Pimp My Filter #89 - Hygger 2-in-1 / 3-in-1 Hang on Back Aquarium Filter Upgrade

Hi there welcome back and in this video we're going to be taking a look at what in Poseidon's starfish this black monolith of death is. Now this fella is something I bought on eBay on a whim because it's a sort of filter that I've never seen before, never heard of, it's called Hyga or Hyga, two-in-one filtration with water changer and as we get into the video I shall explain what those Because two-in-one things are... And I'll give you my thoughts on it. And I'll also let you know if you can upgrade it in any way. And here is an example of what all unboxing videos on YouTube should be. Here's the box with the thing in the box. Now it's out the box. End the video. Okay so in the box we have the main filter which is a hang on the back filter. Very streamlined. I mean that's really no bigger than my average sized sandwich. And then we've got a piece of hose as well. I'll bring the camera in and I'll show you inside of here to let you know what goes on, what's in it and how it works. Okay, so these are the points where the water's drawn in. And if I pop this top off and have a look inside. So it comes inside here, then it goes through this cartridge, which on one side has a medium grade foam, which is very thin, not very big at all. Actually, you can see behind that that it then goes through another part of the cartridge. which has a fine pad on one side and it's filled with a little bit of carbon so that is a replaceable cartridge which you'd have to buy probably once a month maybe more because this will very rapidly clog the next thing the water goes through is this section so it goes through here through a much larger piece of foam, take that off the top and show you that there you go that's not a bad size I think it's exactly the same porosity as the first one and then on top of this section we've got a little cradle thing that sits in the top and water will come in here and exit through here out of the front and back to the tank. So that's all our mechanical filtration done and obviously some biological filtration will happen within the foam as well because that will support a reasonable amount of bacteria. So what then goes... Through some little ceramic balls. And there's actually a reasonable amount of them in there. They weigh roughly 115 grams, which for you guys in the US is what it weighs in your language. The pump sits right in the bottom and it pumps up through this tube and in that tube, this tube slots in somehow. Where are we? Oh, wait, there. I like that. Water goes up, along and down into that section that I showed you there before. Now, when you want to perform a water change, On your tank the idea is that you would attach a piece of flexible hose like that to that outlet and just pass that over the back of the tank down into a bucket. So currently that's what we've got in the way of filtration. As you know I'm not a fan of cartridges that you need to keep buying so there is another option for that. There's also another option for this side as well and I'll show you that now. Because you only need carbon if you need carbon, and there's hardly any carbon in there, there's not really much point in having something that you need to keep replacing. So I've cut a piece of ordinary pond foam, tapered it down to be roughly the same sort of size as that cartridge, and that will slot in there all the way down to the bottom, and you may have to help it using that as a prodding tool. That's it, so we've got the bumpy bits of the foam facing outwards, so when the water comes through you've got a really big surface area there to trap the muck before the water goes through the foam. Now because the water, when it comes through here and exits through the foam, is going to be more or less clean, in that middle section we can take the foam out of there. And fill this section with filter media, biological filter media. Now because those holes in the side are pretty big I can't get bio gravel in here because it's all different sizes and some of the smaller pieces do fall out of there. However you could put Eheim Substrat Pro in there or you could just snap up pieces of bigger media and cram them in. So that's what I'm going with now because I can't find my Substrat Pro. And that's the stuff I'm using. It is BioHome Plus. I've just simply snapped it in half so it fits in there. It's almost like tapping a magazine for a pistol or a rifle or something just to make sure all the bullets are in. So in there we've got approximately 120 grams of BioHome Plus and that just slots back into the middle there, like so. And then in our section that originally had that media, which is ceramic balls in a mesh bag, Because it's so tight, and there's no way to get a bigger mesh bag or anything else like that in there, that can just go straight back in, like so. So now in here we've got a thicker piece of foam, we've got the bumpy bits facing outwards to give us more contact surface area, we've got extra filter media in here, and we've got the existing filter media in here. These two filter media compartments combined hold roughly 230 grams. Again, US language along the bottom there. The top can go back on, like so, and we're all pimped up. Just a few facts and figures. This is actually the first time I've looked at this. I couldn't find this instruction booklet before. The pump is only 3 watts and it will move 220 litres per hour, which is not bad considering how small that pump is in there. 220 litres Two litres an hour is 60 gallons per hour. And it's recommended for a 10 gallon, a 10 US gallon, or 38 litre tank. Really, that's all the information you need to know on it. It's just a small, thin, reasonably compact internal filter that hangs on the side of the tank. I actually think this is not too bad. You know, you've got a reasonable amount of media in there. The foam is big enough for quite a small tank. And although you're probably unlikely to get a full cycle on a 38 litre or 10 US gallon tank with the amount of media we've got in there, certainly for 20, 25 litres, even up to maybe 30 litres, depending on how it's stocked. You could possibly achieve the full cycle and a reduction in nitrate. Obviously the better you set the tank up, i.e. the closer you set the tank up to nature, the more chance you will have of achieving a full cycle and reducing those nitrates naturally. This filter was, you know, as I said before, something I wasn't familiar with at all. It's just something I stumbled across late one night. Somebody was selling it on eBay, said, you know, battered box. I think it cost me maybe 10, 12 English pounds, which is about, what, $15 or thereabouts. I'm not sure even if these are available or what they cost now, but if you're interested and I can find something online or somebody online selling these, I will put the link in the video description. Yeah, you know, I don't mind the form or the function of that, although I think the water change thing... is a bit of a gimmick because if you do a water change like that you're not cleaning the bottom of the tank it's still best to use a gravel cleaner whether you've got gravel or sand and just go in there and remove uneaten food and fish waste ideally once a week and the process of doing that will naturally reduce a bit of the water for your water change i think that is unnecessary if anybody out there watching this video has one of these filters and uses it on any of their tanks Please put your report in the comment section, that's what that section's there for, it's for you guys to share information. When I'm doing these videos, all I'm doing is just telling you what I think, whether they can be upgraded, and what size tanks I would recommend them for. And that's it, I don't run these filters, because there's so many of them, you know, I would need literally, where are we at now, 80 odd different filters? I would need 80 odd different tanks. to run all these filters and that ain't gonna happen. Certainly wouldn't fly with my wife. She went mad when I put the big pond in so I hate to think how incensed she would be if I if she got home from work and there was just suddenly a huge aquarium with all sorts of filters pumping away on it. Right-a-lee, that's your one, that's your one. Oh by the way, because this is one that I've bought to feature in these series of videos, I will be giving this one away. at some point so keep your eyes peeled there will be a competition or a giveaway or something coming up i've got a load of other stuff as well so you know if i don't need it you guys may as well make use of it.