointed in Angelfire, and no, I don't think it is due to MY using
the bandwidth afforded me: I've used less than 1MB out of 20MB. Will
take more pictures later, still have to do the 15gallon which will have 2
uptubes. I'm going to see about another webhosting site.

I can see why some AKA-ers changed all their tanks over to these filters.
They may be a bit of an eyesore, but they really keep the water sparkling
clean!

Bill

[RonWill]

Hiya Bill,
Yes, I see the cutout now... not really obvious until you mention it, but I'm guessing it won't do any harm to set 2 uplift tubes for better, evenly distributed, water flow throughout the trough.

You didn't answer what that V trough is made from and if the tube is not glued to it, would the tube slip down? I'm getting a little brain-dead and can't figure what is made from plastic and is 'L' or 'V' shaped... any suggestions (anyone)? Would a 2inch diameter PVC pipe split in half (length-wise) work the same?

The filters looks well made, not an eyesore, and as for the bubbling, my corner already sounds like a brook... any louder and I'll start hearing my neighbours 'babble'!

Still, I wonder how Wright constructs one out of 'document boxes'. (Wright, are you with us?)

I'm searching for alternative free hosting and that 20MB which Angelfire allocated, is the disc/storage space, not bandwidth. Will let you know if I come across one and you likewise, ya?

[ruyle]

Hi Ron, the only things that are glued in this filter are the 2 endpieces, and
the 1/8" hard airline tube is glued inside the 1/2" uptube. The uptube, after drilling the hole, I found to be quite adequate with a "friction fit"--no glue. This is also handy when you want to remove the uptube filter sponge for rinsing: pulling the uptube up a ways so the sponge is clear to be removed.

Henri said that construction is not critical: use whatever that is similar. The
V-trough is pvc profiling material that is used in plaster wall corners. Drilling a half inch hole deadcenter in th v-trough is impossible? IMHO. I used a jeweler's sawframe and a #2 blade to cut the hole which worked well. I have a drill press and a fair amount of tools at my disposal but these filters would be easy to build with a hacksaw, cordless drill, period.
Do you have raingutters like these in SG? Curious. These filters are very
CHEAP to build. My wife wants these filters on all our tanks

Bill

[ruyle]

Hi folks,
I've completed the 15 gallon de Bruyn filter and would like to see if I can
post pics:






Heartily recommend the time it takes to build these filters. I will be getting an external flash (on ebay) to help with taking fish pictures. I don't think
Au has anything to worry about, his pics are great!

Bill
farang9

[ruyle]

Sorry, folks, one more try:


That's it! Sorry for the waste of space, KL, and if the image is too large,
please delete. Thank you.

Bill
farang9

[timebomb]

That's it! Sorry for the waste of space, KL, and if the image is too large, please delete.

Bill, if you hotlink the images which was what you did, it won't use much of our space. You will however use up quite a lot of the space alloted to you on smugmug.com.

I edited your thread so the images will show. The mistake you made was to put them in brackets of [url] instead of [img]. You're getting close, Bill. A little more and you will figure out how everything works.

Good to have you back with us again. For a while, I thought you left the planet

Loh K L

[ruyle]

KL:

Good to have you back with us again. For a while, I thought you left the planet

Glad to be back, KL! And thanks for the help, I think I almost have it now

Yes, I finally decided on smugmug.com for pictures, very easy to work
with and offers upgradeable packages if more space is needed. Of course,
it correspondingly costs more, too.

Thanks again, for the help!

Bill
farang9

[RonWill]

Bill, at long last... managed to get 2 Henri filters up & running.


Double stack Henri at top tank


Lower stack has ventilation holes


Henri at 3rd tank


Dripping sound is very soothing... like sitting beside a creek.

Will be rigging up another four Henri's.

BTW, how's the 'manual'? Viewable?

[ruyle]

Ronnie, I'll look at the VCDs this weekend. The de Bruyns are working ok?
You have them more distance from the tanks' surface than I do: mine are
1/2 inch above the surface which is according to de Bruyn's specs. The
double stacked one, what's the principle behind that? Is this to delay re-entry into the tank? And has more media for the water to pass thru?
Also are you using lava rock? What is that blue stuff I see?

Sorry, lots of questions.