Sometimes it takes a long period of time and just a splitsecond to think of an improvement over an existing design. The same happened to me with the HMF Filter and the outflow I was using. Time to share it with you!
Before:
As can be seen in my earlier posts, I had my outflow passing over the long side of the tank, passing over the short side as well via a 90 degree turn to end up opposite to the HMF filter. At the time I chose efficiency over aesthetics - that much is clear.
The idea:
I noticed that there was an abundance of waterflow in the tank, which reduced the need for my 'efficient' solution. I also remembered the more traditional HMF setup, where the water simply gets dropped on the frontside of the filter through an airpump or pump. Have a look at this site to see what I mean: http://www.swisstropicals.com.
After:
I decided to take away the tubing that bridges the long side of the tank as well as the second 90 degree bend. I then twisted the upright tube with the first 90 degree angle attached to it by 90 degrees counterclockwise. I reattached the tubing for the short side that also holds the outflow. A week of testing proves that the design works just as good as the previous, while keeping all the tank's mechanics on one side. Which of course looks a lot better!
A picture of the new outflow is attached at the bottom of this post.
The outflow exiting the filter over the shortside.... easy does it :) |