Old Mechanical HOB filter

[Back in the fold]

A while back I wondered aloud here on The Great TFF Forum whether anyone remembered an outside filter that wasn’t powered by a motor but by air and siphoning only . Some expressed doubt but here it is friends ! I got an e-mail newsletter from The Museum of Aquarium and Pet History and that’s where I got these pictures . It runs with siphon tubes and air . No electric pump . Feast your eyes on the ingeniousness of man !

 

[Colin_T]

I had something similar with the air blowing bubbles that pushed water into the HOB part of the filter. The water flowed through a couple of chambers that had sponge in and then overflowed back into the tank. It was green and similar in colour to the tubing in the picture above. It worked ok but took up space outside the tank and I got rid of it and used corner sponge filters in the tank instead.

 

[Back in the fold]

I had something similar with the air blowing bubbles that pushed water into the HOB part of the filter. The water flowed through a couple of chambers that had sponge in and then overflowed back into the tank. It was green and similar in colour to the tubing in the picture above. It worked ok but took up space outside the tank and I got rid of it and used corner sponge filters in the tank instead.

Yours sounds like the one I had . The one in these pictures is bigger too . The thing I remember most about it was how finicky it was . The water level had to be perfect and if the filter floss got even slightly dirty it quit . It was a bugger to get started too .

 

[Mr Limpet]

I know I’m dating myself, but we had a Metaframe Bubble-up air powered HOB filter in the early seventies. Instead of filter floss we had glass wool.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Have you folks ever heard of Rube Goldberg? This ancient filter design sounds like something he would have designed. A sponges, a tibe and the same air power used for the 51 filters does a better job, costs less and is more reliable.

My dads small tank in the 1950s used a corner filter filled with fiberglass.

 

[Back in the fold]

I know I’m dating myself, but we had a Metaframe Bubble-up air powered HOB filter in the early seventies. Instead of filter floss we had glass wool.

I used glass wool back in the 1960’s . Being a kid and not knowing what we know now I changed the glass wool and charcoal in my box filter every week or so . That stuff was murder on your hands . Little shards of that fiberglass in your hands hurt !

Have you folks ever heard of Rube Goldberg? This ancient filter design sounds like something he would have designed. A sponges, a tibe and the same air power used for the 51 filters does a better job, costs less and is more reliable.

My dads small tank in the 1950s used a corner filter filled with fiberglass.

This thing is definitely a Rube Goldberg device !