Filters for small aquariums

[conipto]

Hey Dennie, and anyone else who might wonder..

Here is how I got my H. gigas' tank to use a filter, with such a small volume of water..

To start, I had a five gallon air pump.. The bottom came off with only four screws, pretty painless..

 

[conipto]

(ignore grease and hot wing sauce on finger... It's been a long day)

Next, a closer view shows how I got it to push less air.. I cut a small slit in the diapraghm that pushes air in one direction out of the output hole.. (a little goes a long way here, so don't overdo it)

 

[conipto]

The above picture made it push a little too much less air into the tank. To increase the amount of air being pulled into the body of the filter, I cut a small hole in the bottom (size here is not so critical as the diapraghm cut, better to underdo the diapraghm cutting so that at worst you need to cut a slightly bigger hole until you get it perfect - this was an 'oops I cut too much' fix)

Anyways, this BARELY increased airflow, but gave me the perfect amount..

After this, I put it all back together again, and voila.. 1 gallon air pump

Bill

 

[atavuss]

Bill, they have valves in the aquarium sections of pet stores so that you can regulate the amount of air needed from air pumps.
Ed

 

[dennis]

Hey, thanks for explaining!
Didn't know adjusting the amount of water pumped could be so easy! And you were right, even a less technical minded person, like myself, can do this.
Now all I have to do it get one of those small pumps...

Dennis

 

[conipto]

Originally posted by atavuss
Bill, they have valves in the aquarium sections of pet stores so that you can regulate the amount of air needed from air pumps.
Ed

Bah! What's the fun in that.. Seriously, I know jack about aquariums and didn't know what to look for.

Bill