Supercharging a canister filter

I have a Hydor prime 20 (160gph) that was a freebie. Really didn't have the money to get a newer, bigger and better one at this time. Last week I was at Petsmart and they had their Aquarium/Fountain Submersible or dry (296 gph) pump on clearance so I picked one up. When I got home I cut the discharge line on the Hydor found two hose clamps and installed it and it is down in the stand with the filter(no noise)and this should work fine for one that has a bad motor, that simple. Needless to say $25.00 later it no longer pumps 160gph anymore. Hope this may help someone else out who is coming up a couple hundred bucks short of a new one.

JB

Never seen or heard of this.... you got pics?

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Is installed on the discharge side. It rocks now!!!

thats a great idea, thanks for sharing bro

Deadred wrote:

thats a great idea, thanks for sharing bro

Thanx, it's so easy and works great!!! I come up with some good ideas every now and then. For those of you who know me, see I'm not just a pretty face. LMAO

That's a great idea to revamp an old or dead filter haha. I have a settle tank I use in my fish room to adjust PH, Temp, ect.. before pumping into the other tanks. I went the cheaper route and bought a submersible sump pump haha. $65 for a 2000GPH pump that will suck down to 1/4 of an inch. Can pump up to a 20FT head. Compared to the "aquarium" pumps that want 100's! to pump less! Of course it is not a contsant on pump BUT it works and that is all I need.

One thing I would say about this setup is that as far as filtration is concerned pumping more is not necessarily a better filter. (I know you didn't say it was this is just to dispel any confusion.)

The reason why they make different size canister/power filters is typically to increase the surface area or contact the filtration media has with the water. IMO The pumping rate does not have to be extremely fast because contact time also has a significant impact on how well the filter works. This is why many canister filters have multiple trays for media. IMO the pump rate of filters is mostly toted for marketing purposes, but that's just me. (just think about using a simple sponge filter to provide all the bio filtration in a tank--large surface area for bacteria and sustained contact time.)
You could also argue that the better pumping rate that the better the water is exchanged which is very true. This is why most very large tanks have more then one filter in use to decrease dead spots in the tank.

This is a great idea....gotta pocket this one!

I'm confused!!!!!
In the first place I payed $25 for this pump to do this job, if I was going to set up a settle tank then I would have went with the More Expensive $65 route. Second you really lost me on the "pumping more is not necessarily a better filter" statement, the reason they make different sized canister/power filters is for different sized tanks (i.e.) "gallons per hour" not "surface area per hour" don't think I would put a Emperor 400 on a 10 gallon tank, or a 10 gallon filter on my 75gal. As far as surface area, a higher gph would put more water in contact with the filter media no matter how big or small the surface area. As far as contact time, "maybe" if your running just Biological media but not even so sure about that, if you're running a polisher etc, contact time ie your theory would not come in to play but gph would. To sum it up I did this upgrade on this size filter I can't make the surface area any bigger but I did increase the amount of water coming in contact with said media. As far as dead spots in large tanks I also have a penguin 350 and a Emperor 400. ie. crowded cichlid tank.

I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on this matter.

Thanx for your opinions

JB

Never said what you did was wrong JB. Just suggesting that increasing flow does not mean that the filter is filtering any better.

The only reason you wouldn't put a large filter on a small tank is due to the current it produces not because it wouldn't help. The truth is that the filter is sized for the tank. In other words the biological media that it can hold in the filter is proportional to the needs of the tank. Even if you used an over sized filter the bacteria would only grow to meet the needs of the tank.

The reason I say that the GPH(flow)is used to sell filters is because it is an easily tangible idea by people who buy it (how many people understood the nitrogen cycle when they first got a tank) The larger filters have more room for media and the larger canister filters have larger baskets. It allows the volume of water in the filter to remain higher while the flow rate stays at a moderate rate. This is to say that just upping the size of the filter does not mean just increasing the rate at which the filter pumps water but rather the volume of water in the filter at any given time.

Like your saying though you can think of it either way. Lets say you can pump the water through the filter 2x as fast as normal but the filtering due to less contact time only filters the water half as good but you can to hit the polishing pads more. You could also pump it through at a normal rate but the water now filters completely each time but is in the filter less often for polishing. In the end both of them do the same thing.

The only thing I am trying to get at here is that just increasing the flow to the filter won't mean better filtering. My thinking behind it is that due to the bacteria having less contact time(faster flow) it does not allow the water to be completely treated each time through. Will it make much of a difference then the way it was before I really doubt it but the fact that larger filters have more surface area and more media surface area vice just faster flow rates I believe promotes my idea here.

Disregard the settling tank thing I said. I was just using it as an example of ingenuity. I use it complete water changes on my tanks much faster and felt like your inventiveness with the pump was akin to my tinkering.

It's all good!!!

You stated your Opinion and I stated mine. I do disagree, especially about the polishing. Contact time "IMO" has nothing to do with the polishing process, a polisher, pillow stuffing or what ever, works by water being forced through it to trap debris etc, it wouldn't filter better if the water stayed in the canister longer. So that kind of brings us back to my statement: We will just have to agree to disagree

strikingthematch wrote:

Disregard the settling tank thing I said. I was just using it as an example of ingenuity. I use it complete water changes on my tanks much faster and felt like your inventiveness with the pump was akin to my tinkering.

It's all good man!!! we just don't quite see eye to eye on this which is no big deal, and your idea was a good one.

JB

Haha I hear ya!

I did say that the higher flow would allow for more polishing"you can hit the polishing pads more". The problem is that the polisher (a mechanical filter) as with most all mechanical filters works better the more flow it gets compared to the bio media that works better at a moderate rate. A moderate rate being one that delivers a steady supply of oxygen to the filter and a long enough contact time with the water to allow the bacteria to work. This is why some people have two filters setup for different purposes. (a bio filter and a mechanical/chemical filter.
Hitting the happy medium is the key line of thought here the only thing I was attempting to say is that because of the way the bio filtration works just increasing the flow won't mean that the bio media would handle any larger bio-load in the tank.

The way I do is to have a complete bio media setup (all baskets) in the canister and a sponge pre-filter to capture all the debris before they enter. In this way I insure that the bio media won't get plugged with crud as often and it offers a visual indicator for cleaning.