DIY Filter Roller for DIY Sump

[allen00se]

Hey everyone,
Figured I would post my Filter Roller build, hopefully it works as planned but either way you get to follow along. I will start by saying that I am building my own sump, and that thread can be found here. I like the idea of a filter roller because I am definitely not the type to wash filter socks regularly. I am building my own sump and roller in an effort to save some money and also just like customization. It will be using 10" wide filter material and a 12v motor with its own gears, then I am also gearing that down even further. I plan to use a float switch as the trigger to activate the motor in conjunction with my Apex controller. Sump is 42" long x "18 Tall x 20" Deep.

Here is a render of my sump

Here are a few renders of the Roller. There are two parts made either from PVC or 3d printed from PLA+:
1. The sleeve that slides over a collar in the sump and receives the flow of water from the tank drain chamber of the sump
2. The roller unit that has the filter material and drive motor etc

Couple of real life photos of the 3d printed pieces, I will reprint them with better settings once I verify the fit.

I will be cutting the PVC soon and have more pics up then.

 

[WorkingHands]

very cool!

 

[Sean Clark]

Impressive.

 

[homer1475]

I'm curious, and intrigued. Following.

 

[allen00se]

Progress on the pvc cutting, will glue up tonight.

 

[allen00se]

First test of the unit, as you can see it is actually upside down and I just have it taped together so I can change out parts if necessary. It ran well, I might end up changing some of the tolerances and add some sort of guide to keep the filter on track.

 

[allen00se]

Finally getting around to posting an update, heres a quick video that shows the filter roller in action. You can see all of the debris on the paper moving across the bottom and up the side. So far everything is working better than I would have expected. The only issue I had was clearance, I ended up chopping the roller and its cage into 3 sections so that I can remove it from the sump while under the display tank stand.
One thing that is even better than I expected is you can see how much flow restriction the filter paper puts on the water because the water level inside the filter roller cage is anywhere from 1/4" up to 2" inches depending on how dirty the filter paper is.

 

[Sean Clark]

Finally getting around to posting an update, heres a quick video that shows the filter roller in action. You can see all of the debris on the paper moving across the bottom and up the side. So far everything is working better than I would have expected. The only issue I had was clearance, I ended up chopping the roller and its cage into 3 sections so that I can remove it from the sump while under the display tank stand.
One thing that is even better than I expected is you can see how much flow restriction the filter paper puts on the water because the water level inside the filter roller cage is anywhere from 1/4" up to 2" inches depending on how dirty the filter paper is.

Excellent work. This entire thread has been inspiring. Thank you.

 

[sark]

Allen, congrats to you. Just out of curiosity, what fleece material are you using?

 

[allen00se]

I just ordered some 10" filter roller material from BRS. I don't recall the brand.

 

[srit1]

You can use filter paper as well for these types of things, often much more affordable (by orders of magnitude) than aquarium hobby targeted rolls.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

You can use filter paper as well for these types of things, often much more affordable (by orders of magnitude) than aquarium hobby targeted rolls.

Yup. Stopped buying the bubble magus stuff and went with coolant paper last year, best thing I could of done.

 

[srit1]

Yup. Stopped buying the bubble magus stuff and went with coolant paper last year, best thing I could of done.

I just ordered a few years worth for my DIY filter roller from the same folks that have this listing on Amazon. You can email them for custom sizes/microns/etc. FWIW, I have found 80micron to be good for my system.

BTW, this is an awesome build allen

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

I just ordered a few years worth for my DIY filter roller from the same folks that have this listing on Amazon. You can email them for custom sizes/microns/etc. FWIW, I have found 80micron to be good for my system.

BTW, this is an awesome build allen

Yup that's Precision, out of Michigan. I've done a few orders from Steve. Good guy, good product. I've been buying his 4" inch rolls @ 50/80 micron for both bubble magus rollers I use.

 

[Projects with Sam]

The top is a 20Yd, 5" section of Pellon-910 sew-in fabric interfacing; the bottom is 100yds of 5" 100 micron filter paper. To be honest they're very similar. Steve's is nice because I don't have to roll it & cut it myself. Once I'm done prototyping my Filter roller I'll stock up from precision converting.