Prefilter for canisters

[Sumpin'fishy]

What does everyone use for prefiltering the intake tubes to their canisters?

[TwoTankAmin]

Max III Prefilter

[Sumpin'fishy]

what is that? (Max III prefilter) Where do I look for info on it?

[krowland]

You can check out the Max III prefilter at www.thatfishplace.com. I use a round pond filter pad with a hole in the center slipped over the intake of my Eheims. It works well to keep out the big stuff. The foam is about 2 inches in diameter and fits tightly over the end of the intake. I find that my Pl*co likes to clean them for me.

[Tightdog1]

i use the sponges from powerhead intakes to cover filter intakes works well, as it should

[Sumpin'fishy]

I cut a hole in the middle of a large sponge before and stuck that on the intake of my Magnum HOT. After about a week, I noticed about a quarter of the HOT canister was filled with air. It was clogging up the filter enough to stop the full water flow from working. It drastically increased my current and quickly filled back up with water when I would remove the prefilter and clean it. Same problem again the next week, etc. I decided that since my fish are too large to get sucked in, I would just leave it off altogether. I just don't wanna have to clean my mechanical filter sleeve as often as I have to now. Why did my prefilter sponge get clogged so quickly, and does any of yours do the same? I really would rather not slow down the current and water turn-over rate.

[Richer]

My dad bought me a pack of Eheim's prefilter sponges... basically a cylinder shaped sponge with a hole in the middle. Works great for me.. I never had problems with air building up in any of my canisters (a fluval 404 and an eheim 2026). I just blast the thing with tap water once a week to keep it clean.

HTH
-Richer

[JSchmidt]

The Filter Max III is pretty good. It has a variety of attachment devices to fit just about any size input tube, and it can be oriented horizontally or vertically. The sponge material itself is a bit coarser than I like, but otherwise they work fine.

Most of my prefilters are Tetra PHAS sponges. They are basically just a sponge cylinder with a hole drilled the length of the sponge. I then drill holes in the last 3" or so of the intake tube, so that water will be drawn in the length of the sponge, not just at the bottom. Works great!

Jim

[Sumpin'fishy]

That's a good idea, Jim, I think I'll try drilling additional holes in the intake and adding the sponge again, thanks guys!

[JSchmidt]

I wish I could claim the prefilter idea as my own. I got it from one of RobertTR's articles (http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/cannister.html).

It works, though...

Jim

[Scooter]

I use an AC sponge on the intake of my Eheim. I can get several sponges and years of use out of a single 500 sponge.

[JSchmidt]

I think AC sponges are OK, but I can't imagine having big white sponges over all the intakes in all my tanks. Ugh!

Also, I prefer something with a bit finer texture. The AC sponges are rather coarse -- that's also one of my quarrels with the Filter Max III sponges, but they have other things in their favor that make it easier to overlook the cell size.

Tetra PHAS are perfect, IMO.

Jim

[Scooter]

Jim, I cut the sponges to exactly fit the intake so they're not really that obtrusive. I guess if you've got a sparsely decorated tank with little or no rock and wood, it wouldn't be the most aesthetic thing in the world, but mine's hidden in the back corner and you can't see it.

I do agree that the prefilter modules that are made for Eheims are more pleasing to the eye, but in my case it's not a problem. Also, a $5.00 AC sponge that will last for well over a year is an economical solution. I also agree that they are course, but, for me, that sacrifice isn't a problem.

At least we've all listed several answers to Sumpin'fishy's question, which is the main thing. :)

[Sumpin'fishy]

I agree with that, I appreciate all the ideas guys, I'll put them to use.

[Sumpin'fishy]

BTW, I just got through drilling several small holes around the bottom of the inlet pipe, and covering with the same foam block that I had on it before. It extends about 3" up the pipe and is about 1/2" wider than the pipe on either side. I went ahead and cleaned My HOT out and refilled only half way before I hooked it up and turned it back on. I watched it fill itself fully with water just to make sure the intake can match the flow of water out of the filter. It seems to be running fine, and I already saw detritus sticking to the side of the sponge rather than just the bottom portion. (I stirred up the tank gravel a bit) Thanks for the input people! We'll try this out a while, and tell ya how it goes.

[spankey]

I used to use a prefilter on my canister but came to find that it slowed the flow down quite a bit after about 2 days. It got old having to clean it out every other day? Maybee I was doing something wrong though?

Just my 2 cents... Although the prefilter cut down on the changing of the canister filter. Its a toss up though...

Spankey:rolleyes:

[Sumpin'fishy]

That's why I started the thread, Spankey. Have you read all the posts? These guys had some neat ideas. Like what I ended up doing.