Really simple,cheap diy internal filter

bgcoop8784

bgcoop8784

AC Members
Aug 6, 2009
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Augusta GA
Ok..got bored and decided to make a really simple, really cheap internal filter. Made in about 20 minutes and seems to be working great.
materials needed are.
1. plastic tube that tennis balls come in (have 2 pitbulls so i go through a lot of tennis balls)
2. Any powerhead
3. pot scrubbers, activated carbon, bio-spira ceramic, or whatever you wanna use but gotta have the pot scrubbers.

-just take the tennis ball container and poke/drill/ or i was bored and had a candle so i heated up an old screwdriver and just poked a bunch of holes all around the bottom of it no higher than about an inch up or so.

-take the lid of the container cut a circle out of the middle a little smaller than the diameter of the intake on your powerhead.

-push a pot scrubber to the bottom of the container so it's covering all the wholes

-poor in whatever biomedia you have or some activated carbon

-add another pot scrubber to the top

-put the container lid back on and push the powerhead intake into the lid, if the whole is a little smaller the powerhead intake will be a tight fit

-insert into tank and plug in powerhead, the suction will keep the lid good and tight so no need to glue or silicone it on and you are done. and the tennis ball container is big enough to add a decent amount of bio media, i used carbon just to try it out.

this isn't the prettiest thing but it's so cheap and easy, plus i come across free tanks a lot and don't always wanna buy a filter for every one. i added a pic but its not great because it's with my phone cause my camera battery was dead.

internal filter.jpg
 
yeah, i have a whole machine/welding/fab shop, but i got bored while watching tv and wanted to do something that anyone can make. and yeah if you already have the power head and potscrubbers it was free for me.
 
and here's another extremely ugly one that i use sometimes to set up a 10gal fry tank and uses gravel from the main aquarium so already has some good bacteria, really really ugly.

grab an empty coke bottle, cut the bottom off, cut a bunch of half circles out of the bottom so when it sits upright there are gaps in the bottom, sit the bottle in any tupperware container or whatever u may have, put an airstone in the bottom of the bottle and run the airline out one of the lil half circles, hold the bottle in place and fill the tupperware container or bowl or whatever with gravel and it should hold the bottle and airline in place, sit it in the tank and cut on the air, as bubbles rise outa the bottle it will pull water through the gravel and out the bottle. here's a really bad "paint" drawing of a really ugly but really cheap and effective filter. (brown is gravel, black is tupperware or bowl, red is old coke bottle, light blue is airline, and blue is airstone) ask if ya have any questions... can yall tell i get really bored.
 

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tennis can great idea cheap and easy i like that !
 
yup, i'm runnin activated carbon in mine now just cause i just moved some fish to the new aquarium and it keeps it pretty clear through the mini cycle it's goin through with the seeded fx5
 
just realized for those of ya that wanna add a lot of bio material in a cheap way, use 2 or three tennis cans, just cut the bottom off and add a second or third, i have three glued together in my 55 gallon feeder tank full of spyromax and filter floss at the end and it does great, wouldn't put this on my show tank but does great for the feeder tank or as a way to pre-cycle media for seeding a future new tank. having the pre-cycled media is always great to have.
 
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