My crowded 50 gallon tank looked like my aqua clear 500 needed some help, so I decided to be thrifty and just use spare parts and things that I have around the shop to craft a filter until I actually open my wallet to buy an extra aquaclear.
Materials: Older Hagen powerhead, 2 pieces of vinyl aquarium tubing: 4 inches and about 12 inches, one section of 3 in pvc pipe approximately 13 inches long, and one pvc end cap.
I placed the short tube on the exit of the powerhead, and the long tube on the intake, facing downward. I cut holes in the center of the scrubbies and threaded them onto the tubing. I pushed these into the pipe, and placed (not glued) on the end cap. In this setup, the water flows into the filter from the top, flows through the scrubbies, and is sucked from the bottom of the filter. I've had it running for several months now. It works well enough so that I didn't buy the extra filter after all.
I attached a simple drawing:
Materials: Older Hagen powerhead, 2 pieces of vinyl aquarium tubing: 4 inches and about 12 inches, one section of 3 in pvc pipe approximately 13 inches long, and one pvc end cap.
I placed the short tube on the exit of the powerhead, and the long tube on the intake, facing downward. I cut holes in the center of the scrubbies and threaded them onto the tubing. I pushed these into the pipe, and placed (not glued) on the end cap. In this setup, the water flows into the filter from the top, flows through the scrubbies, and is sucked from the bottom of the filter. I've had it running for several months now. It works well enough so that I didn't buy the extra filter after all.
I attached a simple drawing:
