Foams and Biohome Ultimate: Foams and Biohome Ultimate: https://filterpro.co.uk/ (FilterPro site has links to suppliers in other countries) Aqua One Aquis 1250 Filter (Amazon): http://geni.us/P7ZC4 Aqua One Aquis 1250 Filter (Ebay): https://ebay.to/2K55uVq THIS IS A REALLY GOOD FILTER! We used to get these filters in when I owned my aquarium store and it was great to have one sent for this series as it reminded me how a simple design, good quality construction and a keen purchase price combine to make one really great filter.
When you're watching the video you will hopefully get an impression of how much I like this filter so it's one I would definitely recommend.
Thanks for watching, liking and sharing.
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
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.
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. Here we are again on another episode
of Pimp My Filter and in this episode we're going to be looking
at the Aqua One Aquis 1250 Series 2 canister filter.
Just a quick few notes about this filter. It's got see-through sides
so you can see if your trays are fitting together properly.
And I can see one of those ones isn't fitting together very well.
The trays are a decent size. The filter is really well made.
Even the plastic feels good quality on it.
It's just a really well made filter
but unfortunately it doesn't make full use of the space in here
and I'll show you why in a second when we pull it to bits.
Okay, let's take a look in here.
Now that's where water comes in, travels down the pipe
to the bottom of the filter and then rises back up through
the trays, gets sucked out by the pump, blown back to your tank.
And this is not necessarily how it comes set up from Aqua One,
but this is how it has come set up to me.
We've got some Aqua One ceramic rings.
They're actually quite good, those rings.
If you're going to get any ceramic rings, get the Aqua One version
of them, because they're quite light, very porous.
They're actually a good ring.
And then in here we've got another sort of ring.
I'm not quite sure who makes those ones.
They're welcome and useful, just not in the top tray.
Another tray.
With a few rings
and something that looks like maybe it's a sintered glass media called
grow stones. Very light.
I think it's possibly grow stones although I'm not sure. Yeah it feels
very very soft. I think that's grow stones.
I'll go into those in a different video. They're not
a bad media but again they've got limitations.
We will use some of that stuff. And then in the
bottom we've got a reasonably coarse foam
and underneath that we've got a very coarse foam.
Okay, and in the very bottom of that filter, hopefully you can see,
trays actually sit on these little fins here.
I hope that comes out on film.
But that is about two inches up off the bottom,
so effectively you're wasting two inches in the bottom of your filter.
And because we don't like to waste any space in the bottom of the
filter, we're going to use the old ceramic rings in the bottom of here.
Basically, we're going to pour them in until they come up
to just below the level of the support.
So there'll be approximately an inch
and three quarters of rings right across the bottom of this filter.
And what that'll do, it'll settle the really heavy muck.
So the bottom of your filter will be absolutely filthy
when you come to clean it out.
But that'll do a really important job.
It'll help to save the foams.
If you can settle out heavy muck in the bottom of your filter,
your foams will go a little bit longer
before they need to be cleaned out.
So you can extend the cleaning times.
Now, if these things are growth stones, I don't really want
these in the filter because they tend to raise the pH,
which is good for Malawi cichlids, good for live bearers,
good for goldfish, and basically any fish that likes a high pH,
but it's not good for most tropical fish, so I'm going to leave
those out and just go with the rings in the bottom of here.
Oh, I wonder whether I can get that whole tray's worth
of stuff in the bottom of there, that'll be interesting.
If I can.
You know what, I think that's just about done it.
Let's bring the camera in for a close look
so you can see exactly what's going on.
There you go, looking through the side you can see all
of that media in the bottom of there.
That represents the space that would normally be wasted in this filter.
Our tray sits on top of here,
so you've still got a little bit of gap underneath the tray,
and our water's gonna come down into here,
and this is gonna act as a real excellent
primary settlement area.
The water's gonna be directed all over the place
through these various rings,
and the heavy muck is gonna settle in there.
That gives us two media trays free.
Get to those in a second.
First of all, we're gonna concentrate on the foam tray.
Right, remember that this foam tray goes right
in the very bottom of our filter.
It's actually pretty good as a coarse pad.
I'm going to keep that and I'm going to use that as the coarse pad.
It hasn't got the dimples on.
It's not really going to matter.
The next one up, the medium pad is going to have the dimples on.
We'll not be using that one.
I'll send that one back to Daniel.
He might be able to use it for something.
So in here, we're going to drop our coarse pad back in.
This is still wet, you know.
I wish I had smell-o-vision mirrors.
This filter absolutely reeks now but it's good muck.
So that's the coarse pad in the bottom.
On top of there we're going to cut out
a medium density pad and we're going to put that bumpy side down.
That'll create voids between here
and here that'll collect a hell of a lot of muck in those voids
and it also gives us a lot of
surface area for the water to hit
so it does a good job of cleaning.
Where we've got the pipe
Going through this foam,
we're not going to try and cut a little round hole.
We're just going to put a cross in there
to allow the pipe to poke through.
That's for the pipe.
Put little bits for take-out there.
And
there
we go.
That's our coarse and medium foam in.
And on top of there, we're going to put a fine pad.
So the water's going to come up and go coarse, medium, fine.
All of our mechanical filtration will
be done in the bottom third of the filter.
Now with the fine pad, you normally don't need
to cut it around these little handles here.
You can just kinda fluff it up and rip it up a little bit.
That's a good fit in there.
Those foams fit in there perfectly.
Look at that, bang on.
So we'll just make sure that rubber seal is sitting
nice and flat on the pipe there, which it seems to be.
And we'll drop this into the bottom of the filter.
And now that just leaves us two media trays.
I'm guessing each one is about a kilo and a half
of BioHome Ultimate, but we'll weigh it out just to check.
That took more than I thought,
I was expecting it to take about a kilo and a half, it's actually
taken 1.9 kilos, and that's just put in loosely.
If you packed it in a little bit more tightly,
in fact there's more room, you could probably
get almost 2 kilos in one of these trays,
so this filter will hold almost 4 kilos of
media.
Got both of those filled there,
now all we do is just drop them back into our filter.
So there we go.
That goes back on the top and job's a good'un.
See that we've got a really cracking settlement area there,
foams in that tray, so that's
all of our mechanical filtration done in the bottom,
we've got biological media and then
biological media, so there's a lot going on in here.
Now the acid test,
can we actually get the top
on and get it clamped down,
no problem.
Now I've just gone online to check what Aquawarn say about
this particular filter and the size
The size of tank that it's recommended for,
And they're actually underselling it.
They say it's suitable for tanks of around 250 liters.
We've just got close to four kilograms of
media in there so in essence this filter
is suitable for a normally stocked tank of around
400 liters and that's for a full cycle.
That's for you know zero ammonia, zero nitrite
and low nitrates.
A full cycle 400 liters and they're saying 250 that's the first time.
I've never seen a manufacturer undersell their filter.
This is a good filter and I've just been
having a look at the cost of these as well
and they're around about 100 English pounds which is
maybe 120 US dollars. That is a really good price
for this filter, especially when you can
set it up like that. Every bit of that filter now
is being used to make the water good for the fish.
It's a really, really good filter. Very well made.
and it doesn't waste any space. Well it doesn't waste any space
when we put the rings in the bottom.
If we had that two inch gap in the bottom
I would say it was wasting quite a lot of valuable space
but how we've got it set up there
it's not wasting any space at all.
So that makes a change. It's a filter that I would
wholeheartedly recommend.
It's definitely a good one and Eheim aren't going to like this
but I think the plastic that this is made of,
the fittings, the quality of the trays
is better than the new Eheims.
I was a little bit disappointed with the new Eheims they certainly
have a lot of features,
they're very popular but they're not made as well as this. This is
a Kraken filter and if you're in the UK and you
also have a filter you'd like me to check out
by all means get in touch.
My contact details are in the video description and also in the
So in the pinned comment below.
Thanks very much for watching and I'll see you next time.
