Over stuffing the filter??

[CompMage]

Over stuffing the filter

I have a Tetra Whisper 60 Running in a 50G tank w/ I would say 45 gallons of water. All I run in it is the floss, since I've never seen and useful results from carbon with or without plants. So I was wondering If I stuck a second floss cartage in it. Would it affect the flow to much? And would it help the ability to filter out debris? It's a planted tank so the filter is being used for nothing more then physical filtration. It's a bit strong for my tank so I'm hopping this will lower the flow a little and perhaps help catch smaller particles.

Any one try this before? Comments?

 

[FishFingers]

Just don't jam it to much because you might wear out the impellor quicker that way. It will have to work harder. You will also have to wash the floss more because with more floss = less water flow.

I would post this thread in the hardware section or planted section you might get a better response.

 

[CompMage]

FishFingers

The impeller on a whisper 60 is a magnetic drive impeller, basically there is no physical connection between the motor and impeller. So if it stops no damage is done to ether the impeller or the motor. The magnetic energy / field is simply lost. The only real fear on this type of a design is no water being present around the impeller to balance it and to keep it from touching anything while it spins. I don't know about most, but I would suspect a good deal of HOB filters work this way. Plus this filter has a flow control that works by opening and closing portions of the intake.

I got this idea from looking at the Aqua line of filters that you can change the filter setup. And mimicking that setup to a point. From what I've seen the filter could probably hold 3 filter cartages on each side without stuffing. The second would fit fairly easily. The floss cartages for this filter are thin and not very restrictive by design.

Anyone else?

Oh yea, Mods if yea see this could you move this to equipment area?

 

[FishFingers]

Hope someone helps!

 

[Guest]

i think that it would decrease the water flow too much. I can put a lot of extra filter media in my aquaclear... but if i put to much then it eventually starts backing up and not flowing good. You could always try and see what happens though.

 

[CompMage]

Hmm, I put in the extra floss. It did not affect the flow that much really, but I did find a flaw in my idea. It's not going to catch more of the smaller partials that I'm hopping for, just more of the larger ones.

I think I'm going to see if I can get my hands on some cheap silk and run some flow test threw it with my spare Whisper 60. This has me really wanting to know what it would take to get everything out of HOB filter. Well, everything else for this will be posted in a DIY as I test things out. Thanks for the advice.

 

[BrianNY]

The all in one filter hasn't been invented yet. Some filters are better at doing some things than others. The use of a sponge prefilter will help accomplish your goal CompMage. I use them on cannisters and HOBs. In fact I don't operate a filter without one.

It's very easy to rinse the sponge out every few days. You'll also be amazed at the fine matter that it collects.

 

[CompMage]

Cool, for now I'll d that. But I think I'm still going to test things out to see what kind of results I get.

 

[TankGirl]

What kind of particles are you trying to catch?

I run a low-tech aquarium where I use an HOB completely empty, just to move water, and I let the plants do all the filtration. I do not have any particles floating in the water, so I am curious if there is something else that could be done to reduce the particulate matter in the water. Is it decaying plant debris, or excess food, etc.?