Pimp My Filter #96 - Hygger Hang On Back Canister Filter (6w)

Hi there, welcome back. In this video we're going to be taking a look at a hang-on-the-back canister filter, and it isn't from Aqua One. We did take a look at a one from Aqua One, which I personally consider to be the best hang-on-the-back filter ever. I'll put the link to it in the video Now this one is a Haiger version of a hang description, but this one on the back canister filter and there's actually four versions of this although I can currently only is pretty good as well. find two versions available in the UK of which I have the smaller one. Now these filters go up in size from five watts to six to seven to eight and that corresponds to the actual bulk of the filter itself so this is the second one up This is the 6 watt version. Now Haiger seemed to have sent a lot of these out to people, mostly in America, to do reviews on. And if it is a paid promotion, across the top of the video you'll see this is a paid promotion. As you guys know, I don't get paid off anybody. This one was sent to me by somebody called Ivor from Middlesbrough, which is just down the road from me. And I've got to apologise to him for taking so long with it. I've actually had a busted neck. So my movement still isn't good and to be honest I don't feel good. However, something that has perked me up a little bit is taking a look at this filter. So I'll bring the camera in and I'll show you how it's put together, explain the features and then I'll show you how you can easily, even if you just use what's in it, how you can easily make it way more effective than it comes from the manufacturer. Okay, I'll just move these out the way to make it a little bit more... Obvious. We've got hooks here which allow this filter to hang on the side or the back of the tank. These are adjustable. They could probably do with being a wee bit stronger but they're still okay. We've got an inlet which has a flow adjustment so therefore the more or less it draws in is the more or less it spits out. We've got a floating oil skimmer which takes water from the top And that spins around when it's in use, as the water's being drawn in. And we've also got an intake here, which has a little bit of foam over it. I will address that point, though, later in the video. And that is adjustable, way down there. So you can draw from near the bottom of the tank, as well as from the top of the tank. The fittings here each have two good quality rubber rings on, sealing rings. And you only need to push that in as far as the rings. This is a tapered fitting. If you push that in too far, you might crack it. And also if you twisted it, you might crack that as well. Same is true of the outlet. The outlet also has a flow adjustment. Not quite sure why you would need a flow adjustment on both sides, but you know, they're there, so you may as well use them. Here it comes fitted with the spray bar. It also has a duckbill attachment, or you can just use it with no attachments and just have the straight hose blasting water back out. And when I say blasting water back out, it doesn't exactly shift a torrent of water. It'll shift approximately 100 US gallons per hour, or 380 litres per hour, which is ample for a small tank. And this particular one is recommended for a tank of between 10 to 20 US gallons or 40 to 75 litres. Water is drawn in from the surface of the tank and also from near the bottom of the tank, or at the very least halfway down, goes up the pipe down into the filter. It then goes through the filter before being spat out back to the tank. And I'll take the top off and show you what happens inside the filter. And before I do that, I'll just say that these clips on the side are really good, they're literally just canister filter clips, so the top is fitted really securely. Okay, so bear in mind that's where the water's coming in, that is where the water is going out. So, water comes in here, it hits this multi-foam sort of thing, it's actually got a coarse and a fine pad bonded together, then goes through some filter media, It then goes down to the bottom of the first section underneath this divider before being drawn back into the pump via this coarse sponge. So that's our first section, bit of mechanical filtration, followed by filter media, followed by a coarse sponge. Whilst that obviously will keep the water nice and clear, it's not ideal, would be swapped in a perfect world. So the water came in, Hit the coarse foam, ideally would go through medium foam, fine pad if you chose to use it, then it would go through the filter media before being drawn back up. You would always go mechanical, biological and then chemical if you chose to use it. So this is how we're going to alter it and it is really simple. We're not going to use that inside the filter because there's a much better place to use that. Put that to one side. The filter media is a good filter media, it's a nice ceramic. Ball type filter media, very similar to Eheim Substrat Pro, so if you wanted to change that out for anything, I would use Eheim Substrat Pro, or ideally the Bio Gravel, which is what we are going to use. That is unnecessary. That leaves us with a blank canvas, and simply what we're going to do is just put a bag of media in here, a bag of media underneath here. And on the top of here, where the water comes in, we're going to put a series of foams to keep the water clear. So what we're using is bags of bio-gravel, which is a sintered glass filter media. Each one of these is 250 grams, and we've got two bags of them. So that is approximately 500 grams, or roughly 1.1 pounds for you guys in the US. One of them goes into the last chamber, like so. One of them goes into the first chamber, just like that. So that is now considerably heavier, it's got a lot more media in than it came with, and then into the first chamber where the water enters we're going to put a medium foam and two coarse foams. Obviously if you want to go coarse, medium and fine you can do that, I'm just putting two coarse foams in just for the hell of it. It's entirely up to you what you do with it. And that's basically the internals of our filter put into the right order. So we've got mechanical and then biological. If you're using chemical filtration, let's say a bag of carbon or something, you would simply put it on top of the bag of biological media underneath this divider. And bear in mind, our pump sits on here and the intake of the pump is pretty big. That kind of hovers over this hole. So it doesn't matter if you don't have the pipe. from inside the foam that would ordinarily go in here, makes no difference. Water is going to be sucked through here by your pump and spat back out. So that's the inside of the filter done. On the intake, instead of having this tiny little sponge that comes with the filter, you can put sponge on which is the perfect size to fit and that has got a flat back so it'll sit against the back of your tank. That is going to take so much longer to clog up and in fact you could even just Just use that. And fill the whole of the inside of the filter with filter media and get a nation of it in. Simply take that off and clean it as and when necessary. And believe it or not, that perforated pipe that goes down the inside of there, which would normally be inside the filter, will fit on here. Quite a tight fit, so you don't need to push it in very far. And that'll enable you to put that whole sponge on there without the risk of it collapsing as it gets clogged. It might collapse at the bottom end when it gets clogged if you use that smaller perforated pipe. I'll tell you what I'll do. Before I push the camera back out again, I'll just take everything off that is currently operational and I'll compare it to what would be operating if you just set it up from the manufacturer. Okay, so that is the manufacturer's way of doing things. Everything in the wrong order, but everything is there to allow you to set it up in the right order. That is everything that our new setup has inside it or on the intake. There's a hell of a difference. There's more than twice the amount of filter media in now. There's way more foam filtration. Foam Filtration Now, as far as the flow goes, the filter will perform in exactly the same way. You're not going to lose any flow. In fact, it probably is going to gain flow because that's going to clog up in, you know, a few days. Whereas that might take a few weeks to clog up. So, you know, it is going to go a lot longer before it needs cleaning out. And also, you've got so much more media there. So you've got so much more filtering capacity. That is going to support way more bacteria than that. So you've got your aerobic and anaerobic bacteria catered for. Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate should be no problem. Okay, so hopefully you found this video useful. If you've got one of these filters, please, in the comments section, post a report of how you've found using it over the last few weeks or months, or even years, I'm not quite sure exactly how long these have been out, any problems you've had with them, any improvements you yourself have made, and also what you think of the changes that I've made in this video. So a big thanks again to Ivor for sending me this. It's going back to him pimped up and because I took longer than I told him I was going to take I'm going to put some extra stuff in the box as well so he's going to get a surprise when he gets it back. Let me in for listening to my exceptionally boring voice and watching another filter upgrade video. This one seems like a pretty good one however there is a one that is similar but different and I'll link to that in the video description That one I've already done a review, demonstration, upgrade video on, so you might find that one useful as well. You've watched this video, watch that video, make up your mind between the two because they are quite similar, and I shall see you in the next video. Thanks for watching.