Sanderguy777
- #1
Warning: this post is LONG, but I feel that it will give you an idea of how I personally design things (trial and error lol) and how that design changes, based on events, or budget, or physics rearing its ugly head (aka, the regular canister is too tall to fit under the tabk...). Anyway, I hope this helps, and you can blame the nutty betta that wanted me to make a thread about the build for unleashing the inner writer lol
So you may have seen my recent post about wanting to find a canister or internal filter to clean up my 60g guppy tank.
At the end of that thread, I said I was going to just look for a powerhead to fit on a sponge filter. Well, I did that and I'm not real happy with the results. The tank is slightly cleaner after I added a marineland maxijet 900 (I think) to the uplift tube instead of the air stone I had been using. If it wasn't for the fact that the poor guppies are now staying out of ¼ of the tank, I think the powerhead thing is good. (Meaning it would probably work fine for other fish).
That said, I want to go a different direction. I wanted to get an internal filter, but they are all big, and they are some mix of too cheap to work for any length of time, or too expensive for my sub $100 budget.
Canisters were next, but Fluval and Eheim are obviously not gonna happen, and even marineland and penn plax are too expensive. I was looking at sunsun and Polar Aurora as next choices, but they have really mixed reviews. The 1 star ones are all "it flooded the house and killed all of my discus," or "it ruined the floor, and sucked up all 8000 neons." The good reviews were either "I've had it for 3 months, and it's great, just make sure to grease this and that," or "the first one was terrible, but the replacement worked great for the week I've had it, and the customer service was top notch, once I got ahold of them after 3 weeks..." Basically, the filter works fine, as long as you maintain it, and don't torque anything, or expect it to be a Fluval or Eheim. But I still didn't like the price (which is perfectly reasonable IF the filter works, and doesn't flood the house. I didn't want to have the worry, or hassle, so I passed.
That brings me to what I chose. The DIY canister. (I dont know if that is the official name, but that’s what I'll call it.)
If you look at the photos I've uploaded, you can see the tanks (60g main, and 10g growout/QT), and the dresser i plan on putting the canister on.
The reason I think DIY is the way to go is that my design (which is not really original to me, just modded from this and that online), is that it is cheap, watertight and can't drain the tank.
You can see the orange bucket that is the analog for the canister (as I haven't actually built it yet). I will have two bulkheads on that bucket. One will be on the lid, hooked up to the powerhead I have on the sponge filter now (in fact, I may just hook it up with a hose and not even change the setup except to move the sponge to one end). The other bulkhead, on the bottom, will supply a large spray bar or sponge baffled outflow (not sure but probably the spray bar).
This build is heavily based on a video. My design is close to Cory's, but I will be adding a spray bar (like the one in another of his videos) and simplifying the inner parts, so I can make things easier on myself later.
I just ordered the bulkheads today, and some foam, getting ready for the build here soon.
So you may have seen my recent post about wanting to find a canister or internal filter to clean up my 60g guppy tank.
At the end of that thread, I said I was going to just look for a powerhead to fit on a sponge filter. Well, I did that and I'm not real happy with the results. The tank is slightly cleaner after I added a marineland maxijet 900 (I think) to the uplift tube instead of the air stone I had been using. If it wasn't for the fact that the poor guppies are now staying out of ¼ of the tank, I think the powerhead thing is good. (Meaning it would probably work fine for other fish).
That said, I want to go a different direction. I wanted to get an internal filter, but they are all big, and they are some mix of too cheap to work for any length of time, or too expensive for my sub $100 budget.
Canisters were next, but Fluval and Eheim are obviously not gonna happen, and even marineland and penn plax are too expensive. I was looking at sunsun and Polar Aurora as next choices, but they have really mixed reviews. The 1 star ones are all "it flooded the house and killed all of my discus," or "it ruined the floor, and sucked up all 8000 neons." The good reviews were either "I've had it for 3 months, and it's great, just make sure to grease this and that," or "the first one was terrible, but the replacement worked great for the week I've had it, and the customer service was top notch, once I got ahold of them after 3 weeks..." Basically, the filter works fine, as long as you maintain it, and don't torque anything, or expect it to be a Fluval or Eheim. But I still didn't like the price (which is perfectly reasonable IF the filter works, and doesn't flood the house. I didn't want to have the worry, or hassle, so I passed.
That brings me to what I chose. The DIY canister. (I dont know if that is the official name, but that’s what I'll call it.)
If you look at the photos I've uploaded, you can see the tanks (60g main, and 10g growout/QT), and the dresser i plan on putting the canister on.
The reason I think DIY is the way to go is that my design (which is not really original to me, just modded from this and that online), is that it is cheap, watertight and can't drain the tank.
You can see the orange bucket that is the analog for the canister (as I haven't actually built it yet). I will have two bulkheads on that bucket. One will be on the lid, hooked up to the powerhead I have on the sponge filter now (in fact, I may just hook it up with a hose and not even change the setup except to move the sponge to one end). The other bulkhead, on the bottom, will supply a large spray bar or sponge baffled outflow (not sure but probably the spray bar).
This build is heavily based on a video. My design is close to Cory's, but I will be adding a spray bar (like the one in another of his videos) and simplifying the inner parts, so I can make things easier on myself later.
I just ordered the bulkheads today, and some foam, getting ready for the build here soon.
