Biogravel (plus links to worldwide suppliers): http://www.filterpro.co.uk Tunze Comline 3162 Filter on Amazon: http://geni.us/KvY12 Small mesh bags for media: http://geni.us/DtoexHC Taking a look at the Tunze 3162 internal aquarium filter. Water flows down from top to bottom through a series of foams and media (optional) and the pump sits at the bottom of the filter. It holds a reasonable amount of media (500g or 1.1 lbs of biogravel / biogravel marine) making it suitable for a tank of around 50-60 litres (13-15 US gallons). Well made filter for a small tank.
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 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. *Please do not send any filters without contacting me first as I want to try and cover every type of filter, not 20 of the same make and model*
Due to the high international shipping cost I am currently only taking filters from the UK but I'm hoping that as this series progresses a useful database of knowledge will be built up which will help viewers understand how their filters work, the limitations and the steps you could take to improve filtering capacity and efficiency.
The goal with any filter is to try and achieve FULL CYCLE filtration which is the reduction in ammonia, nitrite AND nitrate - if you look anywhere online you'll see people tell you that the nitrogen cycle in an aquarium ends with the production of nitrate which is removed by regular (often large) water changes. That is HALF the cycle and is done by AEROBIC bacteria which favors highly oxygenated conditions and is very easy to grow on any surface. The last part of the cycle (reduction in nitrate) is completed by ANAEROBIC bacteria which favors an environment which is very low or devoid of oxygen. It takes filter media with a very specific internal structure to support both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria to allow for full cycle filtration but a suitably sized, well set up filter, will allow the full cycle to complete which results in more stable water conditions and less water changes (typically 10% every 1-2 weeks). Canister filters will generally offer the best provision for filter media but even internals can be significantly improved to boost water quality and fish health.
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
Check out my channel for hundreds of videos on a wide range of my hobbies - many of the videos have educational content so if you have enjoyed any give them the thumbs up and share anywhere you think others may benefit from viewing.
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.
We all are on a long path of learning.........
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, people of YouTube land.
Welcome back to another edition of Pimp My Filter.
And in this video, we're going to be taking
a look at another German filter.
This one is the Tunze Comline Filter 3162,
suitable for fresh or marine use.
Now, this is one of two filters that have
been sent to me by a guy called Andrew.
And they're both to be used for marine use,
so in this video we're going to be taking a look at a new sort
of filter media, well at least new to my videos,
that is suitable specifically for marine use.
I will put links to this in the video description,
so if you're interested in this particular filter, please check out
the links in the video description and also in the pinned comment.
And before we get started,
I'll just give you a few notes on this particular filter.
It's got an intake at the top and at the bottom.
So it draws from two different places.
So the intake at the top acts as a skimmer and the intake
at the bottom sucks in the muck that's actually suspended in the water.
According to the
manufacturer it's suitable for aquariums from 60 to 400 litres.
Now that is the biggest spread that
I have ever seen written on a box.
That's massive 60 to 400 litres. Yeah it's a strange one.
And the pump has a variable output from 250 litres to 850 litres.
Just to give you those figures in US gallons,
the manufacturer says it's suitable for tanks between
15 to 105 US gallons and the pump pumps out
between 70 and 225 US gallons per hour.
Now when this came to me it did actually have something already
in the main body. It had a piece of very coarse foam,
On the top, followed by a great big lump of filter floss.
So that was down there, that was on the top.
The bottom and the top outlet ultimately combine
and tip in the top of the filter,
so it's top-down filter.
Water would hit this first, and then go into the floss.
So really this was just set up to keep the water clear,
not necessarily healthy because there was no filter media in here.
So now that you've seen what did come with it, I can put that away.
back in the box and we'll get on to how I have set it up
but before we do that I'm just going
to run through the features of this filter
and I'll bring you in for a closer look whilst I'm
doing that. Okay let's take a look at this that's our outlet
so the pump is in the bottom that outlet
is adjustable so the water will go at different angles it doesn't move
though once you set it
somewhere that's it the water will go out
in that particular direction you can adjust it based on
Based on where you want the water to go.
So pump in the bottom.
This intake in the top acts
as a surface skimmer water just drops straight into there and the
water that is drawn in through the bottom intake travels up the inside
and it comes out of this
weir here and drops into the top
so we've got a top down filter and the area inside of here has
a removable cap and into there you can drop a heater up to 75 watts
so you can integrate the
integrate the heater into the filter.
Bottom intake has a removable end there.
Presumably you can get extensions that would take that down
a little bit further but this box didn't have any in.
I don't think it mentions anything about
that but that would be a nice feature to see.
Something that would just extend it a little bit further you know.
And this is the really clever part.
You may think what the hell is a polystyrene doing there
but here we've got two magnets. We've got one attached
to the pump there and there top and bottom and the other one
is meant to go against the outside of the glass
so this is actually held on magnetically
attach it on and it would stay solid no risk
of any of those suckers becoming brittle and
not holding it so really you can add a canny bit
of weight to this and still get it suspended on
the glass no problem at all now we don't really have
a whole heap of space in here but i'll just
show you what i've put in we've got a medium pad in the top
and then a fine pad underneath
And you're probably thinking, hold on, where's the coarse pad?
But I'll show you that in a moment.
So that is our mechanical filtration, ensuring that the water
is clean before it hits a bag of bio-gravel marine.
I bet you didn't think, oh, that would fit in there.
So we've got approximately 550 grams of bio-gravel marine in there.
And I'll just show you a bag of that so you can see the colour of it.
This is basically a marine
version of our bio gravel
so it's got added trace elements fused into it which not only give it a
different colour but also make it exceptionally receptive to bacteria
so the bacteria sets up
really really fast in this porous gravel
so it works exceptionally well you can pack out
very small spaces efficiently with this.
And if you're wondering how we get to the pump we just
pop off the front of that and then we're into our pump
if you ever need to maintain it or adjust
the flow. So just a quick recap roughly 550 grams
of media in there and that green bag actually
comes with this it's lovely and flexible
so it just forms itself into the available space in here
And just a quick note on the the place where the heater goes,
that can be removed but the problem
is if you do remove that the water then doesn't flow from the top down,
it cocks it up so that
really has to be left unfortunately
but it will hide our heater if we choose to use one in the top.
So media in there, fine pad, medium pad.
Fits in perfectly just below the lip and we've got the bumpy side up.
So we've got maximum surface area
to catch all the muck there and hopefully
extend our cleaning times. So where's the coarse foam?
Well it doesn't come with a coarse foam
as far as I can tell and the literature doesn't
really tell me anything about a coarse foam
but that is a replacement coarse foam
from a what is it called a Fluval Edge
tank and I think these also fit on a lot
of the hang on the back filters as well. This fits
It's worked reasonably well onto the intake here,
so if you're worried about little fish
getting sucked in here by the pump,
you can squeeze one of these onto it, and that increases
the surface area that the water's being drawn in from,
so therefore it reduces the draw.
It doesn't affect the output of the pump,
you know, it doesn't affect how much water
it pumps, but it does affect how quickly
the water's drawn in at a certain point by diffusing
it.
So that goes on the bottom like so.
So, we've got our coarse foam.
Medium foam, fine pad, media, pump.
So that's it set up.
Very, very easy one to do indeed.
It's quite a well-designed filter, that one.
I like the idea that you can hide the heater in there.
I also like the idea that it draws from two different places at once,
so you can take scum off the top
and muck from further down in the tank, the suspended muck.
I really like the idea of a magnetic attachment to the tank.
Because the suckers that generally hold
internal filters on don't last forever.
You're generally looking to get about a year out
of them before you stick this on the side
and it starts sliding down over the period of a day.
I'm sure if you've had internal filters you will have experienced that.
That stops it happening.
And other models of this have a protein skimmer attached,
the one that I think regulates water level or something.
This one would be classed as the basic one,
so that's all we're looking at today.
If anybody has one of the more advanced ones, feel free to send it.
So the 3162 has been pimped up about as far as it'll go.
It's a very simple filter, so the little tweaks
that were made to it to upgrade it, again, were very simple.
As it only fits about half a kilo in, I would say that this,
for a marine tank, is nearer the 60 litres than the 400 litres.
If you want to see a decent processing of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
400 litres. I mean, a 400 litre marine tank,
you're really talking about a sump.
Not too big external filters,
you're not going to get much filtration from a little internal
filter on a 400 litre tank.
That one was short and sweet,
so if you've enjoyed this video, please give it the thumbs
up, share it wherever you want and I shall see you next time,
thanks for watching.
Oh, and before I go, I just want to say
that the second filter that Andrew sent me is a
Eheim, not a pickup, what was it again?
Biopower 200. It's the one with like
the ball shape attachment on the top.
I think that actually used to be called Eheim Ball Filters.
May have changed the name. I know
when I had the shop they were called Ball as far as I can
remember. But in the next video we'll be taking
a look at that one. See you next time.
