how to hide canister filter intake/output parts?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Island Boy

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
6
Location
California USA
I am helping my friend set up a 79 gallon cylindrical acrylic tank. It already has two holes drilled in the bottom. He purchased a Fluval 304 canister filter for the tank, and he is currently building a cylindrical stand for the tank. He wants the filter to be as invisible as possible. He wants to be able to view the fish from all angles. He does not want to see any tubes or hoses associated with the filter either inside the tank or outside. I know that I will have to violate the assembly instruction guide to do this.

Is there any way to do this? I suppose that we will need bulkheads for the two holes in the tank bottom. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps a canister filter is not the way to go. We are open to alternative approaches.
 
I would suggest a cannister. Run the intake up through the bulkhead, and have the skimmer a few inches above the substrate. The outlet would be similar, only I would have it run a few inches higher, and just discharge straight up (assuming that doesn't cause too much surface chop). Some discreet plants and hardscaping would easily hide them.
 
What I would do is run your lines through the bulkheads, and inside the tank get another acrylic cylinder a little taller than the bottom of tank to just above the waterline to sleeve over the holes/bulkheads and weld it to the bottom so that this "chamber" will be dry inside... Hang your inlet/outlet on this like it was the rim of your tank, but inside instead of outside... Then you could silicone rocks to this, to hide your inner tube and make a cool "center backdrop". The downside is that you would'nt see through the whole tank at once, but this IMO would be the shizzle. The filter outlet on the bottom won't help the surface exhcange of oxygen much, and the suction/ejection being so close to each other may make a weird current at the bottom that may make your livestock nuts or be inneffective... Acrylic tube wont be cheap tho, either. Maybe you can do it with 4" PVC? Really this is just an "overflow" but you already have the cannister.
 

Attachments

  • graphic1_595.jpg
    graphic1_595.jpg
    23.3 KB · Views: 758
  • graphic1_595.jpg
    graphic1_595.jpg
    23.3 KB · Views: 516
Back
Top Bottom