How to DIY an AC 70 fuge

war,
what if you just made a very tall baffle, almost as high as the outlet section.
then the water would pretty much flow over the top of the baffle and almost straight out of the outlet section. of course some is going to go into the fuge area as it has to to get out the outlet section. but to me it seems it would really slow the flow in the fuge area.
my baffle is about half the height of the fuge and totally siliconed in, so the water leaves the impellor, hits the baffle and rises up, slightly over the fuge then out the outlet. so not a great amount of flow in the actual fuge area.

adam
 
Oh ok. I see what you mean, fishrock; partition the filter box with a baffle and let some of that quick moving flow pour right out the outlet but allow a little to pour into the 'fuge area of it. Correct?

I think I still want to use the whole thing if I'm going to do it by slowing the flow a little by modifying the impeller. Looking at it, it really is a big HOB filter. There's like an entire gallon of water in it.
 
correct, you could even drill a hole or 2 in the baffle just below water height to get water to go into the fuge area if you wanted more flow.
just ideas off the top of my head though.
adam
 
Hey supermongolia this is a great mod. Im just starting to mod my AC and got most of the equipment in place. The thing i dont get is why we need to cut the intake tube?? Can anyone clarify or post pics of how the moded the intake tube.
 
You have to cut the intake tube because it is too long for small tanks. It would hit the bottom of the tank. You'll need to cut it down to fit.

--Colin
 
i see...i dont think it will be a problem for my 26G. Its 24" deep. What is that surface skimmer ppl are talking about?? I already have a HOB counter current skimmer.
 
dirtyone you placed your baffle somewhere completly different from where supermongolia did. He placed it so that the intake chamber and actually fuge area are seperated. How far away from the intake chamer and how high off the floor of the filter Should the acrylic baffle be?
 
Does the baffle need to be siliconed to the base of the filter?? How high should it be and how far from the intake and impeller area?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10196113#post10196113 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ZooZ
Does the baffle need to be siliconed to the base of the filter?? How high should it be and how far from the intake and impeller area?
Click to expand...

i siliconed it cause it didnt have anything to hold it in place. i used one side of the basket for one of my baffles and its just far enough away so you can get at teh impellar and the impellar guard. the other baffle is acrylic and the bottom is also, its the same size as the bottom of the basket. the way i made mine was like havign a solid bottom basket and one solid side so that the water would flow over the top of the fuge and also under and up the other side to accross the top. for the short time i had it, it worked awsome. i sold it so i could build the same out of a AC110. HTH
 
Im going to be using acrylic as the baffle. I still dont know if it should be sealed against the bottom of the flter. How high it should be and how far from the intake chamber.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10197087#post10197087 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ZooZ
Im going to be using acrylic as the baffle. I still dont know if it should be sealed against the bottom of the flter. How high it should be and how far from the intake chamber.
Click to expand...
mine where if i remeber correctly where half way to the top of the water level. i was just triing something different on mine, all you really need is one baffle and large enough so the water doesnt disturb what you keep in your fuge.
 
ok you havent answered my question dirtyone. I need to know if the acrylic baffle needs to be sealed againt the floor of the aquarium. and How far away from the intake chamber should it be? Anyone?
 
it doesnt really matter how far away from the intake chamber, i left enough room so i could get at the impellar. yes it should be siliconed because theres nothing to hold it in place.
 
I got a AC70 but used the impellar from the 20. When i used the AC20 impellar the water barely filled up the 'u' section of the intake tube. It made a gurgling noise also. And theres soo much bubbles in the display when its on. Any way to stop the gurgling noise? Use a AC 30 impellar perhaps?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10203362#post10203362 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ZooZ
I got a AC70 but used the impellar from the 20. When i used the AC20 impellar the water barely filled up the 'u' section of the intake tube. It made a gurgling noise also. And theres soo much bubbles in the display when its on. Any way to stop the gurgling noise? Use a AC 30 impellar perhaps?
Click to expand...

Push down on the intake tube with your finger and see if that helps. If so, the intake isn't sitting on top of the impeller chamber, but is stopping just a little short. Sometimes this happens when the intake tube isn't in quite all the way.

OR

I had this problem when I did mine. There are some vertical ridges in the groove on the front of the filter where the intake tube clamps in. These keep a modified intake tube from seating completely on the impeller. You may need to sand them off (I used a dremel).

There should be no gurgling or microbubles after the filter has primed and is up and running. I have an AC 20 impeller in mine and it's completely silent.

--Colin
 
I got it..thanks for the help colin. Its up and running. Going to see nitrates in 2 weeks from now. Current nitrates are at 30ppm. The only thing i screwed up on is my baffle does not go all the way to the bottom. Theres abour a 1cm gao due to the narrowing of the filter. I have a sand bed in the filter too. Should i be worried about this??
 
I just finished this mod on an AC70 I've got it up and running on my JBJ Picotope but I wanted to run a reverse light cycle on it and its in my and my girlfriends bedroom so I taped off the return and any parts the would be in contact with the water and used Krylon Satin Black to spray paint the outside until it was completely opaque. I made a new top out of a $2 piece of acrylic from lowes which I also spray painted opaque black leaving a window taped off directly above the fuge area and secured it using two rare earth magnets. One I glued onto the underside where the piece if the filter sticks up between the return and and the intake and the other I glued to the top of my diy top. I salvaged an old light that sits flat on the top and stuck in a 6700K curly CF bulb. I only get a little light leakage that I should be able to take care of with another spraypainted piece of acrylic glued to the front of my diy top that ends right above the returning water because there is light leaking from the grid on the front.

This thing is the perfect size to hold a Visi-therm Deluxe 50W, I made a baffle to seperate my heater and give me an area to hold filter floss and carbon or whatnot when needed.

I shaved too much of the stock impeller even though I shaved then tested then shaved more and tested again, the last time I had to shave off a lot to get each impeller blade even. So I've ordered a AC50 impeller for my AC70, I still want a lot of flow as I'm trying to make this the only thing on my picotope because I hate the look of equipment in the tank.

So far my nitrates have dropped from ~30 to~10 in a week and a half and the reverse light cycle has really helped keep my ph stable.
 
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