HORIZONTAL FILTER FOR A SMALL AQUARIUM

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Aquarists, especially beginners, must face the challenge of filtering water. Aquarium, a living organism, and if you let things go by themselves, they will die. The most effective filter is sand. How sand grains manage to destroy harmful substances-metabolites and leave necessary for the life of fish and plants is not known for certain. Usually, a sand filter is made remote, that is, they determine a place for it outside the aquarium. The schematic diagram of his work looks like this:

Water is pumped from the aquarium using a special pump or airlift. In the airlift, the vehicle for water is air bubbles from the compressor. The manufacture of such a filter is time-consuming and not everyone can do it. But, as practice shows, the problem has a solution and the effect is quite acceptable. A schematic diagram of a simplified filter looks like this:

Such a filter is good in that it constantly pumps water through the soil in the aquarium and does not allow it to silt. For plants, this is very beneficial.
Now, after a brief theoretical introduction, let's get down to business.

To make a filter, you need three main things:

not very dense foam;
a piece of garden PVC hose;
tubular aquarium sprayers.

We cut a strip of foam rubber measuring 3x3x445 cm. The length can be different and depends on the size of the nozzles and the overall design of the aquarium. A section length x width should be 1.5-2 cm larger than the diameter of the hose.

In a strip of foam, we cut a groove under the nozzles. We make incisions to a depth of 1-1.5 cm.

It is convenient to cut foam rubber from the groove with ordinary scissors.

The result should be such a blank. Subsequently, the sprays will take their place in the groove.

Now, by the size of the foam blanks, we cut a piece of the garden hose.

Cut the hose along the entire length. Make it convenient and safe with scissors.

With a hot awl we make holes in the hose. It is necessary to heat the awl so that the holes are not pulled together.

Holes need to be made often almost close to each other. You can do two or three rows.

In order to fix the filter on the bottom of the aquarium, you will need suction cups. We sew them with kapron thread or fishing line to the foam blank.

In this case, three suction cups will be sufficient.

In the foam groove we place the nozzles.

We put a hose on top of the structure.

You should get something similar to the design shown in the photo. We end up the ends with pieces of foam so that the air exits through the openings from above.

We connect the compressor and install the filter on the bottom of the aquarium.

Air bubbles rise to the surface of the water and carry particles of water along with them. The flow of water carries water dregs and leaves it in the filter elements.

The top of the filter can be decorated with aquarium soil. Soil (coarse sand) will be the main element of the biofilter. On the edges of grains of sand over time, bacteria will settle. These bacteria feed on metabolites harmful to fish and plants. Thus, the biological balance of the reservoir will be maintained for a long time. In small aquariums, filters of this design work fine and do not spoil the landscape, because they are practically invisible. Air bubbles create a fairy-tale screen in the background, which is why the whole picture of the underwater world only wins.

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