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Well here it is, I have been working on it for a few days and here is what I have come up with. A small canister filter that that basically anyone with some general knowledge and a few tools can come up with. But that’s not the best part, The best part is that it will cost FAR less than any commercially purchased model.

Parts required:
1. Small fountain pump $6.99 (Harbor Freight)
2. Air/water tight Tupperware $7.99 (any grocery store)
3. 2 female slip connectors $1.00 each (hardware store)
4. 2 threaded couplers $0.50 each (hardware store)
5. 4 Flat rubber washers $1.00 for pack of 2
6. ½ ID Vinyl tubing (6ft) $0.50 / ft

Total $22.00

Now comes the assembly part of the project. Take your Tupperware (mine happens to be 1.7 liters) and take the lid and find out where you want to position the pump. You need to take care in order for it to have room for the intake tube to reach the bottom of the canister.

Here are some pictures of the attachments that will be the intake and exhaust of the filter.

and what they look look fully assembled


Next, Mark out the locations where the holes will need to be drilled to mount the intake, exhaust, and pump cord. (here you can see I have already drilled and attached some of the pieces.


Now that all the holes are drilled, put all the pieces in their appropriate places and get ready to attach the pump.


Take the Exhaust port on the pump and mix up some 5min epoxy and put it liberally on the exhaust and inside the exhaust connection and put it together and let the epoxy cure.

Now we are ready to put the cord through the hole and make sure it creates a seal.
Use the RTV and a rubber grommet (I used a cable stress release) and make sure it is a perfect seal.


At this point let it cure for 24 hours before proceeding.

At this point i filled it with water and filled the intake tube with water in my sink and let it it run. I worked great so the next step is to go out and buy the media and fill it up.

I will take some final pictures when it is done and in use.

Hope you guys find this usefull.

It is done and i posted pictures and a how to.

Awesome job! Worthy of a sticky! Thanks for taking the time to post

Wow, very nice indeed!!!

No problem at all. As soon as i have some time to integrate it into the tank i will get some pictures of the final setup for all of you.

That looks great! What size tank will you be using it on?

well i have a hatchling and he/she is in a 10 gallon tank, but from what i have seen it should be able to go up to a 30 or 40 gallons.

But the greatest thing is i will only need a bigger container and pump and then i can make it any size i want

That is great! I am so building my own next time!

I really like the idea of this filter, it seems like it would work pretty well. I ave question though. I realize media must be the filtering materials but what is media exactly?

Any guestimates about how large a pump and how large a container one might need to make this set up work for a 100 gallon tank?
I'm new to all this, but that looks likea pretty sweet set up
Thanks

I just went with what was on the box for the filters that you could buy at the store. I just used that as a guide.

Do you think this design could work on a larger scale? I'm about to build my turtle a new habitat out of a 110gal stock tank. I have found some 350GPH fountain pumps for pretty cheap. I figure I'd probably need a 2-3 gal container that seals and 3/4" - 1" tubing and fittings.

What do you think?

yes it should work, but if i were going to do this again, I would make it so that the water would go into one side and come out the opposite side so that way it would have no choice but to go through all the media

Great point. I was thinking about using 3" PVC pipe in 4 different sections so the water would flow through one, then the next, then the next, and finally the lastwhere the pump would be. That way a different media could be used in each tube.

Thanks for the input and for posting your design. I must say, it's quite genius!

well thank you, Actually your PVC pipe idea seams like a good idea too. If you were to arrange it like a 6 pack of coke and add elbows so it would go through each of the 4 tubes in series then it would be very effective. The only hard part would be how to mount the pump.