Pico Filter

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Ps3Steveo

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So here's the write up, its a long one as Ian asked me to do a full write up.


Ok parts needed.


Lockable tub, mine was 300ml.
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Small filter.
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Tip from a mastic tube.
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Airline.
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Airline connectors.
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Filter foam.
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Glue gun.
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Drill bits and drill.
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Stanley blade.
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Couple of pens.
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Spare plug.
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Right, first thing you need to do is drill two holes in the lid, one for the filter outlet and one for the power cable, if you have to remove the moulded plug here is where your spare plug comes in handy, feed though the cable, attach the new plug and push through the filter outlet. Start small with these holes as you want a tight fit and use hot glue to seal them up, making sure to seal inside and out. Also make sure you leave room to cut off the top of the foam compartment of the filter to clip on the powerhead once its in as with out some filters wont create suction as the impeller will be exposed and just spin creating bubbles. You can see the part I cut off in the first pic.
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Glue the tip of your mastic tube over the filter outlet.
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Drill a small hole close to the base of the tub for the inlet from the tank, insert airline connector and seal with glue inside and out.
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Add your airlines inlet and outlet, I used an L bracket on the end of each but I will show you how to make the pen inlet and spray bar outlet later.
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Cut your filter foam to fit nicely in the bottom while allowing your filter room to fit without squashing the foam to much as this will stop flow.
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To make your pen inlet and spray bar get a couple of empty pens (pref clear), fit a tiny amount of filter foam in the end of the inlet and drill tiny holes in the other for the spray bar and seal the end. Fit these to the ends of your inlet and outlet tubes, I used 2 L brackets for mine as the spray bars current was to high and circulation without them was fine. Its up to your personal preference.
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At this point you should have something like this.
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Next on the list is fixing your inlets and outlets to your tank, my tank had a glass lid which I needed to replace. I found a perspex box in the kids toy cupboard, placed the old lid on it, drew round it and cut it out.
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Next I drilled 2 holes in it, one for the tank to filter tube and then connected a short piece of airline to it so it ended an inch below the surface. Then the other slightly bigger for the airline to come in and glued it to the underside of the lid and angled my outlet in the direction I wanted it.
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Next thing to do is fill the filter once your lid is on the tank as otherwise it probably wont work, I filled mine to the top and the foam is still releasing air bubbles and its pearling heavily so when it gets a little low and to much air, I just switch off, lift off the lid and the natural syphon fills it back to the top. Then I replace the lid and switch back on. You may have to do this a bit until the air has been removed from the foam completely. The tubes could probably do with tidying up a little but I like it and can now add shrimp to the tank. It currently runs at around 12LPH so I get 12 x turnover which is good. Let me know what you think guys, there's a video at the bottom of the page showing it running, I'm proud of it.
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Video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vadLPpDt1pc
 
Love it Steve, thank you very much, this will come in handy in the future. :good:
 
Very intuitive, tempted to try and make one of these myself, I might see if I can get hold of a 20cm cube and try it as a shrimp tank.
 
Go for it man, was nice and easy to build.
 
I love this, its awesome :)

One comment though, with the intake positioned so high in the water column, is it going to pick anything up? (or are you intending to add an inlet tube?)

Great job!
 
Yeah the way the flow travels it works fine so far, had to clean the sponge this morning lol
 
That is a great idea.
Always wondered what I should do with the small powerheads I have lying around.
Thanks for sharing that I am definatley going to make one or two :good:
 
this i could do this on a larger scale. for my 60l...? make an external one?, i think i might need larger piping than the air line
does it reduce the flow by much?
 
Didn't reduce the flow at all, I have built a new one for my new pico much more powerful using airline. If I were you I'd buy yourself a Hydor Prime for your 60 I use one in my 60 and the flow is perfection.
 

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