DIY Marineland Penguin Filter Cartridge s
- Thread starter coach_z
- Start date
I buy a $10 box of 6 aqua-tec filters at wal-mart for my penguin 350. They are the same exact cartridge as the marineland cartridge. I rinse and reuse them as long as I can, at least 9 months. It takes two years to go through a box of six. That works out to 40 cents a month. For my emperor I use a bioforever supercartridge. It takes up both slots and has biofins in front and back. I buy the same exact waste trap material in bulk size and cut my own. It is cheaper yet.
I been looking at this for a while now. Maybe I should get a couple.
http://pet-supplies.drsfostersmith....thod=and&ts=results&rt=template_switch_search
My front slots of the Emperor have 2 clam shelles frames(the original ones) full with biomax(96 pieces of ceramic rings) and the back slots have the diy cartridges with blue bonded pads and poly floss.
My Aqueon 55 has 2 diy cartridges, about 1 cup of crash coral and about 20 biomax ceramic rings.
I don't use carbon anymore but I do have some around the house just in case. Btw, I bought the original replacement cartridges for both filters only once and it came out to $4.30/ cartridge.:jaw-dropping:
In my Penguin, I removed the cartridge and in its place I cut a piece of pond sponge to fit snugly where the cartridge would normally be. Then I fill the area behind the sponge with poly fill. They've been in there for 9 months now, get rinsed during WC's with only some of the poly fill needing to be changed out once in a while.
echoofformless
Peat Advocate & Defender Of Snails
I support the use of the Foster and Smith clamshell style replacements more than any DIY. Rather than waste a lot of time monkeying around to get mediocre results you can just invest a few bucks and get those, which will allow you to do all kinds of cool stuff.
Not that the DIY wouldn't yield good results if you know what you're doing, but the ones from F and S are a lot more useful in my opinion. And inexpensive.
Not that the DIY wouldn't yield good results if you know what you're doing, but the ones from F and S are a lot more useful in my opinion. And inexpensive.
Not sure where I saw it but there's a mod that someone built on the Emperor 280/400 that used the clam shell as a base and added an air supply and bubbler to the bottom, then filled it w/ ceramic media I believe.
I have some of those that I haven't really played with much yet and some of what I think are older media inserts. They are very solid black plastic frames with herring bone looking perforated faces and the interiors are divided as though for the disposable sheet / pad type medias. They're substantial enough and easy enough to insert and remove I'm sure something creative can be done with them.
They say the legs are one of the 1st two things to go...and I can't remember what the second thing was...?
I have some of those that I haven't really played with much yet and some of what I think are older media inserts. They are very solid black plastic frames with herring bone looking perforated faces and the interiors are divided as though for the disposable sheet / pad type medias. They're substantial enough and easy enough to insert and remove I'm sure something creative can be done with them.
They say the legs are one of the 1st two things to go...and I can't remember what the second thing was...?
I was just reading this post and came up with an idea for those who have already bought the penguin filters and like that clamshell design posted about earlier. Couldn't you just take two old filters, remove the carbon and sponge/floss, then staple/attach them somehow on the bottom, facing each other. That way you can just make your own clamshell that will fit, using old parts, that you can stuff with any filter material you want? Just a random idea I just had.
