ludnix
Valuable Member
Since there's a nice tutorial on how to make filter socks I thought I'd share how I am making my filter media bags. The bags I am making are pretty much identical to the Boyd Enterprises bags as used for Chemipure products and the bags themselves can be purchased separately from Boyd as well. They are not very expensive, so this isn't really a cost saving measure as much as a method for making your own custom sized bags. I have a biocube 14 so I wanted many small bags that I can load up with carbon, GFO, and other medias I may use in the future.
The process:
The nylon mesh. Feels very similar to chemipure bags and the millions of others out on the market. Nylon mesh is your ideal material as it will not degrade in saltwater the way a natural fiber might. Similarly you want to use nylon thread for sewing the bag.
I wanted 4"x9" bags roughly, so I cut 8x9" rectangles, each rectangle is folded in half when sewn, thus is the double width of the cut. When sewing you have account for the seam allowance, this is the material that is consumed by the seam, in my case 1/2" is lost to the seam (1/4" on each side resulting in 1/2") so my bags are probably only 3.5"x9" once finished.
Fold your cut material in half. I am sewing my seams on a 4 thread serging machine. This is the ideal machine for these kinds of seams, however you can also use a home sewing machine and do a reinforced straight stitch to accomplish effectively the same thing.
Sew it up! This is the side seam of the bag.
Close one of the opening for the bag bottom.
Invert and the bag is done if you're closing them with cable ties. If you want to make a more "reusable" bag, you can install a draw string here quite easily. I don't want my media to have any ability to leak out so I am just going to fold the bags over and close with a cable tie. If you cut the cable later the bags can also be reused if washed and media replaced.
Filled with GFO so it can go in my biocube InTank filter. When I get some activated carbon I'll make a carbon bag as well.
Fold over the top of the material and ziptie the bag closed like a chemipure bag. I think this is a great method to use, while not as attractive as finished draw string bag, you can't beat the reliability of a ziptie to keep the bag closed and nothing leaking! This bag was stuffed tight so that the GFO would not have an opportunity to tumble or break down in the filter. For other medias you may want to leave a little more room to keep bag flexible like chemipure does. That will make it easier to fit into tight chambers like a media reactor. You can put media directly into a reactor without a bag, but if they bagged you have the opportunity to used GFO and carbon in seperate bags, this is ideal since they exhaust on different time tables so you can replace your carbon before you have to replace the GFO.
Rinse your media. Throw in in the aquarium and you're done!
If you have any questions feel free to ask!
The process:
The nylon mesh. Feels very similar to chemipure bags and the millions of others out on the market. Nylon mesh is your ideal material as it will not degrade in saltwater the way a natural fiber might. Similarly you want to use nylon thread for sewing the bag.
I wanted 4"x9" bags roughly, so I cut 8x9" rectangles, each rectangle is folded in half when sewn, thus is the double width of the cut. When sewing you have account for the seam allowance, this is the material that is consumed by the seam, in my case 1/2" is lost to the seam (1/4" on each side resulting in 1/2") so my bags are probably only 3.5"x9" once finished.
Fold your cut material in half. I am sewing my seams on a 4 thread serging machine. This is the ideal machine for these kinds of seams, however you can also use a home sewing machine and do a reinforced straight stitch to accomplish effectively the same thing.
Sew it up! This is the side seam of the bag.
Close one of the opening for the bag bottom.
Invert and the bag is done if you're closing them with cable ties. If you want to make a more "reusable" bag, you can install a draw string here quite easily. I don't want my media to have any ability to leak out so I am just going to fold the bags over and close with a cable tie. If you cut the cable later the bags can also be reused if washed and media replaced.
Filled with GFO so it can go in my biocube InTank filter. When I get some activated carbon I'll make a carbon bag as well.
Fold over the top of the material and ziptie the bag closed like a chemipure bag. I think this is a great method to use, while not as attractive as finished draw string bag, you can't beat the reliability of a ziptie to keep the bag closed and nothing leaking! This bag was stuffed tight so that the GFO would not have an opportunity to tumble or break down in the filter. For other medias you may want to leave a little more room to keep bag flexible like chemipure does. That will make it easier to fit into tight chambers like a media reactor. You can put media directly into a reactor without a bag, but if they bagged you have the opportunity to used GFO and carbon in seperate bags, this is ideal since they exhaust on different time tables so you can replace your carbon before you have to replace the GFO.
Rinse your media. Throw in in the aquarium and you're done!
If you have any questions feel free to ask!
