I also want to reference this post as a deep dive into a lot of my struggles for those who want to see other photos and read a bit more about my past testing / current setup I will have 1 stock filter, 1 modded filter, and be able to adjust things to test what really works well and what fixes issues (or adds more). I am going to be modding the filter and adding those parts into the existing setup one by one. Right now I have a newly purchase Tidal 55 for the new tank. I've used everything from the 35 to the 75 for a few years on each model in a variety of tank setups. I also have my own experiences and testing, mods, and attempts to fix this issue previously on 5-6 versions of this product. I am setting up a NEW 29G aquarium in the living room, and I have the video above as a template. Once you get the hang of it, there isn't much difficulty and it can easily be done with a pair of scissors in between a water change. This means that cutting sponge can be tricky, but it's very easy to achieve this. the media box itself opens up as it increases in height. Second to this issue, as you add more layers of sponge, each layer needs to have a slightly larger dimension outward. As mentioned above there is often some gaps out of the box. Normally I prefer to run 2 sponges, but there is often an issue with the seachem products. Right now, after a deep clean I can see bypass almost immediately with a stock sponge. Realistically this does not fix anything, but it really does give you a bit more time for the basket to do it's job. If we swap this foam out with "bumpy foam" you see a bit of room for the water to flow into the filter basket. So, if we take a look at what is really going on internally we see the standard foam (right side above) which sits flush against the openings. From the typical "pond foams" that you can purchase for filter mods with the bumps you'll end up with something that is slightly thinner in profile and this might also be easier to compress when loaded with heavy media. What I have realized is that by adding more media or adding crushed coral in the basket, this compresses the sponge into these grates and emphasizes the bypass even further. It also gives the sponge itself a flat surface to rest on, somewhat. The basket does have "baffles" or sort to hold up the sponge and this is partly just due to manufacturing and wanting to have a clean edge and encourage flow internally. This also means we might be able to use something like eheim mech (thanks pondguru for the idea) to diffuse the flow itself. If Seachem feels like it, they can resolve issue #3 by adding some baffles in this space. There is a bit of space below the basket itself. If we look at the filter box itself and the basket, this is what we see. Let's take a look at why this helps and what is really going on. For the Tidal 35, this alone has resolved most of the bypass issues and has given me a few notes. Simply cutting new sponges that allow water into the basket itself. I want to attack these 1 by 1 and demonstrate each of these, but I will do this in a follow up post.įirst up we have the easiest thing we can do. Because of flow strength, media order, and bottom to top flow design, it's difficult to use something like purigen because of the high flow / bypass that forces lighter media off the top of the media basket and into the tank itself fairly easily. The filter basket design is very restrictive and tolerance on sponges is often undersized, which caused bypass when you do manage to get the water into the filter media basket.ĥ. the flow into the HoB filter basket can cause bypass simply due to the flow strength. The pump is incredibly strong and might be too strong in some instances. The flow path of the water itself in the pump is not well defined and the water constantly avoids filter media and filtration.ģ. The reduces the viability of something like an intake sponge and causes many issues for nano fish, flat bodied fish, or plants being sucked into the intake.Ģ. There is an excess of openings on the intake and this forces most of the intake of the filter to be provided via the skimmer, pump housing cover, and minimally from the inlet pipe itself.
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