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Filter above tank


D6C1

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Hello,

I was looking at the DIY on the sydney cichlid page and I am thinking of making something similar to the overhead filter. Its for my 6 x 2 x 2

How many kgs do the bracing hold?

I am only thinking of putting some bioballs and wool in there to remove the finer poo/gunk out of the tank.

Any one have this in place?

Cheers,

Toufic

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I had a great one over my discus aquarium in the UK, it consisted of a rectangular open bottomed tank sat on top at the back, running the length of the tank and 6" deep by the width of the little snap together filter plates, these were supported by small cross braces across the bottom.

Covered all the sides and the lid with black vinyl and fitted a spray bar over media which consisted of floss over bio balls.

It held litres of media and was ultra light, never had to worry about back syphoning as it was powered by a canister.

Ultimate bio filter, got a little noisy with the dripping though

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You can make one with as little as a powerhead,a lid and a container like the one in my pic.

Here is the one i am currently using

user posted image

The basket cost $2.50 from a discount store, I already had all the media which i put in layers of filter wadding the media included Bio balls,Carbon,And filter wadding.

Here is a diagram that i just made on paint, The container is held in place by the lip of the container sitting on the edge of the tank and the other side the lip sits on on a glass lid, This Over tank filter makes no noise at all thumb.gif

user posted image

HTH

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My tank is a display tank, but I dont mind having things sitting on top of it. What I want to do is remove the finer matter out of the tank water that the canisters dont seem to remove.

So I will have the powerhead (Mine has two spray heads. One I can rotate to send water up and into the basket, and the other in the tank), taking the water to the basket, and the water passing through a thick layer of filter material, and then draining in the tank. BUT how effective is it? Will the matter eventually sink to the botton of the basket and then back into the tank?

Idealy, I dont want to remove the filter wool so often. Every two weeks would be good :D

Thanks guys.. and gals!

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I have a large peice of filter wadding at the base that comes right upto all 4 sides, then i have bioballs which has another peice that covers the bio balls, then i have carbon and another peice of filter wadding.

It works well and by the time it gets to the last peice of filter wadding the gunk is stuck to the top peice and the water is clear

HTH

**EDIT** TYPO

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What I want to do is remove the finer matter out of the tank water that the canisters dont seem to remove.

An additional power filter would do the job.

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I got a an internal powerfilter sp2800 and two canisters hooked up. The water is fine, fish are breeding and no diseases *Touches wood* all is good. But I still want crystal clear water without adding that "magic clear" stuff to the water...

The occasional stuff floating around is poo, and very fine matter.

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expensive be effective, diatom filter. Isn't polishing what they are made for? dntknw.gif

-worm-

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Diatoms are a type of algae that, when it dies leaves behind a shell called a frustule. Frustules are are made of silica and are often ornamented with holes to allow transfer of chemicals between the alga and its environment, thus, they are effectively an ultrafine glass cage filter (awesome pic here). Diatom filters use diatomaceous earth (archaic deposits of frustules) in a high pressure environment as a filter medium. What you end up with is an ultrafine filtration (effective to 5 micron, down to 1 micron depending on who you talk to). It is used most often as a tank polisher for display tanks to take out any very fine particles much like you are after.

The drawback of course is that is is expensive. Im sure you can find a price on the net for one if you are keen. I've never actually used one before but Im sure there are others reading that have...... anybody have a review or anything else to add.

Just a suggestion, maybe not the best solution.

-worm-

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Thats an idea too.. but which one? The ehiem pro 2 2028 or the Aqua pro 1500?

But I will try the one on top first.. seems that more water will flow that way, and the wool will be visible and will be changed when it gets dirty. Or I might scrap the whole idea all together :D

Thanks for all the reponses and input peeps!

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It's also worth adding that when making "overtank" trickle filters... it is important that the "Exit" hole is much larger (I use 40mm drains) then the input. If this is the case - the whole filter waits only a few kgs (as there is no standing water in it).

HTH -

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  • 2 weeks later...

teflon/Adam

I made a 'water polisher' after seeing your design. Small container, packed with filter wool which I 'float' by having styrofoam under it pushing it into the tank bridging. Powered by a powerhead. Absolutely fantastic.

I have never had issues with water quality (in terms of chemisty etc) but seeing the difference a very quick and easy water polisher can make, taking out those tiny suspended particles is phenominal. It is also super portable so I will change the wool and the tank it is in V regularly to keep them all looking schmick smile.gif

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Ducksta,

You got a pic of this polisher?

I gave 1 of my canisters and my internal filter a good clean last night. Mate.. Filthy!! But still have tiny stuff floating around. Less than before.. but not polished clean :D

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toufic, Adam's pic explains it pretty much...

1500-2000lph powerhead (cant remember exactly, tank is about 300litres) running into hose.

Lunchbox size tupperware type container. In one of the short ends I have small round hole, siliconed hose in there. Other short end I cut completely out, covering the hole instead with fly-screen. Then I filled the box chocker-block of filter wool. Put the lid on and turned the powerhead on.

The box sits on a fairly thick piece of styrofoam which floats it up under the tanks bridge. This means the where the water runs through the flyscreen out of the box is out of the water. I don't know why but I prefered this over the submerged box option.

Very very simple water polisher smile.gif

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