AC 500

[nodoubt471]

hey all

im running an ac 500 in my nano (well my 10 g) and the flow is absolutly crazy. its blowing the sand in the front of my tank everywhere, even when i direct the PH into the flow to try to scatter it. how the heck can i modify this??

TIA

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

Why an ac500? The best bet would be to use a different(smaller) filter but obviously you don't have one. I did some mods on my ac500-not to reduce flow though but I glued an extension on the outtake like the entire length of where the water comes out. I did this to reduce bubbles from the skimmer I put in it and it ripples the water across the surface rather than coming straight down into the tank. I think that would divert the flow to a more horizontal flow rather than a vertical flow. HTH

 

[Hara]

try a sponge on the intake

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

would that put extra stress on the motor?

 

[nodoubt471]

i tried the sponge and that didnt help. i was wondering if i could modify it to flow into a some kind of spray bar....? and ideas on that? because i want a lot of flow, and the reason i chose the AC 500 was for its size, im using it as a refugium too.

is this what you meant by an "extension: edmonton eskimo? if not, how did you do that?

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

I just took a piece of acrylic that is 10" long and 4" wide and I glued it to the bottom of the lip that hangs into the tank. It sounds weird but it was very easy. I will post a pic when I figure out how to do it

 

[Overstocker]

Trim down the impellor, that will make it pump less.....

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

I've heard bad things about doing that anyone else?

 

[ellisz]

Can you put the impeller from a smaller unit in it?

 

[Hara]

would that put extra stress on the motor?

never that I have found. Sponges are used on intakes quite often to safeguard fish and inverts.

 

[Toirtis]

You have the flow rate cut right down, I assume. I cannot imagine trying to run an AC500 on a 10...or even a 15...short of some sort of surface/subsurface baffle where the outflow is, I cannot imagine any way around your problem that will actually work and not just direct the energy in a slightly different direction.

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

I was just wondering because the filter isn't designed for that. Ellisz I don't know if that would work as the 500 is the biggest in that line of filters

 

[Cafe Jeff]

I understand that it is the same motor on a bunch of the ACs. Some of the nanoguys use large ACs as fuge and put an impeller from a smaller model in. Jeff

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

you can switch the 150 with the 300 but the 500 is a totally different size. I have one of each of them 150,300 and 500

 

[ellisz]

Sounds like you know the answer

Have you been to nano-reef.com? I thought some use the 500 on 10's but I know it is a HUGE filter.

Good luck

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

nanoreef.com is a pretty cool website. I have stolen and enlarged a couple of ideas from there including my custom hob refugium

 

[nodoubt471]

yea thats where i got the idea from, i have a baffle in the filter itself to prevent the refugium sand and macro from being blown out... but i honestly didnt think about the output being too strong, which i guess was kind of dumb.

i thoguht about switching the impeller from the 300 or whatever, but like you said they are completly different sizes.

ill check out nano reef again i guess... thanks guys for the ideas. if i cant figure nething else out, ill try what you did edmonton

 

[Edmonton Eskimo]

I'm telling you it was super easy and I really think it will solve your problem.

 

[skipper]

Try adding the surface skimmer. Slowed my AC500 down enough to keep the sand from moving around in my 10gal.

 

[Cafe Jeff]

Speaking of the surface skimmer, how do people like this product. It seems like using an AC as a fuge with the surface skimmer attachment could be a decent, economical setup on a small system. Jeff