Biorb's Filter

[AdAndrews]

I shall leave the box in.

Would it be possible though to remove the carbon tray and replace it with a second layer of sponge? I am not planning on buying a new carbon tray, and i have to replace the current piece of orange sponge i have anyway

yes, or even better, use stintered glass media, which will allow a larger colony of bacteria in your filter..

 

[Ryefish]

stintered what now?!

will my LFS know what this is?

 

[AdAndrews]

stintered what now?!

will my LFS know what this is?

like ceramic rings, basically, its whats refered to as "biological media", this doesnt take out particles as a sponge will, it has a huge surface area, for the bacteria to colonise, these bacteria will support your fish by processing their waste.

here is sometime like what im refering to, although, there are many forms:

http/www.charterhouse-aquatics.co.uk/catalog/eheim-ehfisubstratpro-biological-filtration-p-170.html

ps. the 1 litre as shown will be wayyy too much for your tank, you would only simply need a handful.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree, the Eheim Ehfi Substrat Pro is a good example of the sintered glass type biomedia. Seachem Matrix is another example and often seen in jars even in some of the big box pet shops. I think there's a third common example floating about but I can't remember it.

Agree you definately want to make use of any filter space you've got!

I'm still like ryefish and curious to know HOW the darn flow path works in those things. I easily believe that it does, its just that the "how" and the "wow" are half the fun for me in this hobby.

One of the most interesting things to me has been seeing the wide range of quality extant in filters. It goes all the way from the gorgeous Eheim cannisters silently filtering through huge volumes of media down all the way to these little biorb things and the little whispers with barely any media volume at all and yet the really experienced aquarists can manage to get these little things to work, even if poorly!

I think media volume is a thing that barely gets talked about much over in the beginner section but is frequently mentioned in comparisons here in the hardware section.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Examine the filter and see if this makes sense as the water flow path. The water enters the bottom slits and flows to the top of the sponge. From there it flows down through the sponge and carbon. When it gets through the carbon it flows in and up to the lift tube where the air lifts it out the top of the tube. I am going by your drawing of construction, but that is how I see it. Without the box thing inside, the water could flow directly from the slits in the bottom to the lift tube and completely bypass the sponge filter.