Tutorial for the Power head filter 
Took 10 mins to make it. I wud appreciate your comments.
The DIY Powerhead filter
Reqirements
(According to priority)
1.Powerhead
2.Air tight container
3.Aquarium wool
4.Sponge
5.High density sponge
6.Aquarium medium sized gravel
7.Aquarium small sized gravel or aquarium plant clay*
* - This soil has different names in different countries.
Introduction
I wanted a more powerful and customized filter because i know how much waste the fish puts out. In my case my Kamfa is an eating champ.He loves krill,freeze dries worms, any smaller sized fish would and up as his food and he absolutely loves the pellets.
In regard to this, i considered making some trips to me LF's to know the filters they have and also the price. I saw small fitlers starting from 10$ to 200$ canister filters which were of course pointless. And my god i tell you the brand names of these add more to the marketing value which makes the price of these filters even more than the quality of the product is concerned.
I am gonna be honest with you all.This filter was built on a trial and error basis. Yes , i have done the testing on my kamfa and he is as good as it gets.
My main reason for making this tutorial is to make the aquarists to get an in depth knowledge in filtration required. No matter the tank size you have , no matter the fish you have this filter works perfect.See for yourself i have attached the before and after pics of My tank as proof.
Construction/Setup
Part -1 Setting up the powerhead
1.Well you got your powerhead,mine cost me 5$ each so that makes it 10$ in total. Remove the lower mart of the power head its not necessary( tHE CAp that controls the velocity of the water).nOW WITH THAT REMOVED YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO SEE THE ROTATING PART OF THE POWER HEAD FROM A HOLE UNDERNEATH IT.
2. Next take the airtight jar or container you have, and on the lid hold the powerhead and make a mark with a permanent marker as to where you are supposed to make a hole.
3.I make a hole on the cap just by heating a knife on a candle for a while and cut it according to the marking.Remember to cut from the inner side of the marking and not from the outer side. If this is done wrong then the powerhead will not get a perfect fit on the Lid/cap of the container.
4.Squeeze in by rotating the powerhead into the lid. If this cannot be done then heat the knife again and just make the opening of the lid a little bigger by carving the sides of the open hole on the lid by the heated knife. If it is still tight and not try repeatedly.
5.I assume that the powerhead is fitted on the lid of the container.Now take a few rubber bands and roll em on the sides where the powerhead attaches itself to the Lid of the container.Only on the outer part of the jar.
6.Congratz the powerhead part setup is ready.
Part -2 Setting up the container
1. Drill about 5-8 holes of 4mm size in the bottom corner part of the container.
2. Fill the container about 1/4th of the container in medium diameter aquariul gravel.
3.Add a high density sponge on top of it.Make sure it covers the sides completely.
4.Now add the small sized aquarium gravel or clay in anout 1/4th of the container.
5.Atlast add a low desity sponge and if there are spaces in the sides fill em up with the sponge pieces you have left.
6.Add the aquarium wool on the top most layer of the container.
Part -3
Close the container with the tightly fitted power head.
Check
Before you pulg in the wonder, check if you have made the holes in the bottom corners of the container. Do not make holes in the bottom surface of the container,just the sides around the bottom would be good. A maximum of 8 holes of 3-4mm are enough.
Note: The more holes you have on the container,the less effective will be your filtration.
The more diameter of the holes you have , again less effective will be your filtration.
If you add the small sized gravel at the lower end of the container . i.e the bottom of the container; then again the amount of filtration would be least.
Adding high/low density sponge at the bottom of the container also cause less filtration.
The main reason why i added medium sized gravel at the bottom of the container is that the water and huge poo/debris can be sucked into the jar.And it stays there because the next layer is the perforated high density sponge which does not allow the huge poo/debris to go upwards. (This is the level where mechanical filtration is done)
The second region where the medium sized aquarium gravel (i prefer clay) is where your bacteria growth is going to happen.Its best if this gravel is washed atleast a minimum of 10 times with a gap of 5 minutes between each wash. Then it can be used.(This acts as the nesting place for bacteria and this is where breakdown of waste occur - this is the biological filtration stage)
The last region - the aquarium wool will filter or absorb and high density chemical . . . (Thats why we use it in cleaning out cut wounds)(You can also use calcium/ceramic/carbon here but it is not as cheap as aquarium wool) . . . It is useful in aborbing the harmful or unwanted bacteria and hence they stay in the filter.
Pure water is then funneled out of the outlet valve of the power head.
Voila
Thats about it.
Now here are the pics i promised. They were taken before and after the filter was switched on. And dont mind my kamfa, he is healing from taking a beating from a 10 inch female red devil i tried to breed him with.
Some people also say that adding airstones are not necessary since the air tube connected to the power head/ filter will get air into the tank. Well in reality speaking of dissolution of air in water, the power head/ filter only blows out air into the tank and you can observe that the bubble size is much bigger than the bubble size give put by an airstone. And the myth is that a bigger bubble contains more air/oxygen. But its not true. The bigger the air bubbles in the tank the lesser is the oxygen and the space in most of the big bubbles are void. This is the reason why i took off the tubing attached to the power heads. Its left up to you completely to your choice to take them off or leave em.( Use airstones people)
The finished product
After closing it with the lid attached with the Power head.
Here are the tank Pics Before the filter was switched on
In the below image you can see the pooh particles lying everywhere. Courtesy of my Kamfa.
This image shows the floating particles in the tank
This is a close up pix of the tank
Here are the pics after i switched on the tank
These pics taken an hour later
Pics taken a day later
Pictures taken 10 Mins ago . . .
Took 10 mins to make it. I wud appreciate your comments.
The DIY Powerhead filter
Reqirements
(According to priority)
1.Powerhead
2.Air tight container
3.Aquarium wool
4.Sponge
5.High density sponge
6.Aquarium medium sized gravel
7.Aquarium small sized gravel or aquarium plant clay*
* - This soil has different names in different countries.
Introduction
I wanted a more powerful and customized filter because i know how much waste the fish puts out. In my case my Kamfa is an eating champ.He loves krill,freeze dries worms, any smaller sized fish would and up as his food and he absolutely loves the pellets.
In regard to this, i considered making some trips to me LF's to know the filters they have and also the price. I saw small fitlers starting from 10$ to 200$ canister filters which were of course pointless. And my god i tell you the brand names of these add more to the marketing value which makes the price of these filters even more than the quality of the product is concerned.
I am gonna be honest with you all.This filter was built on a trial and error basis. Yes , i have done the testing on my kamfa and he is as good as it gets.
My main reason for making this tutorial is to make the aquarists to get an in depth knowledge in filtration required. No matter the tank size you have , no matter the fish you have this filter works perfect.See for yourself i have attached the before and after pics of My tank as proof.
Construction/Setup
Part -1 Setting up the powerhead
1.Well you got your powerhead,mine cost me 5$ each so that makes it 10$ in total. Remove the lower mart of the power head its not necessary( tHE CAp that controls the velocity of the water).nOW WITH THAT REMOVED YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO SEE THE ROTATING PART OF THE POWER HEAD FROM A HOLE UNDERNEATH IT.
2. Next take the airtight jar or container you have, and on the lid hold the powerhead and make a mark with a permanent marker as to where you are supposed to make a hole.
3.I make a hole on the cap just by heating a knife on a candle for a while and cut it according to the marking.Remember to cut from the inner side of the marking and not from the outer side. If this is done wrong then the powerhead will not get a perfect fit on the Lid/cap of the container.
4.Squeeze in by rotating the powerhead into the lid. If this cannot be done then heat the knife again and just make the opening of the lid a little bigger by carving the sides of the open hole on the lid by the heated knife. If it is still tight and not try repeatedly.
5.I assume that the powerhead is fitted on the lid of the container.Now take a few rubber bands and roll em on the sides where the powerhead attaches itself to the Lid of the container.Only on the outer part of the jar.
6.Congratz the powerhead part setup is ready.
Part -2 Setting up the container
1. Drill about 5-8 holes of 4mm size in the bottom corner part of the container.
2. Fill the container about 1/4th of the container in medium diameter aquariul gravel.
3.Add a high density sponge on top of it.Make sure it covers the sides completely.
4.Now add the small sized aquarium gravel or clay in anout 1/4th of the container.
5.Atlast add a low desity sponge and if there are spaces in the sides fill em up with the sponge pieces you have left.
6.Add the aquarium wool on the top most layer of the container.
Part -3
Close the container with the tightly fitted power head.
Check
Before you pulg in the wonder, check if you have made the holes in the bottom corners of the container. Do not make holes in the bottom surface of the container,just the sides around the bottom would be good. A maximum of 8 holes of 3-4mm are enough.
Note: The more holes you have on the container,the less effective will be your filtration.
The more diameter of the holes you have , again less effective will be your filtration.
If you add the small sized gravel at the lower end of the container . i.e the bottom of the container; then again the amount of filtration would be least.
Adding high/low density sponge at the bottom of the container also cause less filtration.
The main reason why i added medium sized gravel at the bottom of the container is that the water and huge poo/debris can be sucked into the jar.And it stays there because the next layer is the perforated high density sponge which does not allow the huge poo/debris to go upwards. (This is the level where mechanical filtration is done)
The second region where the medium sized aquarium gravel (i prefer clay) is where your bacteria growth is going to happen.Its best if this gravel is washed atleast a minimum of 10 times with a gap of 5 minutes between each wash. Then it can be used.(This acts as the nesting place for bacteria and this is where breakdown of waste occur - this is the biological filtration stage)
The last region - the aquarium wool will filter or absorb and high density chemical . . . (Thats why we use it in cleaning out cut wounds)(You can also use calcium/ceramic/carbon here but it is not as cheap as aquarium wool) . . . It is useful in aborbing the harmful or unwanted bacteria and hence they stay in the filter.
Pure water is then funneled out of the outlet valve of the power head.
Voila
Thats about it.
Now here are the pics i promised. They were taken before and after the filter was switched on. And dont mind my kamfa, he is healing from taking a beating from a 10 inch female red devil i tried to breed him with.
Some people also say that adding airstones are not necessary since the air tube connected to the power head/ filter will get air into the tank. Well in reality speaking of dissolution of air in water, the power head/ filter only blows out air into the tank and you can observe that the bubble size is much bigger than the bubble size give put by an airstone. And the myth is that a bigger bubble contains more air/oxygen. But its not true. The bigger the air bubbles in the tank the lesser is the oxygen and the space in most of the big bubbles are void. This is the reason why i took off the tubing attached to the power heads. Its left up to you completely to your choice to take them off or leave em.( Use airstones people)
The finished product
After closing it with the lid attached with the Power head.
Here are the tank Pics Before the filter was switched on
In the below image you can see the pooh particles lying everywhere. Courtesy of my Kamfa.
This image shows the floating particles in the tank
This is a close up pix of the tank
Here are the pics after i switched on the tank
These pics taken an hour later
Pics taken a day later
Pictures taken 10 Mins ago . . .
