I just picked one of these up for $16.99 shipped from amazon prime and because it's so cheap I thought I would comment on it. The filter has great flow for a filter in this price range. The motor sits down in the water itself which I actually like because you don't hear any of the motor noise like you do on the aquaclears I use. The major drawback to this filter is the fact that it's designed around crappy filter inserts that are way over priced and probably don't work well at all. In stock form you would not want to count on this thing for any sort of bio filtration what so ever.
I modified the basket that holds the filter cartridges to go backwards into the slot by cutting out a notch in the basket. The reason for this is, if the basket is facing backwards, it creates a small chamber behind the filter pad where you can load up some ceramic media, carbon, or purigen to suit your bio or mechanical filtration needs. I have placed a dozen or so bio rings in there to add to my bacteria colony. I was able to take these from an established tank as a means to insta-cycle the 20 long. I also just picked up a roll of marine land cut to size filter pad which will do a better job of picking up nasty bits and allow some surface area for nitrifying bacteria. Lastly I cut out a square in the center of the basket that now holds my cut to size filter pads. The grid on the basket is one of the sources of restriction and I will probably cut more out to reduce any filter bypassing.
The last thing I did was take out the diffusion block in the front which is just a little overflow device that supposedly quiets the return flow, jury is still out on that one, I can't tell a difference. The drip through design should aide with aeration though I assume. I placed a thin mat of filter floss on the inside of the diffusion block and clicked it down into the slot to add some polishing to the filtration.
Overall this is a great filter for less then $20 once modified which took all of ten minutes. The flow is excellent and it will suffice great for a tank up to 20 gallons in my opinion. I am running a sponge as well to boost surface area for bacteria but the combination of the two will let you run a moderately overstocked small tank no problem.
I modified the basket that holds the filter cartridges to go backwards into the slot by cutting out a notch in the basket. The reason for this is, if the basket is facing backwards, it creates a small chamber behind the filter pad where you can load up some ceramic media, carbon, or purigen to suit your bio or mechanical filtration needs. I have placed a dozen or so bio rings in there to add to my bacteria colony. I was able to take these from an established tank as a means to insta-cycle the 20 long. I also just picked up a roll of marine land cut to size filter pad which will do a better job of picking up nasty bits and allow some surface area for nitrifying bacteria. Lastly I cut out a square in the center of the basket that now holds my cut to size filter pads. The grid on the basket is one of the sources of restriction and I will probably cut more out to reduce any filter bypassing.
The last thing I did was take out the diffusion block in the front which is just a little overflow device that supposedly quiets the return flow, jury is still out on that one, I can't tell a difference. The drip through design should aide with aeration though I assume. I placed a thin mat of filter floss on the inside of the diffusion block and clicked it down into the slot to add some polishing to the filtration.
Overall this is a great filter for less then $20 once modified which took all of ten minutes. The flow is excellent and it will suffice great for a tank up to 20 gallons in my opinion. I am running a sponge as well to boost surface area for bacteria but the combination of the two will let you run a moderately overstocked small tank no problem.
