I was flipping through a DrsFosterandSmith catalogue [cheaper than my PetsMart, even with shipping, and I don't have to leave the house!], and they sell actual canisters of carbon and all the other things I think you'd need to make your own filters.

I've got 2 Bio-Wheels [a 170 and a mini], and I'm wondering, wouldn't it be cheaper to make your own filters [once you figured out what you were doing]? And then how do you do it? The catalogue, for all its other interesting "articles" says nothing about making your own filters. It just sells the stuff.

I'm sure some brilliant person on this board either knows to how to do, or knows where that post already is on the board...help, please!

--Mav

Hi Mav!

Reading your post has lit a fire under my bum to update an old thread I started in the DIY section. Check out the whole thing:

DIY canister filter

Hope this helps!

Actually, toothless, I have the working filters, I guess I should have specified filter *cartridges* -- the non-cheap things we throw out so regularly as they're covered in fish debris.

I'd forgotten about the DIY sub-forum...might have to browse that before I re-post, so that was definitely a good idea there. Thanks.

--Mav

Ah, I see. Well then, take a gander at this:

Cheap filter cartridges

I think youll find that the cartridge in the pics are exactly what you would find in your 170. You can do the same for your mini too. You don't even have to use carbon impregnated floss, you could use carbon and regular floss just like the way they come packaged. I even like the idea of loose carbon being in there because of the "extra" room for growing beneficial bacteria when the carbon becomes spent.

Hope this helps!

there are a number of sites that have a large DIY area. try garf , water wolves, and fins. you can go to aqua rank and surf around . :goldfish

what I did when I made my own cartriges for my 170...I cut the old blue fabric type stuff from the black plastic part of the original cartrige (you have to use a utility knife or a box cutter to get it all off) and threw out the carbon that was in there, rinsed the plastic off...and if i wanted carbon, just re fill it with the carbon that you buy in the little plastic container, but you don't HAVE to use carbon...and for the fabric, I just bought some cheap quilt batting from the craft section at wal mart..you can either sew that on with a needle and thread, or "glue" it on with some aquarium sealant (which they sell in the pet dept. at nnnnnn too).

also...I forgot to mention that sometimes local pet stores will carry "generic" type cartriges that fit penguins also, and they are much cheaper.