Moding an AC200 to "Wet/Dry"

[rossmort]

Hi, I read through some articles where airstones were added to a couple other filters to make them into a type of wet/dry filter and was wondering if doing it with an AC filter would also work. There is a gap between the bottom sponge and the bottom of the filter basket so I was able to put a little airstone and then run the airtube on the side of the foam. Will this be beneficial at all? Thanks a lot!

If not beneficial---will it be a detriment to my system?

 

[LAGlocker]

Personally I am not sure about that, have never tried it myself. I hope someone else jumps in on this, or maybe they can move it to the DIY forum where you might get more help on it.

 

[grimlock3000]

You will not be able to fit an airstone between the media basket and the bottom of the filter. You could just run an airstone right into the basket where you wanted it. It might help with bio a bit, but I think you could cause some problems as the air bubbles tries to get through all the media so you would have to run it very low or the sponges would try to float right up out of the basket. If you really want to try it, I would put an airstone right in/under the bag of bio media as the top layer of the filter. Use the longest air stone you can get that would fit to spread out the air. That setup would allow the mechanical portions of the filter to work fine, and you could reall crank up the air on the bio media since it is spaced out a lot and it would not cause air pockets.

As a side note, unless you tank is overstocked and/or you only have the one filter, I think it would be a waste of time. An AC200 can hold a lot of bacteria without need for modification

 

[rossmort]

Yeah, thats what I was kind of thinking especially because this AC200 is on a 5.5g! OVERKILL! It actually IS possible to fit an airstone under the bottom sponge and the bottom of the media bay as that is how I have it going right now. I have the air turned up quite a bit and it hasn't popped my sponge up at all yet although there is some air build up like you said.

BTW, I only have one sponge w/ a carbon bag on top.

 

[grimlock3000]

You got a air stone under the media basket and the basket still fits in place? Must be a tiny airstone

I tried this once out of boredeom with a battery powered air pump, it did not work for me. I use floss in the media bay and the bubbles could barely get through it, but they did go through the sponge if I restricted the air a bit. That is when I thought about putting the air store right in the bio media, but I really do not need more bio.

 

[rossmort]

Yeah, I don't need added bio either but I had an airpump sitting around that I wanted to use (Ok, I was bored also). But yeah, it is a really small airstone. I have been planning on getting floss to put in after the sponge so it might get interesting when I do that. I can't say that the air trickles through all of the media but in my mind if a little area gets some air, it was better off than before plus it is kind of relaxing to read a little gurgling.