apogenaton

very interesting, good job.

taekwondodo

Update:

This thing just rocks! Works better than I could have hoped. Going a weeks strong now and the water is crystal clear.



(sorry for the crappy camera phone picture...)

- Jeff

kimo

Vaseline works great too... and lots cheaper.

taekwondodo

People already think I'm a little "off" for having a tank and all of the accys in my office (bucket, syphon tubes, nets, gallon jugs, etc...). Imagine the look I would get if I had a jar of vaseline sitting on my desk!!!



Partslist for those that asked:
Small acrylic food canister (make sure it will seal air-tight)
Couple of nipple fittings from Orchard Supply (or Lowes, or Dome Hepot, etc...)
Drill bit ~same size as the nipple's "south-side", or slightly larger (Drill slowly or you can crack the acrylic)
Tubing to fit the nipples... (no jokes on vaseline and nipples please )
Plumbers goop.
Some pillow stuffing from WalMart, JoAnne's Fabrics, LFS, etc..
A scrubby plastic brillow pad from Walmart...
Some opencelled foam cut-to-fit.

Drill a hole in the top of the canister and one on the side near the bottom. Heavily apply Plumbers Goop. Let it dry overnight.

Stuff your media in the cannister, hook up the hoses to your cannister, pump and spray-bar (made this out of some acrylic I had laying around).

Turn it on and you are set...

turbomkt

Vaseline might not be the best choice as some rubber compounds can be broken down by the vaseline.

DelawareJim

Nice canopy on the tank. Is that DIY too?

Cheers.
Jim

taekwondodo

yes, and thanks. My wife loves me and has bought me an awesome set of woodworking toys... (router/router table, table saw, drill press, sanders, etc...)

- Jeff

jeff63851

Nice DIY Canister filter! What equipment did you use to make it? The only thing that I don't understand is how to do cut holes in the jar.

AaronT

Being that the jar is acrylic I'm guessing he simply drilled them and tapped them out to fit the hose barbs.

That's a neat little project. I agree that you should look into putting the pump into the canister. I'll bet it would still work.

taekwondodo

I could figure out a way to put it in the canister, but it's not bothering me in the aquarium either - drawback of putting it in the jar is that I would have to drill a hole in the acryilc, cut the cord and pull it through, then "Goop" the hole the cord comes in... essentually making _that_ pump a permanent part of the filter. If the pump fails (haven't had good luck with small pumps being reliable) I have to hack out the "Goop" and install another one...

Because this is working so nice, I may replace the 4x16" canister I built out of 4" ABS (for less than $15 sans pump, pictures to come) for my 55G with one made out of a larger acrylic canister (seen 1 and 2 gallon acrylic jars with similar clamp-down lids)

- Jeff