ThinIce
Fish Fanatic
Hi all
These tanks have a filter and heater wired into the hood - the internal filter suffers from a few problems
1. It doesn't seem to be able to keep the tank clean. Crap collects underneath it at an alarming rate. (This is siphoned out but having to do this every day is a pain in the arse)
2. When removing it for cleaning rotting material that is just stuck to the filter inlets and is stuck inside the casing floats free rather than being inside in the filter media ready to easily rinse away.
3. It looks ugly taking up space in the tank.
4. These tanks already have a heat problem in the summer and having the pump dumping extra heat into the water can't help.
So - wanting to move to an external filter, I'm not too bothered on cost, but I have a few requirements
1. Silent (or as near as) operation. The tank is metre from the bed
2. Powerful enough to suck up crud but not so much that the tank resembles a whirlpool. This tank is a candidate for an upgrade to 15 or 20 gal when I can get hold of one cheap so Ideally the filter would serve that possibility.
3. I'll be wiring this into the hood of the tank so it can all run off one plug. It doesn't look like any power transforming is taking place but obviously if you can confirm this I'd be grateful. I'll be opening the hood up and checking the manual tonight. The main reason for this is I dont have a plug socket spare
4. Because it will be wired into the hood. Ideally the filter would have its own on / off switch. It isn't that big a deal having to switch off the heater and light by unplugging the thing tbh I guess but it would be nice to have
I've never had an external filter before, so I'm appreciative of any comments / suggestions / thoughts you might have
TIA
These tanks have a filter and heater wired into the hood - the internal filter suffers from a few problems
1. It doesn't seem to be able to keep the tank clean. Crap collects underneath it at an alarming rate. (This is siphoned out but having to do this every day is a pain in the arse)
2. When removing it for cleaning rotting material that is just stuck to the filter inlets and is stuck inside the casing floats free rather than being inside in the filter media ready to easily rinse away.
3. It looks ugly taking up space in the tank.
4. These tanks already have a heat problem in the summer and having the pump dumping extra heat into the water can't help.
So - wanting to move to an external filter, I'm not too bothered on cost, but I have a few requirements
1. Silent (or as near as) operation. The tank is metre from the bed
2. Powerful enough to suck up crud but not so much that the tank resembles a whirlpool. This tank is a candidate for an upgrade to 15 or 20 gal when I can get hold of one cheap so Ideally the filter would serve that possibility.
3. I'll be wiring this into the hood of the tank so it can all run off one plug. It doesn't look like any power transforming is taking place but obviously if you can confirm this I'd be grateful. I'll be opening the hood up and checking the manual tonight. The main reason for this is I dont have a plug socket spare
4. Because it will be wired into the hood. Ideally the filter would have its own on / off switch. It isn't that big a deal having to switch off the heater and light by unplugging the thing tbh I guess but it would be nice to have
I've never had an external filter before, so I'm appreciative of any comments / suggestions / thoughts you might have
TIA
