DIY Internal Canister Filter!!!

[dundadundun]

Seems like a neat idea, maybe I'll try it someday. But its not exactly attractive to see a Jiff jar filled with biomedia in a amazon biotope

no, but somehow, somewhere i think it may be realistic. :hitting:

People! This Thread has gone waaaaaaaaaaay off topic! This is meant to be about ways of finding junk around the house/in the trash/beside the road and DOING IT YOURSELF! For the love of God, lighten up a little, folks. Fair enough, this filter ain't the prettiest thing to make it's way into an aquarium, fair enough, most of us might never try it ourselves... But if push came to shove and you were in a bind where your flash Eheim gave up the ghost, how many wouldn't think back and go "Oh, yeah, there was that cool internal made by that dude on that random Forum years back! Maybe I'll give that a go..." ?

Fair dinkum, we all know DIY does not always mean "cheaper than a bought one". In fact DIY is quite often way more expensive, time consuming and labourious, but that's what makes it fun!! And for someone to get on their soapbox and claim this thing is worth over a hundred bucks, because of irrelevant incidentals like tyre wear or gas or whatever else is is totally missing the forest for the trees...

Chill out people. Give the guy a pat on the back for trying something new and stop being such a bunch of nit-picking nanna's. Rant over.

lmao................well said! I know I feel better and I didn't type all of that. I do agree!

:iagree:

Just read this whole thread.

Them kill joys though.

I can't see how the "reliability/last for yrs" thing could even come up?

If this thing stops working, its because the PH quit.
You walk in LFS yelling OMG!!! My filter Quit!!! I need a part to fix it NOW!!!
LFS employee asks... "what part do you need?"
You... " A, PH".
LFS employee asks... "what kind?"
You... "The kind that works!"
LFS employee says... "That way > "
You... "Thanks!"

-
Opposed to manufactured filter:

You walk in LFS yelling OMG!!! My filter Quit!!! I need a part to fix it NOW!!!
LFS employee asks... "what part do you need?"
You... " A gasket for my ehum".
LFS employee asks... "what kind?"
You... "IDK, the one that goes in between here n there!"
LFS employee says... "Hummm... nope don't have any of those... I can get one in for you next thursday. "
You... " :swear:! "



Got a link to the new one?

:bs: ... j/k... :thumbsup:

me and the owner/manager at any lfs when i ask for anything... :argue: except when i ask for something they know they don't have. :thumbsdown:

ps... i don't ask too often. :raspberry:

almost forgot: good job on the diy!

 

[fwiffo]

^^ thanks!!

 

[dmbfan028]

Yes diy can be fun. But there is a reason I am not a huge fan.

The manufacturers of premade equipment are very likely to have subjected their designs to all sorts of tests. They dont want seals to give, electronics to fail, filters to stop etc etc. Hopefully the specs for all the parts resulted from the nature of the materieals and their durability. The end result is normally waranteed for some period after purchase.

Using the example of the diy filter in this thread, it looks great, wans't a big cash outlay and gave the builder satisfaction to make. I assume it is working fine now. But my issue is how long will it continue to do so. My emperor 400 has been running fine for over 8 years, I have never had a properly maintained AquaClear fail and my oldest is about 8 years now. My two Eheims also work great. But yes I have had a few premade things break down.

Now as to why this can be a serious consideration for some. Equipment failures often kill fish. The more attached to your fish you are, or the more expensive they may be, the more you don't want to lose them to equipment failure.

I have had a number of my fish a long time and I also have a few tanks with pretty expensive fish that I breed. I am not willing to put them at risk primarily to satisfy my desire to tinker.

Over time a diy piece of equipment is much more likely to fail. So I try to limit my DIY projects to things that I have no choice on.

As for mentioning flipping burgers- it comes from economics. If you are interested, you can google either economic or opportunity cost.

Well thats one opinion, the other would be corporations insist on making things that are DATED as to increase sales. That's why things are made cheaper and cheaper and the price gos up and up. They are similar to Western medicine, they see more profit in treating symptoms, not finding cures for the actual problem. They could create a very good product at a very reasonable price that would last, but that is the oppasite of what they want to do, because the longer they last, the less often we buy. Consider that almost all filters can be designed to except lose media of any size, well companies are making filters that need very specific size and shape filter pads with carbon in them so we have to keep purchasing the disposable inserts for their products, it keeps us coming back to them for our future needs. I have one of the greatest DIY external canister filters ever, and it cost me under $50.00, its a 5 gallon paint bucket with a pond fountain pump, it holds 5 gallons of media (more than most filters available for home use and is simple in both design and operation. The only thing I have to change in it is the cheap poly fil that is $2.00 at Wal-Mart. That's it, nothing more, ever. Yes it can fail, and if it does the worst case scenario is still less than $50.00 for a brand new one. Its really a matter of how much you can do for yourself and how much you rely on others to do it for you.

 

[Que]

Isn't that kinda big? I just tried to fit a 5 gallon pail under my 55 and it won't fit in the cabinet.

Your last post sounded like you were comparing filters for smaller tanks (many of which use the pre-made inserts) with an industrial grade filter for a 200 gallon tank (your DIY). All of my canister filters use whatever media I prefer to put in. While I can appreciate DIY I think your mixing apples and oranges.

Q

 

[USMC2171]

Man, I love this thing. Im gonna make one for my 250g, that Im building. Im gonna use a plastic jug from supplements, or maybe use a 5 gal bucket sunk in the tank.
BANG UP JOB, GREAT IDEA!!!

 

[fwiffo]

over 1 year later:
hard to believe i tinkered this together that long ago.

well just a quick update on the original filter.

i spray painted the red lid with krylon fusion black paint. it has held up very well over the past months. its a great upgrade from the red.

also, i lost the green wire a few days into the filter's first use- it is unnecesary if the hole is drilled to snugly fit the intake of the powerhead.:idea:

the white noodles are no longer white- they are quite dirty, despite repeated washings in clean, clear aquarium water. loads of bacteria at work! :grinyes:

no fish dead, no ammonia, no nitrite. thats right: zero, zip, zilch.
and i test almost every week! :grinno: gave up that since the filter is working so well.
and my tank is heavily ( thats an understatement) overstocked.

same pump is still hauling water through all that media; same jar and strainer are there too.

water is clear, params are perfect, and fish are healthy and growing.

 

[Que]

Fintastic!

 

[fwiffo]

hey- so i upgunned the filter again. :grinyes: this time im using the quiet one 1200 pump (300 gph, 6' of head) on top of an old mayonnaise w/ olive oil jar. thats important as the lid is green for the mayo with olive oil. this makes the filter less conspicuous than a run of the mill peanut butter jar. works great. flow is strong, but the fish like that i think. same design as the others basically. the peanut butter jar filter i posted at the beginning of this thread is the one seen on the left. yes, same pump and impeller after 4 years of pumping waterr through the jar.
hagen deserves a frickin gold medal for its powerheads!! :drool:

i used a box cutter and cut out the bottom of the mayo jar . then i inserted a home depot white plastic sink strainer. added some marineland blue foam (lots of it) and some white noodles up top. the quiet ones use pvc fittings so i use them to secure the pump to the lid. i used an old plant poit as a screen for the intake on the pvc. the outflow uses a pvc female threaded connector only, as this spreads the flow out more. otherwise, the current from the pump is too strong.

cost:
jar: free cause i used the mayo for myself, haha!
strainer: $1.98 @ home depot
foam: $3.98 online
pump: $30 w/ free shipping cause i needed others things on their 50 dollars or more = free shipping statement on drfosters
pvc fittings and connectors: $1.25 all 1/2" size

not sure why the picture is so small. i'll try to revise it and add a better image.

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

Resurrection thread aye? However a great DIY reminder that these type of filters when powered by air pumps as you originally posted, operate at a fraction of the power consumption and cost of most pump powered filters. Although for now home utility power is still relatively cheap, the days are coming sooner then most realize when these air powered pumps will be necessary for the average hobbiest to afford it.

 

[fwiffo]

the blue pump developed an issue with sand in the impeller. i tried to fix, but could'nt. so i bought a new one from drfosters. its very noisy though, right out of the box i returned it. so im debating about which pump to get. maybe an aquaclear 70 or 50 powerhead, or perhaps something else. the other pump still chugs along at 100 gph or so. lol it isnt much but the filter pads show that the filter collects debris!

the pump i originally posted was run by a aquaclear powerhead 20, not an air pump. just a friendly fyi!