Well looking good TG!
I must admit, (not wanting to be a hypocrite)I once again decided to once again order a few of these to try out.
After receiving, I got to really looking at the filter and realized my fear is correct. It's just an upside down POWERHEAD in a can, not a lot of REAL design went into this thing, but for $89 and $119.00, what can one expect. Also, the "POWERHEAD" doesnt look as large as my old Aquaclear 802 models, and they only pumped 400GPH. For my use however, I DON'T need mechanical, I just want to try creating an extremely cheap and extremely long running BIO ONLY application. I may even restrict the flow with the valves to stretch it out as far as possible.
I've replaced the valve orings(pictured) and lubed ALL OF THEM with food grade silicone grease as a precaution(including the one in the top I pulled out and lubed by hand), and will get the washers to try to keep the lid from cracking this week.
My BIGGEST DISLIKE however, are the way the power cords are run. It's SOOO frustrating dealing with them inside the top, and not being able to set the top down because it hangs off of the cords all sloppy like. This TRULY makes me want to set this thing up and forget about it for a year... OR LONGER....
Below I explain HOW I'VE decided to do that (and in the picture)
. As you can see I dumped all the sponges, and filled the 700 with all pot scrubbies I had been saving for my 2262 and FX5&6's(still waiting new in boxes unopened).
I still seem to need a few more, say 5 or 10 more scrubies before I think it's packed enough, but not TOO tightly. I will try to get those this week during my travels, and get this thing up and running by this weekend.
As I said, I'm NOT trying to catch detritus/mulm/crap, just trying to have an EXTREMELY LONG TERM BIO FILTER with very little restriction due to clogged media(EXTREMELY LOW MAINTENANCE: 1+year plus cleaning intervals) OH YEAH, mine DID NOT come with the giant sponge prefilter on the intake I've seen so much about. I actually wished it HAD, but I'll make my own prefilter as usual
That said, what the heck, I'll play around with it and see what MIGHT make me want to keep it anyway. I have an empty 40b or a dual midevil 60 tall I'm gonna put the 700 on, but I very well may either sell or send back the 1200/14i. Even thought I haven't even opened the outer box, I cant imagine dealing with that thing.
Just my opinions...