Good morning everyone.
Using Pond Guru's principles I have made two small air driven filters as I wanted one for the tiny 12 litre quarantine rank and one for a spare. It also meant I could play around with different shapes. They aren't concealed ones though as my tanks are too small to fit Pond Guru's one in.
The first one is squat, made from a small clear plastic peanut butter jar (value range - I gave the peanut butter to my husband for his rat bait).
It is currently filled with foam, ceramic noodles and filter floss and is in the quarantine tank. This had been in the 60cm tank since I put all the stock in several weeks ago.
It cycled the quarantine tank in just over 48 hours at 1.5ppm so I am now increasing the ammonia slightly until I make up my mind if I am adding fish to the Nano tank as well as shrimp. (I am assuming the low bioload of shrimp means 1.5ppm would be sjuitable?)
The other one is made from a baby's new small bottle so it taller and thinner. This is now in the 60cm, again with mature media in it, in the hope that if I need an emergency filter there is one ready. Thee 60cm doesn't rely on this filter as it has it's own.
They both obviously run from an air filter. One of these is VERY noisy so would not be possible to use in a bedroom unless you had hearing problems !!
They do appear to be effective at keeping the water clear. At this size I wouldn't expect them to filter the 60cm properly but in an emergency it would help and also provide oxygen. However, if you can stand the noise of the filter, (perhaps using a longer line and placing the filter in the cupboard underneath?) I'm sue it would be pretty effective.
If I had a big tank like the 200lt mentioned then as well as the external I would fit an invisible version like in the video so that you always have a ready made backup.
Yesterday I ordered Pond Guru's new edition to his range of biiohome media.
It's basically the same as his Ultra but is made especially for BioOrbs type tanks. (He has a video in which he is very excited by his own invention!)
It is said to be brilliant for small filters such as my home made ones. Worth checking out if you are setting up a tank or filter (He uses it in place of gravel). It isn't cheap, but I know I can be sneaky with this, getting it past the other half without too many queries as to cost, because it looks a bit like cat litter so he wont assume it costs a lot
Topic: Hidden Filter (Read 5494 times) 5 replies
April 08, 2013, 02:54:44 PM
