What's in your HOB filter?

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kzoofish

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jun 11, 2014
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41
I've noticed a lot of talk about different set ups in people's HOB filters. I recently acquired a Marineland 200 and noticed it had a lot of room in it, and I hate buying the expensive cartridges for it.

What is a good set up for filter media?


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Cut to Fit poly fiber pads, rip the filter off the plastic and use that as a backer or get some egg crate and cut to fit, I also put coarse fluval sponge on front of that, your can add a bag of biomax too but supposedly the bb resides to the biowheel;)

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AC50 #1: Poly-Fil only
AC50 #2: sponge, cut to fit poly filter pad, bag of biomax, loose ceramic noodle media
Tip: For noodle style ceramic media you can either put it in a mesh bag or simply run a length of fishing line through them and tie off each end. Makes it easy for removal during maintenance and works well will cartridge style filters (removing loose media from the bottom of the filter chamber is a pain).


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With all my biowheels I'll cut 1 side of them open and dump out the carbon, since that's only useful for removing meds, and stuff extra filter floss in there. In the front slot i stuff them with biomax that i have leftover from all my aquaclears (which i like much better by the way).

In my aquaclears i just have the sponge on the bottom, extra filter floss on top of that, and then as many bags of biomax that will fit on top of those.

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sponge and pot scrubbers , tons of bio-filtration with the 2 bio wheels , the sponge goes closeset to the water intake and also acts as mechanical filtration and is easy to rinse out
 
With all my biowheels I'll cut 1 side of them open and dump out the carbon, since that's only useful for removing meds, and stuff extra filter floss in there. In the front slot i stuff them with biomax that i have leftover from all my aquaclears (which i like much better by the way).

In my aquaclears i just have the sponge on the bottom, extra filter floss on top of that, and then as many bags of biomax that will fit on top of those.

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Ditto on the aquaclears that's what I do.

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In the HOB filter I have some sweet potato slips and Lucky bamboo and gravel (not shown) in the two compartments. Of course, I can no longer use the lid now.

In the overflow box I have 3 U-tubes, a sweet potato, a Stockman Standpipe, and sometimes Lucky Bamboo stalks. I also have a sponge around the pipe that serves no filtration purposes. It just distracts the snail escapees so they won't be too eager to escape down the outlet.:cool:
 

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what does the potato do , I have seen bamboo, and mangroves , but not potatoes , would a tomato plant work m can always use more tomatoes in the winter
 
what does the potato do , I have seen bamboo, and mangroves , but not potatoes , would a tomato plant work m can always use more tomatoes in the winter

I'm just experimenting with aquaponics while teaching my son the science of fishkeeping, aquaponics, tc. That photo was taken about a month aqo. Now the roots almost filling the box. I've already taken off two of the longer slips and placed them in the sump and in the HOB filter. The sweet potato acts as a filter to absorb toxins. The wilted leaves, as food for snails and crayfish that are in the sump.

And yes. Tomatoes can be grown in aquaponics. I haven't tried them yet because I haven't had a chance to pick up organic tomatoes. I imagine that non-organic ones would work but would be slower to take root and may contaminate the water if not rinsed thoroughly.
 
Hmmmm, you know you'll have to explain all that;)

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Let's see. I've explained all of the items except the 3 tubes and the standpipe. The 3 tubes are to increase the water flow and act as a backup when one of the tubes get clogged with dead plants and foods such as plankton. The standpipe is a silencer. I have a DIY wet-dry filter and sump attached and the overflow box is pretty noisy. It makes a periodic gurgling noise without a silencer. The standpipe forces the air to take a separate route down the pipe as the water. When air goes down with water it makes a lot of noise. I think that explains it.:ermm:
 
so do you just put a sweetpotato in the filter and it grows

Well, I learned the old sweet potato in the jar "trick" in elementary school and wanted to teach my son so I started it out the way I learned it. When you pick out the potato try to identify the top from the bottom (the more pointed end) and try to find one that have eyes on it if possible. You it in a jar and prop it up with 4 toothpicks. I used a coffee cup or mason jar (minus the toothpicks). You place it in the window and make sure you keep the water fresh. I used aquarium water. After about 5 days it should root. After it roots, the roots grow like crazy. Starting out, I put it back in the overflow box or sump in the evening. When the slips get to about 6-10 inches long you can break them off at the base and place them in water to root. Because it's a houseplant it may not like too much direct sunlight. Now that it has plenty of leaves I just leave it in the box. Because of high humidity the leaves may develop white fungus. You can treat it with natural remedies. If the potato starts to rot, start with a new one.

FYI, they make one of the most beautiful vine houseplants out there. When I was a kid (in N.C.) you'd see them in many households. I,m curious to see how they will do here (in Ohio) over the winter.

I think that's it. This is my first try so I'm still learning.:ermm:
 
so do you just put a sweetpotato in the filter and it grows


Yes. Here's a good video.

I hope this catches on as a good option for aquaponics and aquarium plants. I doubt that they will grow submersed but it's worth a try. I'm having some difficulty with this project because I have snails and crayfish.
 
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