Hidden filtration; false back?

Sploke

Sploke

resident boozehound
Staff member
Oct 20, 2005
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South Windsor, CT
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Matt
Hi everyone, first post here. I'm trying to set up a 15 gal tropical community tank in my living room. The problem is that its on top of a bookshelf, right against the wall, so I can't hang a filter on the back. I don't have any place to hide a canister since there's no cabinet. I'd rather not do an UGF. So, any ideas? What i've come up with so far is maybe siliconing in a piece of glass to make a false back and building some sort of biofilter behind it with a powerhead or something. I know I'm not the first to do something like this, anyone have drawings or pictures or even a link to get me started? I'd like to keep the heater hidden too, if at all possible, although not as high priority as the filter.
 
I like that mattenfilter idea. I have so many powerheads and other filter junk floating around, all I probably need is the matting. Thanks for the link, that was really helpful.
 
they have those setups i think seaclear makes them with the acrylic tanks, where theres a wall in the back of the tank with overflows that trickle down onto bioballs and pumped back.

do the eclipse lids not fit your size tank?
 
not sure what an eclipse lid is...one of those hoods with a filter/biowheel type thing built into it? Not sure, forgot about those but I might be able to find one. Just depends on cost. I can do the mattenfilter thing for super cheap, and one side of the aquarium faces kind of into a corner so I wouldn't be able to see it anyway. I'll check out the eclipse things though.
 
HOT over the side?

How about a Magnum250 hung over the side of the tank?

Or an internal filter, sponge driven by powerhead or the internal canisters, Fluval makes some?

The Magnum would be my choice, I like those filters but I'm not sure about that flow rate for that size tank. With the nozzle removed and output tube pointed toward the glass, it might break the flow enough.
 
Yeah, I have an emperor on the side of a 55 for my turtles...the only thing i don't like is that you can't put a hood over it when you do that. I've used a Fluval 4+ before too, and I'm still kind of considering it, I just don't like that its basically mechanical filtration and they have to be cleaned so much. At least on the one I had, the sponge needed to be squeezed out almost weekly to kep flow going.
 
Well i went to the store today and ended up getting two of the whisper internal filters, the 2-10gal size. Instead of using the filter bags though i'm just going to fill them with filter floss or some other biomedia. Now I just need to get the tank haha.
 
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