Another very affordable filter from All Pond Solutions which has an equivalent in the US to keep my viewers over the pond happy. Considering how much media this filter holds, flow rate and features it packs a lot into a relatively small package - I love the idea of a removable 'cartridge' which has media baskets which can be filled with media of choice. Good stuff.
WHAT IS A FULL CYCLE? *If someone tells you the aquarium nitrogen cycle ends with the production of nitrate that is incorrect - please read on* A full cycle is completed by bacteria - the aerobic part of biological filtration which processes ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate followed by an anaerobic part which processes nitrate into soluble nitrogen which bubbles off to the atmosphere. Therefore it requires a suitable amount of excellent quality filter media to be able to provide the environment for both aerobic AND anaerobic bacteria - that is what Biohome ultimate does perfectly but even with such good media there are limitations and we recommend the following amounts for different stocking scenarios: (1 US gallon = 3.8 litres) (1kg = 2.2 lbs) Average community tropical aquarium = 1kg per 100 litres Average coldwater aquarium = 1kg - 1.5kg per 100 litres Predator aquarium = 1.5kg - 2kg per 100 litres Large cichlid aquarium = 1.5kg - 2kg per 100 litres Malawi / Tanganyikan aquarium = 1.5kg - 2kg per 100 litres Marine aquarium = 1.5kg - 2kg per 100 litres Average mixed fish pond = 1kg per 200 litres Average koi pond = 1kg per 150 litres
You may be disagreeing with the above figures but remember that they are for a FULL CYCLE not half a job - achieving 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite is quite easy since aerobic bacteria grows freely on any surface but the anaerobic bacteria responsible for COMPLETING the cycle needs more a specialized habitat. Size a filter properly, set it up sensibly and you will have perfect water - it's that simple....and your filter won't be the dreaded 'Nitrate factory'.
This series of videos is all about trying to squeeze more efficiency out of internal and external aquarium filters which generally have a limited filtering capacity - If you have a filter you'd like me to feature in a video then please contact me on: [email protected] 07772848730 (Richard)
Anyone who sends a filter (UK only at present) will have it upgraded and returned to them for free and the only cost you will pay is how much it costs to ship it to me - I'm helping to boost your filter and the resulting videos will hopefully be useful to viewers all over the world so it's a win/win.
The following videos will be useful to anyone interested in learning more about filtration, bacteria and making the conditions for your fish as good as possible: Sizing a canister properly and filter set up: https://goo.gl/om19un Looking INSIDE different filter media: https://goo.gl/hZWS6c Bacteria and filter media: https://goo.gl/123gAF How to clean an aquarium: https://goo.gl/bPMhvh Aquarium tips / filtration playlist: https://goo.gl/pXgqVj
This channel is purely a hobby for me so I will never ask viewers to donate money for any of my projects or charge anyone for information - information should be shared freely and I certainly don't consider myself an 'expert' in anything I pursue as a hobby so please do your own research, never accept anything as 'fact', reject anyone claiming to be some sort of authority or 'expert' and make your own minds up about anything you wish to study.
If you've enjoyed this video please check out the playlists on my channel for hundreds more - on a variety of subjects. Feel free to share or link any of my videos on facebook, twitter, forums etc. for the benefit of anyone you think may also enjoy watching. See you next time. Pondguru
Hello there, welcome back.
In this episode of Pimp My Filter, we're going to be taking
a look at another hang
on the back filter. And this one
is the All Pond Solutions 800-HO+.
Although, I think it should have
been introduced by Hacksaw Jim Duggan. 800-HO+.
Then why isn't 800-HOB like hang on back?
That's what most people would call this type of filter.
Just hang on. You could hang it on anything.
You could hang it on the back of a door if you wanted.
Wouldn't do any good there though.
Let's get into the box, take a look at this filter.
Actually, before we get into this box,
I'll just tell you what size tank this particular filter is
recommended for. Anywhere between 75 to 190 litres,
which in US gallons is 20 to 50 US gallons.
Although this is All Pond Solutions,
I know a lot of their filters are also marketed by
different companies in different territories,
so the chances are in Asia this is called something
else. Chances are you guys have got something
that looks very similar to this that will be,
I don't know, maybe the Sun Sun or something like that.
You can tell me because I don't know.
This one is All Pond Solutions.
That's the UK company, but this will be made in China.
And look at this, I've even got myself a little skinny tank
with a yellow background so that the black stands out well against it.
I got this, actually I got this off Andy from Dramatic Aquatics
when he was moving house.
I basically just cadged it off
and I didn't want to leave this line around because this
is a cracking one for floor demonstration videos
that I will be doing in the future.
This one won't be a floor demonstration video
because this filter isn't mine, it has to
go back.
This one is owned by Mircea or Mircea,
M-I-C-E-A, give me a second,
M-I-R-C-E-A, I would say
I don't see a mercier, murkier...
Apologies, I've probably butchered both
of those pronunciations of the name.
We've only communicated by email, unfortunately,
so I don't know the exact pronunciation.
Right, it's immaterial anyway.
Thank you very much for sending me this.
I've wanted to take a look at one of these for a while.
So let's bring the camera in and take a close look.
Before we do that, I'll just take that off the bottom
because that didn't actually come with it.
That's one of the things that I'm going to do to improve it.
So we'll just run through it based on where the water goes.
So basically water is drawn in through an adjustable intake
and it can also be drawn
in through here as well, which is a surface skimmer.
This knob adjusts how much
is drawn in between here and here.
Controls the overall
flow rate by adjusting how much can be drawn into the pump
and if we get the top off you can see
that the water goes down right to the bottom
so the pump draws water in from the tank down to here
and then it puts it into a UV now the UV isn't on at present
but when it is
you'll see that indicator light will light up
so in here we've got a 5 watt UV
And from the UV, the water actually comes out at two different places.
A little bit of water comes out the top here,
through this pad, through this section here,
which can be filled with media,
and then ultimately comes back out to the tank.
I take this big cartridge out
and see where the majority of the water will travel.
Okay, so that's the cartridge out.
You can see the outlet here that goes through
that little polishing pad that was in the top of the cartridge system.
What you can't see is the main outlet
which is actually just down here and that diverts
the water down to the bottom of this compartment
and then it rises up through those trays or
cartridges or whatever and then comes back to the tank.
So ultimately all the water that gets drawn in through here
or through here will go back
to the tank.
And that's our cartridge.
So as you can see on the top, we've got a very fine pad.
And that kind of acts as a polishing pad, I suppose.
You are going to get a little bit
of water coming out of here. That will trap fine muck.
And these trays are actually empty.
And as far as I can tell,
they actually come from the manufacturer empty, which is a good thing,
because it just enables you to do whatever you want with it.
And what we're going to do is cram that full of media,
because most of the water is going
to go down here to the bottom,
rise up through this big, reasonably coarse pad,
up through this big tray that we can fill
with media back out to the tank a little bit of water
that's going to be coming in through the top
of here is going to drop down through more media
and again come back to the tank
so that gives us really the potential to fill both of these
with filter media which is great
so really now that i've explained how the water goes
through this thing all that's left
to do is fill these two trays with media
That's pretty much going to be it for this setup.
You could take that coarse foam out
and go with coarse and then maybe the medium pad.
But to be honest, I don't really know what you would gain from that
because most of the water is going to be travelling up
and even the relatively fine muck is going
to get caught in that quite coarse pad.
Eventually, all the fine muck may get caught in that very fine pad
but there's not much of it there.
I'll take that out and let you see.
Tiny. I mean for you smokers out there
that's probably about the size of a big rolling paper.
It's not very big at all. I'm not quite sure what you would replace
that with either because all of
the fine pads that I've got are anywhere between inch
and a half and two inches thick. I don't
think you could rip them that small
so if you are going to have to buy any replacement parts
for this particular filter it would
be that little fine one in the top of there. Right.
Let's get this taken apart, and you notice the way that came apart?
That's very much like the dual internal filters.
They have kind of a folding cage that holds the various foams
and the filter media.
All Pond Solutions seem to have borrowed that idea,
and have used it to very good effect.
So, we've got two compartments here.
I'm going to fill these with bio-gravel,
which will enable us to get maximum surface area into a minimal space.
And I'll do that.
Come back to you and let you know exactly how much I've got in here.
Okay pack that out with the bio gravel
which is porous gravel made with the same materials as the
bio home. If you don't know anything about it just look it up
and remember you can use whatever you
want in here in the way of bio media.
I use this because it fits in very very well and I know it
works to provide a home for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria.
Aerobic bacteria sorts out the ammonia
and nitrite. Anaerobic bacteria sorts out nitrate
so in effect if we have enough of this in a filter in a
suitably sized tank we should get a full cycle
which is zero ammonia zero nitrite and very low
nitrate so again that's why i'm using
this um 650 grams in total which is pretty good
i'm quite pleased with that
Because there's a lot of hang on the back filters,
just rely on cartridge systems
and they don't really give you much scope for doing anything with.
But this one just kind of leaves it up to you,
you know, gives you the empty shell and just says look
just do what you want with it
and what we've done with it should be quite effective.
So we simply drop that back
in there as so and that's
our filter done.
Good
times.
Now the one thing I forgot to mention there
was the thing I showed you at the very start.
which is this. This is actually off a Fluval hang
on the back filter. You can buy these
replacements online. It's basically
a reasonably coarse sponge to go on the inlet of a hang on
the back filter. So that is going to go on there.
That'll attract quite a lot of muck.
It'll save our main filter getting clogged so easily.
This is quite easy to take off,
squeeze out in the sink
and then you just slide it back onto the intake there.
They will last a long time
and they are pretty cheap if you buy compatible ones.
If you buy the proper fluval ones,
really for what they are, they cost too much money.
Just get compatible ones. I've got a bag of about 50
or something and they didn't cost me that much.
I just bought them for these videos.
So that's going on the bottom. That will complete that
filter upgrade. I'm actually just going to have
a quick look to see how much this thing costs.
Because I know all Pond Solutions stuff is generally towards
the lower end of the cost scale, as far as aquarium gear goes.
Presently, online, they're £29.99, which, considering how many features
that thing's got on, is pretty good when you compare it to a lot
of the other hang-on-the-back filters from other manufacturers.
Pretty well made, and it's got a reasonable capacity
for biological filter media as well,
which is a big thing with hang-on-the-back filters.
So that's not bad.
The pump pumps 800 litres per hour, which is 210 gallons per hour,
and because we've got 650 grams of media in there, it should provide
a full cycle on a tank of roughly 65 litres, which is about 17 gallons.
Maybe it's a little bit more. It'll certainly keep ammonia
and nitrate at zero in tanks much bigger than that.
But that's quite an easy part of the cycle to get complete.
It's that last part, it's that anaerobic part,
which relies on a certain amount of suitable
bacteria and a certain amount of suitable filter media.
That's the critical bit to get the full cycle, to get the nitrate down.
That's the hard bit.
So yeah, that's not bad.
It's not a bad filter at all.
If you've liked this video, give it the thumbs up, if you've got
a filter you'd like me to take a look at, by all means get in touch,
my email and phone number are in the video description,
phone is probably the best, please only people in the UK because for me
to post this abroad would cost a fortune, I'd do this really out
of my own pocket, all you've got to pay is the postage here.
No matter what size the filter is, I will fill it up with good media
and send it back to you at my own cost.
I'm all too happy to do that, no matter what size the filter is.
I mean, there was a time a couple of weeks ago,
I did two filters in one week,
and each one of those filters took eight kilograms of BioHome Ultimate,
which cost me a hell of a lot.
And I posted them back 24-hour courier as well.
Well, but I'm happy to do that because it enables me
to build up a really.
I've got an accurate database of knowledge
and information which I'm adding to my Filter Pro website
and eventually the filters page on there will have all
the filters that I've featured in this series plus a load more.
It'll have links to where you can buy them,
it'll have how the water flows through them,
what size tanks they would be suitable for with a heavy stock
and a normal stock and also it will have, what else will it have,
it'll have something else on there, there's loads of information.
I cannot remember. It'll have a lot of useful information anyway.
Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.
Dammit, I forgot to say in this video,
the UV can be switched on and off.
There's a little blue sliding switch here,
so it enables you to switch it on and off.
If you're just setting up a new filter,
it's best to have the UV off for a couple of weeks,
just to allow a good bacteria to flow right through the system.
After that, there will be enough
in the biological media to totally populate it,
and then you can put the UV back on.
UV is good for killing parasites and also green water.
Generally they aren't a problem, but if they do become a problem,
Flip that on.
