An Aquarium Centrifugal Filter?

By Leonard Ho

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A centrifuge is essentially any equipment that spins liquid at high speed to separate particulates via the sedimentation principle. Think: Spinning carnival ride – only much faster. These types of devices could effectively separate algae from water that passes through them, directly reducing algae population and thus algae blooms. Furthermore, algal export could reduce total nutrients within an aquarium. Protein skimmers are fundamentally algae and bacteria export filters, so a centrifuge could work by also removing nutrient-laden water-bourne organisms.

Hong Kong inventor/engineer Terence Kar-Ki Chan had the same idea. Two years ago, he started an Indiegogo crowd-sourcing campaign to fund the development of an aquarium centrifugal filter. Unfortunately, his campaign failed to draw any interest and it appears the concept never left paper.

Centrifugal filtration technology actually isn’t anything new. It’s currently used to harvest algae (or more precisely the oils from algae to make biofuel). “Passive” centrifugal (pre)filters like Waterco’s Multicyclone also exist and are used in ponds, pools, and large aquariums to remove sediment from water pumped through them. However, no self-powered aquarium centrigual filter tuned for algae and/or bacteria export …read more

Read more here: Advanced Aquarist