After being sold a Penn Plax 1500 canister filter by my LFS, I began to realize just how inefficient these filters are due to their poor design. I have seen just about every fish store I visit push these filters, and I know a lot of people actually buy them because they are rated for high flow rates and are generally much much cheaper that an equivalent sized filter from Fluval or Eheim. I came up with a way to utilize the strengths of the filter and now I have 2. I have had stunning results, and I hope others can benefit from this.
The main problem with these filters is how the baskets fit into the canister. There is about a quarter inch of space all around that allows for a lot of bypass. No matter what you put in there it isn't going to do any good if the water isn't flowing through your media.
Note the gap around the baskets. When I was using this filter in its normal configuration, I had 2 liters of Seachem matrix in there, but I was battling high nitrites for weeks. Why? because almost no water was coming into contact with my bio media. It was all flowing around the baskets and back into the tank.
So what will you need for this mod? Its actually very cheap and easy. Heres the list:
One Penn Plax cascade canister filter. ~$100 on Amazon
Some source of heat. I used this small hand held torch. ~$15 anywhere.
1 11.5 inch piece of 3/4 inch ID tubing. $2 at my LFS.
Some sort of coarse sponge. I used the ones supplied with the filter.
Bio media of your choice. For this filter I used small lava rock. Very rough and porous and should be an excellent bio media for my application. If you decide to use lava rock, RINSE WELL!!! I rinsed mine several times in a bucket and then let it soak overnight. This stuff is really dirty right out of the bag and I don't want anyone's tank stained red. $4 at Lowes for a .5 cubic foot bag. I used about 3/4 of the bag.
And that's it! total cost is about $125.
Now the how-to.
Take the baskets out of the filter and do what you want with them. You wont be using any of them. Do keep the supplied plastic grate thing that goes on the top.
Take your tubing and jam it on the inlet nubbin being careful not to break anything. Its a bit of a tight fit, but it will go on.
Use your heat source to soften the hose around the nubbin. The heat will allow it to stretch and fit much easier. Let it cool, then remove it.
Drop the coarse sponges into the bottom of the filter, and your tube into the hole of the sponges. Heat formed side up.
Start to fill with your choice of bio media, straightening the tube as you fill. This filter is large and will hold almost 2 gallons of media.
Leave about an inch and a half of hose exposed.
You need some sort of pad over the top to keep the smaller rocks in place and to catch any dust that may be left over. I had some blue poly pad laying around and cut it to size. Anything will work really.
Replace the top plastic grating then drop the filter head back on. You may have to wiggle it a bit to seat on the hose, but it will go without too much effort.
Clamp the head down, reattach your hoses, let it fill and your done!
Right now I have this one running with lava rock, and another running with matrix, two large bags of carbon, a bag of purigen, and a bag of chemipure.
When you close the ball valves and stop the flow, all of your media should settle down a bit, then rise again when you restore flow. Before I did this I was reaching out to MFK for help with my nitrite problem. I had nitrites in the 3-4ppm range for 3 weeks. I made the matrix filter and my nitrites dropped to .25 ppm overnight and dropped again to 0 by the next morning. I also saw nitrates take a drop from 20ppm to 5 ppm in 2 days. I haven't seen any reduction in flow rate. I hope this helps someone who might be having the same issues I was. Any questions let me know. Cheers!
The main problem with these filters is how the baskets fit into the canister. There is about a quarter inch of space all around that allows for a lot of bypass. No matter what you put in there it isn't going to do any good if the water isn't flowing through your media.
Note the gap around the baskets. When I was using this filter in its normal configuration, I had 2 liters of Seachem matrix in there, but I was battling high nitrites for weeks. Why? because almost no water was coming into contact with my bio media. It was all flowing around the baskets and back into the tank.
So what will you need for this mod? Its actually very cheap and easy. Heres the list:
One Penn Plax cascade canister filter. ~$100 on Amazon
Some source of heat. I used this small hand held torch. ~$15 anywhere.
1 11.5 inch piece of 3/4 inch ID tubing. $2 at my LFS.
Some sort of coarse sponge. I used the ones supplied with the filter.
Bio media of your choice. For this filter I used small lava rock. Very rough and porous and should be an excellent bio media for my application. If you decide to use lava rock, RINSE WELL!!! I rinsed mine several times in a bucket and then let it soak overnight. This stuff is really dirty right out of the bag and I don't want anyone's tank stained red. $4 at Lowes for a .5 cubic foot bag. I used about 3/4 of the bag.
And that's it! total cost is about $125.
Now the how-to.
Take the baskets out of the filter and do what you want with them. You wont be using any of them. Do keep the supplied plastic grate thing that goes on the top.
Take your tubing and jam it on the inlet nubbin being careful not to break anything. Its a bit of a tight fit, but it will go on.
Use your heat source to soften the hose around the nubbin. The heat will allow it to stretch and fit much easier. Let it cool, then remove it.
Drop the coarse sponges into the bottom of the filter, and your tube into the hole of the sponges. Heat formed side up.
Start to fill with your choice of bio media, straightening the tube as you fill. This filter is large and will hold almost 2 gallons of media.
Leave about an inch and a half of hose exposed.
You need some sort of pad over the top to keep the smaller rocks in place and to catch any dust that may be left over. I had some blue poly pad laying around and cut it to size. Anything will work really.
Replace the top plastic grating then drop the filter head back on. You may have to wiggle it a bit to seat on the hose, but it will go without too much effort.
Clamp the head down, reattach your hoses, let it fill and your done!
Right now I have this one running with lava rock, and another running with matrix, two large bags of carbon, a bag of purigen, and a bag of chemipure.
When you close the ball valves and stop the flow, all of your media should settle down a bit, then rise again when you restore flow. Before I did this I was reaching out to MFK for help with my nitrite problem. I had nitrites in the 3-4ppm range for 3 weeks. I made the matrix filter and my nitrites dropped to .25 ppm overnight and dropped again to 0 by the next morning. I also saw nitrates take a drop from 20ppm to 5 ppm in 2 days. I haven't seen any reduction in flow rate. I hope this helps someone who might be having the same issues I was. Any questions let me know. Cheers!
