External Canister Filter For Shallow Tank?

[Cdub]

Hello all,

While searching for the best external canister filter for my application, being a shallow tank (water is about 20 inches from the top rim of the tank), this forum came up as the top result for all my searches so I thought I'd ask all you wonderful people what you think!

I currently have a terrarium that is 50/50 land and water, plenty of plants in both. I'm looking for a way to keep the water side nice and clean with minimal manual maintenance (at least less than I have now ). I currently have a Fluval 105 & 205 for my other aquariums and they work great for those setups, but not for my shallow aquarium .

In all the Fluval manual's I've found, they all seem to have this clause

The water level should never be more than 7.8 in.
(20 cm)below your aquarium rim

This is unavoidable for me in this shallow aquarium due to the sheer size of the tank. I've tried setting up a temporary rig to hook up the 105 and 205 to my current setup, but they don't seem to have enough "umph" to keep going on their own. If I manually siphon, I can tell the water is roughly an inch or two too shy from the top of the output nozzle to make it over the aquarium rim. If I manually pump the primer, it seems to flow okay, but as soon as I stop pumping, the flow hovers around that inch or two too short range (and yes, I even considered rigging an actuator to the primer pump to just run it 24/7 but it seems like a waste when I could find a proper filter that will do the trick).

I've been looking into the FX5 as it has a stronger pump, but even it has the clause that states it may not function properly if the water level is too far below the aquarium rim.

I have absolutely no experience with non Fluval Canister Filters. I've heard of Eheim, but that's about the extent of my knowledge. I haven't been able to find any clauses about water level in regards to aquarium rim for them but they may be hidden somewhere.

Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction for something that can adequately filter my shallow aquarium? It would be greatly appreciated

 

[ZoddyZod]

the distance between the tank rim and the water level should not be the issue (unless I'm missing something?) what is important is where the hose meets the intake stem, that that area is under the water lines, thus creating a good seal and not letting any air into the intake.

the stem itself is rather long on the Fluval range, so I'm not sure your water is deep enough to both create the seal at the top and not have the intake buried in the substrate.

 

[moochy13]

im pretty confused as to whats going on here and why things dont work, but could you use an eheim crook type outlet pipe, upside down? you could shorten the crook pipe so that where it connects to your hose it is underwater. im not sure if that solves the problem, i cant even work out what the problem is ? i think ive got the jist of it though.

heres a slightly crap picture of my crook pipe.

you can see the bend, outside the tank its just a straight pipe that goes into the filter hose. if you cut the filter hose and crook pipe so that where they meet is below your water line, this shoudl be ok ? the bend in the crook should help with ground clearance, and you can buy the little cages that go on the end to stop stuff getting sucked up them.