Habitat - Indoor :: Moe's new 75G home - build thread.

[tini]

who "here" wouldn't love those drawer pulls?!

[VeipaCray]

Thanks

[VeipaCray]

A few months ago, I decided to take the high tech way to deal with the oil slick and floating cat hair in the tank. I purchased one of the surface skimmer attachments for filters. I has a little plastic piece that floats and allows you to intake water from the surface. $9 USD from BigAls online.



My plan was to hook it up to a little aquaclear HOB filter that i had laying around the house. Ok sweet... $9 for the surface skimmer, $0 to reuse a filter I already had laying around, have some carbon and filter floss on hand. Perfect. $9.

The diameter of the tubing for the aquaclear filter and the surface skimmer attachment were the same size. No go. I grabbed a large piece of hose and two compression clamps.... perfect. Then I realized, I'd have to cut a sizable hole in my hood to accommodate the HOB filter full time or use this contraption on occasion to mop up the surface oil slick with the hood off. I was wanting a full-time solution.

After some thought, I decided on an inexpensive canister filter. I don't need much filtration... my FX5 is the workhorse keeping the water parameters in check. The sole job of this thing is to remove the oil slick from the surface. The flow rate doesn't matter and the filter just needs to hold a tiny bit of carbon and a tiny bit of filter floss to remove floating cat hair (our cat likes to lay on top of the hood next to the warm basking light) and absorb the proteins causing the oil slick.

My first thought was to get one of those tom aquatics (same brand as the surface skimmer) or zoo med mini canister filters. This would allow me to not have to cut the hood, and I could use the canister full time to clean the surface of the water. These two filters are designed as HOB canisters. They have permanently attached hoses that are short and the canister needs to hang on the rear end of the aquarium. Shoot. Not enough room + I wanted all of the filtration equipment contained neatly in the base of the stand for easy maintenance,

Ok, no problem... next idea. Get a generic canister filter off ebay. $40 and problem solved. So I'm shopping / researching what generic canister filter to get and my wife comes over with the "whatcha doin?" So I tell her and surprisingly she says "what kind of warranty do those filters come with?" My reply is ... "well uh, they're $40 cheap knock offs from ebay probably none". She then gives me the evil look and kindof points to the wood floor. I knew what that meant. Off to the local store to buy a name brand trusted filter. I know these could leak also, but it made her feel better.

So I head over to one of the big box pet stores thinking hey I just need the smallest cheapest canister filter. Maybe a fluval 105, a small eheim ecco, something like that. Small+quiet+canister. I go to our local Petsmart and see a clearance sale in the fish filter aisle. They have some marineland filters including the magnum 350 (biggest POS on the planet) and with the semi-recent heater recall causing marineland to lie to all of us while they sorted it out... No more marineland stuff for me. They also had some fluval filter and Rena XP filters. The smallest most practical would have been a fluval 105 which they had on the shelf. The problem was, Petsmart had the XP3 on clearance for the same price as the 105. I didn't really need the filtration of the XP3, but for the price it's hard to beat. So I bend down to grab the XP3 and what do I see? The XP4 sitting ever so patiently on the shelf next to the XP3. Curiosity can be an evil thing... ok where's the price tag for this guy? No price tag. Fantastic. My brain is telling me just take the XP3 and go home you moron but my heart is saying hey ask the girl to do a price check. Ok so the heart wins. I ask the petsmart associate how much the XP4 was. The price she told me was $20 more than the XP3. Well shoot. Dilemma. After some thought and considering the price point of the filter I grab the XP4. I really really really don't need the filtration of the XP4 to hook up to a $9 surface skimmer to remove the occasional piece of cat hair. But I realize that I have other fish tanks in the house and having an extra filter of this size is always good as a backup. And for the price.... it's really only $20 more than the smallest fluval 105. Next thing I know, the XP4 is in my trunk.

[VeipaCray]

Now I needed to hook all of this stuff up. Again the tom surface skimmer and the tubing for the XP4 were the same size. I cut a small piece of XP4 tubing to make the connection between the two parts.



and assembled...




So then it was time to assemble the rest of the XP4. It's a great filter, but so many parts to put together. For anyone buying this filter, it does come with media but not nearly enough. I set the filter up using media I already had knowing that it was only for surface skimming. The bottom basket had 2x30 and 2x20 coarse foam pads. The next basket got a media bag I had laying around filled with fresh carbon. The next basket up got the bio media. rena provided a few stars but not many. I added an extra box of fluval ceramic rings to fill up this basket. The top basket got the supplied polishing pad and also got stuffed full of filter floss.

Once setup, the XP4 fit nicely under my stand next to the FX5. (yes that's a FX5 AND an XP4 on a 75Gallon tank) Did I mention that I have a very spoiled turtle?


Not the best pictures, but here are the intake and the spray bar. I decided to use the spray bar (for now) to agitate the water under the basking platform.



I hooked the filter up late last night. When I came downstairs this morning, the surface was clean - free of proteins and cat hair. Yeay!

[Mom2RES]

Good gravy... I am so messed over when it comes to setting up my 125 gallon. When I look at all your all's pics, I think how in the world am I going to get that thing set up. I am not very mechanical at all, and the hubs has NO mechanical ability.

Thanks for showing about the skimmer. I'm definately going to have to go that route once in the big tank. I can't stand the look of the oil slick on the water. Also, since feeding Angelina more lettuce, I'm getting tired of using a fish net to get out tiny particles of lettuce.

[VeipaCray]

Mom2RES> yeah I'm definitely in the camp of laziness when it comes to cleaning that stuff. I much prefer to let the big filters earn their keep.

As for setting up your tank, it's not too bad. Start a build thread on here with some pictures if you can. It'll keep all of your posts and replies about your setup in one organized place. Then we can help you or answer any questions you may have as you work on your setup. Thanks for reading and cheers!

[Mr. Tuck]

hmmm....can I make a build thread retroactively? hmmm...

[VeipaCray]

hmmm....can I make a build thread retroactively? hmmm...

Sure why not? I for one enjoy build threads on various forums. It's a good place to source ideas. I actually wish this forum had a section just for build threads.

[Mom2RES]

hmmm....can I make a build thread retroactively? hmmm...

Sure why not? I for one enjoy build threads on various forums. It's a good place to source ideas. I actually wish this forum had a section just for build threads.

That would be awesome (build thread section). I am going to need so much help.

[VeipaCray]

There are plenty of people on this forum that are willing to help and give advice no worries there. After you finish your build, you'll learn from your experience and be one of the people helping the next person.

[RosesNKeeks]

That pawprint liner is so cute! What a lucky turtle!

[VeipaCray]

That pawprint liner is so cute! What a lucky turtle!

Thank you.


That pawprint liner was in the clearance bin of some store. It's actually a 1/4" thick squishy foam mat. The FX5 filter has an external pump... well it hangs off the right side of the canister body and vibrates as it runs. The bottom cabinet is wood and the vibrations cause an echo and the FX5 is loud. When I put the FX5 on that foam mat, it became silent again.

[happycamper]

hmmm....can I make a build thread retroactively? hmmm...

Sure why not? I for one enjoy build threads on various forums. It's a good place to source ideas. I actually wish this forum had a section just for build threads.

+1 on the build thread idea!

[RosesNKeeks]

That pawprint liner is so cute! What a lucky turtle!

Thank you.


That pawprint liner was in the clearance bin of some store. It's actually a 1/4" thick squishy foam mat. The FX5 filter has an external pump... well it hangs off the right side of the canister body and vibrates as it runs. The bottom cabinet is wood and the vibrations cause an echo and the FX5 is loud. When I put the FX5 on that foam mat, it became silent again.

Wow how smart! Nice job

[VeipaCray]

Thank you.

Here's an idea I had for turtle food. I use the Mazuri pellets that come in a large 1Lb package. An empty bulk seasoning container holds just about the entire package of pellets and the holes in the sprinkle side of the lid are just the right size for the food.