Topic: fao becky
Mr. Augustine David started this discussion 6 years ago #94,355
Finally, I'm wondering why they designed this system such that the filter foam cartridge cannot be upstream of the carbonized filter cartridge? The flow pattern would not be optimal for this arrangement, and to prevent you from arranging the cartridges this way, Eheim added some little tabs that are incompatible with the carbon cartridge in the outermost position. To me, it seems more logical to have the carbonized filter do its primary job of adsorbing undesired dissolved species while letting the thick filter foam do the mechanical (and biological) filtration. The filter foam is obviously coarser, so the carbonized filter would still gunk up with small particles, but I'm sure it wouldn't blind off as quickly. As Eheim designed this thing, the carbonized cartridge is taking all the mechanical filtration load, which is probably limiting its ability to do chemical adsorption, the whole purpose of activated carbon. If anyone could clarify why Eheim designed the Liberty system this way, I'd love to hear it. Unfortunately, you can't defeat this design flaw (it's a flaw in my mind, anyway) because even if you cut off the tabs that prevent you from arranging filter foam first followed by the carbon filter, a large portion of water would bypass around the carbon and simply return to the tank. You would still get some chemical filtration, but not 100% flow through the carbon filter. A pouch of activated carbon in place of the carbonized cartridges would work better on the downstream side of the filter foam.
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