Built-in hood filtration

[Graeme]

Anyone know anything about these:



The tank looks really nice but they have a Built-in hood filter which sounds a bit micky mouse to me! My son had a small tank with a small filter system built into the lid and it was ok but with 520lts it would have to be of quite a large capacity.

Regards

Graeme

[malakye]

You can always strip it out of the hood and run a good external or use it as a secondary filter. I am not the biggest fan of those hood filters on larger tanks

[Graeme]

Sounds like a plan.

[Graeme]

The filter has four sections and a submersible pump which pumps into all the sections at the same time via a spray bar. The water then empties back into the tank through a hole in the last section. Does anyone have one of these and know how the media is supposed to go in it?

The setup came with plastic bio balls, ceramic rings and some active carbon. I put a filter pad in the first chamber, balls in the second and rings in the third. I cut a slot in a piece of filter pad and wedged it into the gap between the third and fourth to regulate the flow.

The thing is, usually filters work by directing the water flow over each type of media in turn. This Boyu filter uses a spray bar to pump the tank water over three chambers at the same time and then back to the tank from the fourth chamber. So the way I have set it up one third of the flow goes over the filter pad, one third over the bio balls and one third over the ceramic rings.

Does it matter that all of the filter flow doesn't go through all of the different medias consecutively or is my concern needless?

[malakye]

I have never had a filter like that but so long as the water is going through all the sections before going out the final one I don't think it really matters that it is spraying over the first 3 sections first.

[Graeme]

The water goes through all three sections but from the top through all three sections in parallel then out to the fourth section through a channel underneath.
2014-06-07 17.24.01 (Custom).jpg
Then through a slot under the barrier between the third and fourth sections which I have partially blocked with a piece of filter mat with a slot cut in it in order to control the flow and to cause it to flood the chambers to the level of the grid pieces under the spray bar.
2014-06-07 17.23.48 (Custom).jpg
If I didn't flood it then the tops of the chambers would dry out and probably go mouldy!

[Anita]

I've never had a tank with a built-in hood filter either. But in work we stock Aqua One tanks and I must say it gives a clean look with no hardware in the actual tank. Good luck