Air Driven Hob Filter

[bobross]

Hello everyone,

I was browsing around a little earlier on ebay and stumbled across these fine gems for sale:


item # 220317349854


Now I realize these are probably "before my time" in this hobby but I was a little curious about these. Not necessarily saying I wanna bid on this lot, but even for future reference, does anyone have info about them? Why haven't I seen more of these? They seem like a cool alternative to a group of sponge filters, just a quick thought...




BobRoss

 

[kcharley]

Hello everyone,

I was browsing around a little earlier on ebay and stumbled across these fine gems for sale:


item # 220317349854


Now I realize these are probably "before my time" in this hobby but I was a little curious about these. Not necessarily saying I wanna bid on this lot, but even for future reference, does anyone have info about them? Why haven't I seen more of these? They seem like a cool alternative to a group of sponge filters, just a quick thought...




BobRoss

Hi Bob,

I have two hob's very similar to the one on the right. IMO, it was a big improvement on UG filters and I was thrilled with them when I got them 30 years ago. I started using one on a 5 gal beta tank a few weeks ago. That said, I wouldn't give my powered hob's for it and would be hesitant to use it on tanks larger than 5 gal. They do have two serious drawbacks compared to todays hob's. First they are low flow and second they tend to mist anything within 6 inches. It actually peeled the paint off a wall when I had it too close.

Greg

 

[OldMan47]

An air driven HOB used a "lift tube" to move water from the aquarium to the filter on the tank back and overflowed back into the tank after the water passed through the media. Tank water levels were critical when using a lift tube to move water into a filter since it could only move water up maybe 2 inches. They were made in a vast array of sizes for different filter needs but were all low capacity filters compared to the power filters which replaced them. As biofilters and chemical filters they worked pretty well but their flows were too low to support much mechanical fitration. Sizing in those days was at fractions of tank volume per hour rather than the many times volume favored today but except for mechanical filtration they worked very well. They proved very slow to clear suspended materials from the water which is why they gave way to the power filters.