picked up a lil elite hob rated for 5 gallons at the end of March. wasn't happy with the way the cartridges (one sponge, one floss pad/carbon) were working in it. so created this lil soft mod:
cut a piece of an Aquaclear sponge to fit inside the filter, and notched out the area for the intake tube.
this is how you would fit it into the filter
and this is what it looks like once the filter is running
it works great, very little to no bypass, and if you are running a small tank with just a betta and a couple ramshorns (like i am), it is plenty enough surface area to hold the right amount of beneficial bacteria. i've been running the filter with this mod since mid April and have had to rinse the sponge only once and there has never been any possibility of the filter overflowing due to it backing up/gunking up.
best part is, no more dang cartridges! lol.
cut a piece of an Aquaclear sponge to fit inside the filter, and notched out the area for the intake tube.
this is how you would fit it into the filter
and this is what it looks like once the filter is running
it works great, very little to no bypass, and if you are running a small tank with just a betta and a couple ramshorns (like i am), it is plenty enough surface area to hold the right amount of beneficial bacteria. i've been running the filter with this mod since mid April and have had to rinse the sponge only once and there has never been any possibility of the filter overflowing due to it backing up/gunking up.
best part is, no more dang cartridges! lol.
!