DIY High Capacity internal (glass) filter

[maxim_nz]

DIY Glass (internal) canister filter

Issue: I had a Fluval 403 getting old, tap sucking air, hoses and intake gets blocked easily, baby platties and baby bristlenoses end up in bottom of the fluval. Also fluval could not make 2 weeks without a flush out and then it was really tedious getting the filter restarted due to the location of it, it meant I could not have more than about 10 days holiday without it becoming an issue. (ended up having 2 weeks holiday and lost 6 year old Clown loaches..) So had to come up with something better.

Project Aim of new filter:

2 weeks running time without any blockages

Does not suck up baby plecs or baby platties

Keep tank clean (obvious)

Restarts automatically following any power cuts (not dependant on sucking the hose!)

Cheap. :-)

So i figured an internal high capacity filter, shaped to minimise space impact on tank. (tank is 920mm x 750mm x 450, made by me in 1990, still on original silicon - 10mm glass with additional 10mm glass on all edges, making all silicon seams 20mm thick)

The box

Surplus glass from broken fish tank lid, and 1 piece of old perspex 450mm(h) x 240mm(w) x 75mm(d)

Drilled hole in front perspex panel for powerhead exhaust

Here's all the internal components, top to bottom

Foam block cut to maximise surfact area

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Filter wool pad

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Old active media from fluval 403

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Foam block

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Jebo R119 Aquarium Pump

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Cut foam block in detail. (used super sharp kitchen knife to do this)

This gives a far larger intake area and mitigates blockages from old plant leaves.

The Jebo pump (I cut off the traditional 90 degree exhaust, siliconed it up and so pump uses the exhaust at the top for straight through flow and exits out the side of filter) this means the intake of the filter is away from the foam block above it.

Here is some of the active media out of my now redundant Fluval 403

Foam: The foam is well oversize, so seals nicely against side of the filter (it is so tight there is no need for any internal support for the foam/active media)

Completed filter ready to go!

Progress: 7 months on. I recently had to rebuild it/resilicon it, so taken the time to photograph it. It does go for around 3 weeks before the foam starts to collapse and get sucked down by the pump. My heavily planted tank is super clean with this running. Neons and platties happily swim into the open intake and pick away at the goodies sucked into the foam and can easily swim out despite the 900L/hr pump underneath them.. No lost baby Bristlenoses sucked into it either. They all swim out if your hand gets anywhere near them. I usually only have to clean the top sponge and the wool pad, so all the active media and lower foam and all benefical bacteria does not get disturbed.

Here is the tank, filter is behind plants/bogwood on left

If anyone wants to see what it looks like after 2 weeks hard running I'll post another picture at next clean.

This has cost around $70 minus aquarium bit's and pieces spares I had lying around.

[SamH]

Use for the end tags

[maxim_nz]

Use for the end tags

Yip all corrected, didn't take it first time around, despite using correct syntax. (had to reinsert IMG function from preview) Images all displaying

[phoenix44]

Wow that's awesome. One could adapt that design for a HOB as well. And I love how its made of glass.

[Ira]

Nice. For the Mark II I'd suggest using black perspex for most of it(Maybe leave one side clear for visibility)

You can also get perspex laser cut.

[maxim_nz]

Nice. For the Mark II I'd suggest using black perspex for most of it(Maybe leave one side clear for visibility)

You can also get perspex laser cut.

Black perspex? - Good suggestion and noted. Downside = cost of perspex + cost of laser cutting. Most folk don't have a laser cutter in garage, but may have spare glass + glass cutter.

[maxim_nz]

Wow that's awesome. One could adapt that design for a HOB as well. And I love how its made of glass.

If this was modified to become a HOB style that could defeat one of the objectives which was super reliability. No suction issues to restart following power outages, no hoses/snorkel intakes that can block, and bonus is fish can get into top of filter and browse the sucked up goodies/debris

[trophy_malaw]

hey bud, where or what foam do you use for the filter? and i presume you dont use any piping as the filter is submerged in the tank

[maxim_nz]

hey bud, where or what foam do you use for the filter? and i presume you dont use any piping as the filter is submerged in the tank

Correct: No piping/hoses anywhere. Filter is completely submerged like any classic internal filter. The only 'pipe' is the 30mm long exhaust from the powerhead. So minimal piping to ever get blocked and cause issues.

The foam was a generic pack of foam (from Hutt Pet Centre), it came in a bag with a large, medium and small block of foam. Don't recall it having a 'brand' on it.

So dimension of filter was determined by the available glass (2 old tank lids cut down, 1 lid provided each large side, and 1 lid provided the bottom and smaller side.) I then made the width just barely enough for the powerhead and to small for the foam (so a snug fit) -In a nutshell I basically bought or acquired all the internals and then sized the glass to go around it.

[trophy_malaw]

awsome dude , you have inspired me to give it a go .. haha going to be 2morrow sunday afternoons project

exhuast piping you mean for the power supply for the pump???

[Zev]

Good work, looks similar to the Tunze Nano Cleaner I had in one of my tanks.

[maxim_nz]

awsome dude , you have inspired me to give it a go .. haha going to be 2morrow sunday afternoons project

exhaust piping you mean for the power supply for the pump???

Look at the top tube coming out of the pump in this image. That is the only piping in the whole system, as the jebo pump is completely immersed. By the way give your silicon plenty of time to dry, I only gave it about 3 days the first time and when the foam got REALLY dirty and was sucked downwards by the pump it actually broke the silicon and split the glass outwards (pretty grunty pump) so hence the rebuild and much more care with the silicon (7 day drying time)

Around 15 years ago I had a 6" tank (with big fire eel, corys, 50 odd giant danio and 2m long val - before it was banned..) I got sick of cleaning that so rigged up a massive spa pool filter canister on it. Only had to clean it twice a year after that.. so this current filter might be only temporary.. Going to be rebuilding a 5" tank soon.