Evil Slimy
06-01-2008, 06:24 AM
I wanted a biofilter for the 55g. I thought about sumps, overflows, etc... This was what turned out to be the simplest, and most failsafe solution. Ugly, but plants/driftwood will cover it up completely and some day I will move it to a sump.
The blue cap on the bottle is a water-tight threaded cap so it will be very easy to rinse/clean media. [I know it's water tight because we use them around the house and despite our being as clumsy as hippos on skates, they never spilled a drop.]
I took a 3 inch section of 1/2 inch vinyl tubing, ran it under hot water to soften it and pushed one end over the output of a powerhead.
I cut the other end of the tubing at 45 degrees and pushed it through the bottle opening (where you'd drink from). It fit snugly so I pulled it through with pliers. I did not have to use any sealant (no sealant in the whole project actually...).
To create an outlet, I melted several small holes at the bottom of the bottle, on the outer edge so it would spray outwards. I choose to make the holes small so that some water pressure and turbulence would build inside the bottle and increase exposure to the biomedia.
Filled it with seachem matrix, which as far as I know has one of the highest surface areas. According to their rating, the amount I used should provide enough biofiltration for 75g. The filter pad is from another tank. It was in there just to jump start the system. I removed it and added more seachem matrix.
Since the pictures were taken I replaced the powerhead with a maxijet 600 and I added a sponge on the intake (over the long plastic strainer for the maxijet powerhead). So far it sustained 12 tetras and a severum with a pig-sized stomach without any issues.
The blue cap on the bottle is a water-tight threaded cap so it will be very easy to rinse/clean media. [I know it's water tight because we use them around the house and despite our being as clumsy as hippos on skates, they never spilled a drop.]
I took a 3 inch section of 1/2 inch vinyl tubing, ran it under hot water to soften it and pushed one end over the output of a powerhead.
I cut the other end of the tubing at 45 degrees and pushed it through the bottle opening (where you'd drink from). It fit snugly so I pulled it through with pliers. I did not have to use any sealant (no sealant in the whole project actually...).
To create an outlet, I melted several small holes at the bottom of the bottle, on the outer edge so it would spray outwards. I choose to make the holes small so that some water pressure and turbulence would build inside the bottle and increase exposure to the biomedia.
Filled it with seachem matrix, which as far as I know has one of the highest surface areas. According to their rating, the amount I used should provide enough biofiltration for 75g. The filter pad is from another tank. It was in there just to jump start the system. I removed it and added more seachem matrix.
Since the pictures were taken I replaced the powerhead with a maxijet 600 and I added a sponge on the intake (over the long plastic strainer for the maxijet powerhead). So far it sustained 12 tetras and a severum with a pig-sized stomach without any issues.