This is a frustrating one as this filter does not seem to be available in the UK (although it can be imported - check links)...that's a very strange situation considering it is a simple HOB filter manufactured by parent company RC Hagen which owns both Aquaclear and their flagship brand Fluval.
It would make an good back up / extra filter for a larger tank or a great single filter for a small to medium sized tank. As it holds approx. 1kg (2.2 lbs) of biogravel it is suited to a normally stocked community tank of around 100 litres (26 US gallons) or a heavily stocked tank of around 50 litres (13 US gallons) if you want to achieve a full cycle.
WHAT IS A FULL CYCLE? 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 the various forms of Biohome 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 guys, welcome back to another edition of Pimp My Filter.
In this episode, we're going to be taking a look at one
that I've been asked about all the time from you guys in the US.
And it's not really available in the UK very often.
This one is the AquaClear 70.
Now, I know there is loads
of different models in this particular range.
This one is on the 70.
The advice that I give,
apart from with regard to the amount of media needed,
will be relevant to the other models.
So if you've got an AquaClear, hang on the back filter.
Please watch on.
So this was sent to me by a guy called Robert,
thank you very much Robert, he's based in
the UK and I think he had to actually buy
this one from Germany if I remember rightly,
couldn't get this one in the UK.
So I'm really glad that he put himself out to get one from Germany
because that is asked
about all the time you know, aqua clear filters,
you guys in the US seem to love these things.
In the UK, hang-on-the-backs aren't very popular yet.
I really don't know why, because they are pretty good, generally.
You know, there is good ones, there is bad ones.
This one, at a first look, I would say boxy, but good.
Let's see what has come with it.
OK, so there was two long inlet pipes came with it.
I think maybe only one of these is supplied with...
The filter, because in the instructions it only shows one,
but I've actually joined two together to take
the intake almost down to the bottom of the tank.
That's where most of the muck will be,
so that's pretty much where you want the intake to be.
So there's nothing fancy about this one,
there's no surface skimmer or anything,
but the water is sucked up here, it then goes down into the pump.
And if we take the top off, we can have a look inside it.
We've got a removable cartridge type thing here, or cradle.
That would normally have a coarse foam, a medium foam,
and then something called Biomax,
which is like a ceramic filter media.
This one has only come with the coarse sponge, that's okay.
So, as I was saying, water is sucked down into the pump
and actually comes out underneath here, into the bottom of here,
and then rises up through that cradle, through all the foams
and through the media, before dropping back out into our tank.
Very, very simple design.
So really, we've pretty much got a blank canvas with this thing.
The only thing that's come with it is the coarse foam,
which is okay, but I can tell it's pretty brittle. It's very old.
Actually smells okay, sometimes I get the filter scent
and these smell really funky, but this one smells okay.
We're gonna chuck that away though,
or should I say I'm gonna put it in the box
to give back to Robert.
Now that allows us to concentrate on this little cradle
for our foams and media.
And in here, we're gonna go coarse and medium foams,
followed by a fine pad,
because remember the water flows upward.
And then I think I might just put a few mesh bags
of media in here.
I've got some little bags,
so that media is probably going to be bio-gravel.
I think they're a reasonable size to fit in here as well,
so we might get four bags in there,
but I'll set this up and I'll let you see what I've done.
Now, in addition to that,
we're going to put a coarse sponge on the intake.
I don't know why these things don't come
with any sort of coarse sponge,
but hang on, the backs never seem to come with this.
There you go.
Now adding that on the intake will allow heavy muck
to be stuck onto here.
We'll just take that off and clean it.
Ideally that wants to be a little bit bigger.
You can get bigger ones, you can make your own as well.
I would advise you to definitely
do that. Definitely put a coarse sponge
on the intake of any hang on the back filter.
Because of the nature of them,
you cannot really see when they're clogged, you know.
So at least if you can see this thing clogging with heavy muck,
You know that there's probably a reasonable amount of fine muck
and medium muck actually
in the main filter itself.
This is pretty easy to clean as well, just whip it off,
maybe replace it with another one whilst you're cleaning
that and you know you're good to go again.
Okay, looking at the back of the filter,
this is how I've got it set up.
That is a coarse foam,
that is a medium grade foam, that is a fine pad.
Now on top of that we've got two bags weighing 350 grams each
of bio gravel, so that's 700 grams
of bio gravel. What's that in total in pounds?
Oh probably about 0.6 or 0.7 pounds.
And on top of that we've got a carbon pad.
Now if you didn't want to go with a carbon pad
and you wanted to maximize the space that's in there,
just put the media in loose, you know,
use a bigger media, even put ceramic rings in or
something if you want, you know.
It all depends on what you want from the filter.
Here we've used the media that's capable of supporting aerobic
and anaerobic bacteria.
The BioHome Ultimate will also do that.
You could put that in loose, you know, you could put the
really big forms of BioHome in there.
That would also support aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. But
if you weren't bothered about trying to achieve
a full cycle for your tank, ceramic rings or
any media would do. Even lava rock, you know,
just pile as much as you can in there.
Okay, so that is the other option,
just using one big mesh bag, and in there I've actually
got one kilo of bio gravel, which equates to 2.2 US pounds.
Quite a lot of media in there,
and if I put it in loose I'd probably get more media in
there, but removing it would be a little bit more difficult,
because this cradle has only
got two sides on it.
It's got a base, and it's got a side up here and a side over there.
Front and back, it hasn't got a side, so if you come to lift it out,
you're going to have media pouring all over the place, you know, so it
is best to use it in a bag, but bear in mind, on the side of here,
and on the other side, we've got some quite sharp little fins here,
so be careful when you're lifting it out.
You might even have to slightly lift this out
in order to get to your big mesh bag.
See, just by opening those sides up, that frees it.
If you try and rive it out when this thing's fully fitted,
you probably are going to rip the bag.
So just bear that in mind.
There you go, one kilo of media.
That's a lot of media for a little filter.
As you can see, that fits in there absolutely perfectly.
So one kilo is the maximum that you're gonna get
into this particular filter, and that's okay.
And with a careful bit of squashing,
you can just about get a carbon pad on top of there as well.
So we've got the coarse, medium, and fine.
A kilo of media and a carbon pad on there, just.
Okay so the fact that this little fella will actually fit
a full kilo of media in here
makes it really easy to recommend for a certain size of tank.
One kilo of any of the BioHome
products would generally be enough to provide a full cycle
which is zero ammonia zero nitrite
and very low nitrate possibly zero nitrate for a tank
of roughly 100 liters which is 26 US gallons.
Yeah, so there you go, I can see why you guys in the US make
a fuss of these filters, because they are cheap,
they are reliable, apparently, and they hold plenty of media,
and they're really easy to upgrade, like this, you know,
I mean this is just now going to operate to its full potential,
quite cheaply as well, which is great, you know,
there's no point spending fortunes on filtration,
when ultimately the most important part of it is inside the filter.
I'm sure you can get more fashionable
and certainly more expensive forms of hang on the back filter,
but why do you need them, you know?
It's just something to hold media and foams.
That's basically all a filter is.
It's to clean the water and make it healthy.
What the filter's called is unimportant.
At least it is to me, anyway.
If you've got something that's reliable and holds plenty of media,
that's going to outperform something
that costs a fortune and is set up wrong.
Setting the filter up right is the most important thing.
If you've enjoyed this video give it a thumbs up.
If you've found it useful please share it wherever you want online
and I shall see you next time. Thanks for watching.
And it'll give us
a visual indication
of how mucky and it'll
also give us a...
