HBH filter floss

Managuense

Managuense

Superstar Fish
#1
May 16, 2003
1,204
0
0
43
Springfield, MO
#1
i just made my own filter bags for my emperor last night and they seem to work well.

i took the regular marineland cartridges and cut off the blue filter material with a pair of scissors.

i then bought some of the HBH filter floss at the local Petsmart for 2.49$ a bag, and cut pieces to fit the black backing from the emperor cartridges.

i then held the new filter floss on with rubberbands.

it seems to work well so far, just wanted to let anyone know that it is pretty easy to make cheaper filter bags than what you have to pay for marinelands.

a 2.49$ bag of HBH floss will make about 8 or so bags, and you would pay well over 10$ for 8 marineland bags, which is ridiculous.....

M
 

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cholula

Large Fish
#2
Oct 22, 2002
247
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fish.arehere.net
#2
I have one even better....
I took the media baskets, cut
one side out with a dremel tool
and insert media in there...
Works great. I used 2 emp 400s
on a 150g with too many fish...
so I change out about once a week.
I get the media at air filter place in miami. I purchase a roll about 10" wide and 90' feet long for about $70. I had it cut to 10" becuz that is the width that I use for the drip plate in the wet/dry filter....
The filter material is the stuff about 1" thick and is blue and white in color... no chemicals added (beware, the pink and white material has a antii-bacterial chem added.)

if you want pics.. drop me a line @ fish@stowetel.com
 

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cholula

Large Fish
#4
Oct 22, 2002
247
0
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fish.arehere.net
#4
with so many catfish (synodontis) in the 150g
tank, I could not afford using the store bought
filter replacements... what I have now I feel is
superior due to the filter media being 1" thick.

I have some chemi pures in the sump.. ...
but dont think I really need them since I do a
20% water change out every week.

Anybody want any Angelicus or scissor tail
synodontis? Have 2 each.. about 6" long.
Need to cut back on the number in the tank.

Also available, Asian bumble-bee catfish..
 

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cholula

Large Fish
#6
Oct 22, 2002
247
0
0
fish.arehere.net
#6
Mike... I did the same thing ... that is sandwiching
the media between the two halves of the media
baskets... but I experimented with cutting out
one side of one... and putting the media in it...
I found that to be a better application... so
I went ahead and cut all 4 of my baskets.

It holds real nice... and I do not have to be
exact in how big my media pieces are cut.

I like to keep it simple and cheap.
 

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cholula

Large Fish
#9
Oct 22, 2002
247
0
0
fish.arehere.net
#9
over time? Been doing it a year now....
No problems and I still have some of
the factor filters I bought when I first
bought the 2 emps that I have not
even bother to use.
Now I do the same with the Eclipse 3
system I use on my 37g tank.. its very
much a simplier design.. I take one of
the factor filters.. cut off the glued media
then just lay a piece of my media on
top of it... and sometimes I might
add a little charcoal.. no biggie.. can
pick up the basket after I pick up the
strip of filter media i have laying on it
so as not to spill the charcoal....
 

Somonas

Somonas

Superstar Fish
#11
Oct 22, 2002
2,061
0
0
46
O-town
www.myfishtank.net
#11
I got a question for you guys putting floss in the grey media baskets. do you clip the 2 pieces together on top of floss? or just hold them together with elastic bands leaving a 1/2" space between them. I was wondering this because if you did this they would not be able to slide down the groove provided for them in the emperor filter.
what I have been doing is cutting 1" wide strips of floss and inserting them into each chamber... and then closing the basket..
seems like a lot of work.

I have also done the floss-over-blue-cartridge trick but I didn't bother remove the blue stuff first I just elastic banded it on top. but that only lasted a month it is hard to rinse clean filter floss... one blue cartridge lasts me 2 years anyway they dont wear out that fast if you remove the carbon before you rinse them clean, there is nothing to chaffe the inside of the floss with.

anyway. great thread. nice to see more people DIY'ing things.. buying replacement cartridges is silly. now if only I could find a way to DIY aquaclear sponges.. I have yet to find some large stock open cell sponge foam blocks....
 

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cholula

Large Fish
#12
Oct 22, 2002
247
0
0
fish.arehere.net
#12
Somonas... at first I was putting the floss material
between the media baskets... then closing the basket
to hold the material... What I didnt like about doing
it that way was having to be pretty exact on the size
of the piece I was putting in there becuz if it was too
big, then the 2 parts of the media basket didnt close
too good.
So one night I took a dremel tool and cut out the strainer
part of one of the baskets.. the resulting cut left a little
bit of a rough edge around the area I cut, which I found
out is good so the 1" media stays in place pretty good.
So now, I just have some media.. scissors and pull a
basket out of the filter.. dump the old stuff, and cut a
new piece to fit.. you can stuff the media in pretty good
if you cut too much and now you dont have to tinker
around with hindging the 2 parts of the media basket.
The only time I do open the baskets now is to periodicallly
clean out the gunk that accumilates.... (over stocked
synodontis tank)....
also, if you do decided to do this.. think about which of
the sides you are going to cut... I did the one that the
water flow goes around the outside of the baskets
instead of the side that is overlaped... no real imortance
there, but just to keep stuff from accumilating.
Again, if you want pics.. just email and will forward some.
fish@stowetel.com
 

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