Its a dreary rainy Saturday night and I'm doing a little maintenance to a few of my filters. I figured I would do a little post about a box filter I made since I couldn't find a manfactured one with what the feature I was looking for.
I have a couple of 29gal tanks, one with a 4" small mouth bass and one with a 5" pumpkinseed sunfish. The smb tank has an hob and a sponge filter. The pumpkinseed's tank just has a bio-wheel hob, and I wanted to add an additional bio filter. I didn't really want another sponge filter just because I find it a bit of a PITA to clean, so I was thinking an old fashion box filter. Just fill it with ceramic media, some filter floss, and a power source and you're good to go. I especially like these because maintenance would be a cinch, since you just toss the floss and add new ones. However, all the manufactured box filters are designed to used with air pumps and I wanted something much quieter. Looking throughout the internet, I didn't find anything that fit the bill, so I used a little imagination and made my own. The heart of the system is a mini submersible water pump I got off of EBay for $5. This pump is rated at 80gph which would be perfect for my 29gal. So here is what I came up with and its been working great.
I have a couple of 29gal tanks, one with a 4" small mouth bass and one with a 5" pumpkinseed sunfish. The smb tank has an hob and a sponge filter. The pumpkinseed's tank just has a bio-wheel hob, and I wanted to add an additional bio filter. I didn't really want another sponge filter just because I find it a bit of a PITA to clean, so I was thinking an old fashion box filter. Just fill it with ceramic media, some filter floss, and a power source and you're good to go. I especially like these because maintenance would be a cinch, since you just toss the floss and add new ones. However, all the manufactured box filters are designed to used with air pumps and I wanted something much quieter. Looking throughout the internet, I didn't find anything that fit the bill, so I used a little imagination and made my own. The heart of the system is a mini submersible water pump I got off of EBay for $5. This pump is rated at 80gph which would be perfect for my 29gal. So here is what I came up with and its been working great.
