Pimp My Filter #95 - Hygger HG 099 L Hang on Back Filter

Hi there, welcome back to another edition of Pimp My Filter and in this video we're going to be taking a look at another hang on the back filter but this one is a slightly different design to what we're used to seeing in this series. This is the Haiger HG099-L and I unfortunately need glasses to read this next bit but this is from the manufacturer. Product features Double layer filtering chamber for flexible use of different filter media. Smooth running. Vibration dampening support absorbs the vibrations of the pump. Activated carbon sponge insert and biochemical filter balls. I'll have to check those out. Biochemical filter balls effectively filter suspended particles. Provide a colonisation surface for beneficial bacteria and stabilise the water quality. The extended outlet surface ensures more oxygen can be dissolved in the water. The water pump has a copper motor for longer service life. The flow rate can be adjusted at the water outlet. Automatic water intake suitable for aquariums with a glass thickness of up to 0.7 inches or 18 millimetres. It's pretty thick. Product size 6.5 inches by 4.7 inches by 19.4 inches which is 17 centimetres by 12 centimetres by 49.4 centimetres. That's from the intake all the way to the top. Recommended aquarium size 20 to 50 US gallons or 75 to 185 litres. There you go. As you can see it's pretty tall and it's this tall because it's got an extra bit Than what you would normally have in a hang on the back filter at the top here works very simply water's drawn up through here into the pump which actually sits inside the tank which is a good thing helps to keep it cool and that can easily be removed for cleaning the pump then shifts water up into the top section it rains down the back ins inside the filter down the back into cavity here which has cartridges in we'll get the top off and have a look inside That's where we adjust how much water is drawn in and therefore how much water can come out. Here we've got a section where the water comes in. It then hits those bio balls which are just plastic. Oh Now on the box these balls are described as being biochemical but they're just simply plastic balls. So I don't know whether they've changed the design of this since I watched a video from somebody else on this particular filter. But they definitely are just plastic balls, hard plastic balls, and that will settle some of the muck out in this top section. Unfortunately then you've got to take this top section off in order to clean it. Come off, that's it. And the chances are when you take that off the muck's just going to spill all over the place so that is... I like that they've thought about something and done something different but to me that's... I don't know. You don't really want to be pulling Pulling this off and putting it back on all the time. From there water goes over this castellated piece of plastic here, drops down the back into this section. That section is empty, nothing at all in there, and this section has a coarse foam, well coarse-ish foam cartridge, which incidentally does not fit in there very well. It's tapered so when you're putting it in the top, which is the widest part, it just, it's a right fart on it getting in. Just get rid of that. So it's got the coarse foam and then it goes through that Into a fine pad and a token gesture of carbon. Incidentally, the filter does come with two sets of these. Obviously you can only use one set at a time but at least you've got spares. So that's what we're working with there, a reasonable amount of space. Now if you've watched any of these videos before you'll know I'm not a fan of plastic balls and I am even less of a fan of cartridges because You might buy a filter which is pretty cheap but by the time you take the lifespan into account, how long this is going to last and how many of these cartridges you're going to buy, it works out at a very expensive purchase. So I always like to put those to one side and do something different with the filter. So top section where the water comes in, what I would suggest is just putting a coarse foam in the top of here. It just so happens I've cut one to size and it's a bumpy one as well so it's got plenty of surface area. So that goes in there, so when the water comes in it's got to go all around those bumpy bits and it'll settle out most of the heavy muck or certainly anything that gets through the foam on the intake out in here, then the water goes over the back, drops down into the next section. In the next section you can fit three 250 gram bags of bio gravel, and for you guys in the US that's what that is in ounces, you can tell that is a bit of a tight squeeze Squeeze in there, but it's in. Beautiful fit in there and these little bags of bio gravel are absolutely perfect for small filtering situations like this, it allows you to pack an unbelievable amount of surface area in there for the bacteria which really boosts the efficiency of the filter and also it'll support aerobic and anaerobic activity to process your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Now because we don't necessarily want the water just pouring straight on top of that, we can put another coarse foam in there. squeezed in suspended above it so you see we've got a little gap under there for the water to come out under there so the water will rain down on top of this sponge and of course you could put a medium sponge in there if you wanted to so it'll rain down on top of there it'll go through there into this section where we've got all the media and then it'll come out just underneath here down the spillway back to the tank and just for illustration purposes I'll just show you what it would look like with a medium sponge in and you could even just press that side down so when the water came in it gravitated towards here and then it would have to go into that section that was empty through into the main section and back out so the water would actually spend a little bit more time inside the filter. Now I would have loved to have had the coarse foam and the medium foam in the top section but there just simply isn't space. One is on the top, one is on the top of the bottom section and the good thing is about this filter. You can notice there's a height difference there, so you have a spillway here, now the water should never go over there, but if this foam and the back section becomes clogged for whatever reason, say you decide to upgrade it yourself and you pack it out with far too much foam or the foam's far too fine, and that totally clogs up, the water won't flow over the sides, it'll go over here, straight back into the tank, so you won't lose any water. That's another hang on the back filter, this one very different to the ones we've taken a look at previously and it does have the added bonus of having almost like a shower system so that the water will oxygenate as it's raining down into this lower section. So I like that idea because the more oxygenated the water is in the media section The more bacteria, well certainly the more aerobic bacteria it's going to support and then obviously with the right media choice by the time the water gets inside the media it's going to slow the flow down and it's going to become anaerobic so you'll get good filtration from this filter. Quite a lot to like about this filter and the price is good, I'll put the link to it in the video description. I want to thank Doug for sending me this, to be honest it was one I'd I'd never even heard of until he mentioned it. I had to look it up and I found a few videos online but unfortunately they were just like paid sponsorship videos where the guys making them had been paid to say whatever they said. Now the videos I saw, the people were complimentary about the filter but with a paid endorsement type of thing you never know how genuine that is. However after taking a look at this myself I think, well I think I like what they've done with the design, yeah. It holds a reasonable amount of media, I like the fact that the pump is on the inside, it doesn't, it's not sitting over the ridge here and it doesn't have to suck water up and over, it literally sucks it from under the water, you know, your water level will be what, here maybe, so your pump is well under the water, you're not going to get any problems with the electric going off and then coming back on and it not being able to suck water up. It's one of the only hang-on-the-back filters I've seen that actually comes with this little bit of coarse foam. The intake, or should I say to protect the small fry and shrimps from being sucked into the intake, of course you could put a bigger block of foam on there and then put something else in the top section and also well just use whatever you want in the bottom. You could fill all of that up with media if you wanted to if you had a big enough lump of foam there but not everybody wants to see a big lump of foam inside the tank. So 750 grams of bio gravel in there, For you guys in the US, that's what it is in your language. That makes this suitable for a tank of up to 75 litres or if the tank is normally stocked and half that if the tank is heavily stocked and if you've missed that I'll put the details in the video description and in the pinned comment along with a load of other useful So there you go. Thank you very much again, Doug, for sending me that. Haiga HG 099-L And I remembered that all by myself, without looking at the box. Did I get it right? HG099-L. Yes, that's the one. I don't Awesome stuff. Right, if you've enjoyed this video, share it anywhere online, give it a thumbs up and I'll see you next time. know what I'm doing.