# Canister Filter for Nano



## DGarone (Apr 26, 2013)

Zoomed 501 turtle filter.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Zoomed has to be on the same level as the tank, op want its hidden *below*.
I have a 7g cube with an Eheim 2211 canister below. I have a home made foam pre-filter (cut piece of foam to stuff over intake) and use the spray bar, cut down to fit in the tank, with the spray hitting the wall its suction-cupped to to reduce flow. My betta enjoys the lack of current, but I get enough surface ripples to avoid surface scum/biofilm.
Eheim is expensive but worth the $ good meida and silent (forget its there unless I bump it with my foot)! Also easy to disconnect to clean, though I will say I've not heard of it being used on that small of a tank before.


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

DGarone said:


> Zoomed 501 turtle filter.


This! Perfect for a 3 gallon nano!



AquaAurora said:


> Zoomed has to be on the same level as the tank, op want its hidden *below*.


I've been running my zoomed 501 on the floor below my 3 gallon nano tank at work for a year and a half. It works flawlessly. Pump rate is identical as if it's on the desk (I did extensive testing). Since it's not specifically designed to be run below the tank, I set it in a little 2 gallon rubbermaid tub in case it springs a leak.

See:


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Ah I stand corrected. I'd read from others that it had to be level with the tank or it would not work (too weak of a suction). Wish you'd shown this several months sooner I could have saved a good bit of $ on my filter


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## yobofofas (Jul 14, 2013)

Awesome! Thanks for the responses! I'll probably go with the zoo med. Very affordable. What about low profile heaters?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I know what's NOT low profile.. Eheim, great heater..but huge! I've seen 1 or 2 thin black heaters but can't recall names.. You can look into inline heaters or diy inline heaters to hook up to the zoomed, maybe zip tie the inline to a table leg to keep it upright/stable.
I have a diy inline heater with an ehiem 50watt, PVC, reducers, PVC glue, and aquariam safe silicone, then slapped it against the table leg to make sure the water stay above the water line point and is not on its side and 1/3 heating element un-submerged.


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## Briz (Apr 25, 2013)

Just tossing this in here, I have had good experience so far using a Zoomed 501, even if the lid is a little tricky to get off for me sometimes.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

I'm actually running a 3.5 G Betta setup with no filter. I had a small HOB on there, but the Betta did not like the flow. For a Betta and some shrimp you could probably do the same. Just change water once a week.


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## AGUILAR3 (Jun 22, 2013)

houseofcards said:


> I'm actually running a 3.5 G Betta setup with no filter. I had a small HOB on there, but the Betta did not like the flow. For a Betta and some shrimp you could probably do the same. Just change water once a week.


ditto. I have a 1.75g Betta vase going on 13mo with no filter. 


BTW, not only do all(13) of my Bettas not like flow but they consider shrimp an appetizer. Some have kept them together succesfully but I have had "0" luck.


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## Piscesplunder (Jul 23, 2014)

On my 5.5 g I am currently running a zoomed 501 turtle clean myself. Cant beat it for the money ! And my tank stays crystal clear! I paid $36.00 including tax and shipping on amazon


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## BeastMaster (Dec 17, 2012)

I run 2211s on my 20cm & 30cm cubes. On my 12L & 60P, I'm running 2213s. I'll be setting up an established mini-S & my new 60F w/2211s. For my set ups, 10 gal & below, I'll use 2211. Above 10 gal I'll go w/2213. That's w/ no more than 3ft of head and using an atomizer on the intake side. :bounce:


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## Piscesplunder (Jul 23, 2014)

As for shrimp.. i have had great luck with ghost shrimp ( though can get nippy at times), as for my amanos not sure yet, ive had them a week now and they have turned blue twice 2 out of the three have recovered thus for. ..


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

For aquarium filters, I think head pressure is mostly irrelevant, other than the added resistance of the tubing wall. Our filters do not have to actually lift water 2 or 3 feet high. For every bit of water it moves up, the same amount of water is pushing back down. 

All the pump really does is move it through the filter and lines. The pressure is equal in and equal out, not counting the difference in height between the highest inlet on the intake, and the outflow tube. 

The biggest issue with regards height is the quality of the seals since there is a little bit pressure on the pump as a whole, and it increases as you lower it. Since the 501 isn't rated to hold pressure below the tank, I keep it in a little tub.


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## BeastMaster (Dec 17, 2012)

AnotherHobby said:


> For aquarium filters, I think head pressure is mostly irrelevant, other than the added resistance of the tubing wall. Our filters do not have to actually lift water 2 or 3 feet high. For every bit of water it moves up, the same amount of water is pushing back down.
> 
> All the pump really does is move it through the filter and lines. The pressure is equal in and equal out, not counting the difference in height between the highest inlet on the intake, and the outflow tube.



Have to disagree w/ your statement regarding head pressure being irrelevant. Every foot of elevation from the impeller chamber to the highest point the water has to travel will reduce the flow rate. The pump must push against gravity to lift the water. The intake water is not pushed back down to the filter but relies on syphoning action and again gravity to refill the pump chamber. So, because of gravity, not all is equal. Work must be exerted by the impeller and the motor that drives it. The smaller the motor, the more pronounced the effect of head pressure and the reduction of flow rate. :bounce:


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

BeastMaster said:


> Have to disagree w/ your statement regarding head pressure being irrelevant. Every foot of elevation from the impeller chamber to the highest point the water has to travel will reduce the flow rate. The pump must push against gravity to lift the water. The intake water is not pushed back down to the filter but relies on syphoning action and again gravity to refill the pump chamber. So, because of gravity, not all is equal. Work must be exerted by the impeller and the motor that drives it. The smaller the motor, the more pronounced the effect of head pressure and the reduction of flow rate. :bounce:


Do some experiments with your own filter to test your hypothesis.

I am a nerd, so I actually tested this specifically with the zoomed 501, because I wanted it on the floor by my desk at work. I was curious if the reason it was supposed to be at the same height was a power/flow issue, or something else.

I used 2 one gallon jugs and a stopwatch for measurement. I placed both of them on a surface at the same level, and placed the filter's inflow hose into one full jug, and the outflow into the other one, which was empty. I timed how long it took to move 1 gallon of water from one jug to the other. It's not a powerful filter, so any differences would be exaggerated.

I had 4' of hose on each side of the filter. I tested it several times at the same height as the jugs as a control. Then I moved the filter as high as 4 feet above the jugs, and as low as 4' below the jugs. On all experiments, it flowed the 1 gallon of water at *exactly* the same rate. To the second. That's over an 8' range.

From that experiment, I concluded that the height above or below for a canister filter (or at least the Zoomed 501) is irrelevant because the filter is sealed and under pressure, so it's equalized. To test this theory, I placed the jugs at different heights. When the inflow was above the outflow, the pump rate was dramatically faster, and when the outlflow was above the inflow, the pump rate was dramatically impacted. That convinced me enough that I'd have to see a properly conducted test with contrary results to change my mind.

Do some experiments for yourself and see what you conclude.


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## BeastMaster (Dec 17, 2012)

AnotherHobby said:


> Do some experiments with your own filter to test your hypothesis.
> 
> I am a nerd, so I actually tested this specifically with the zoomed 501, because I wanted it on the floor by my desk at work. I was curious if the reason it was supposed to be at the same height was a power/flow issue, or something else.
> 
> ...



I'll PM you w/reply. Don't want to hijack OP's thread. :bounce:


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## Down_Shift (Sep 20, 2008)

ehiem 2217.


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

BeastMaster said:


> I'll PM you w/reply. Don't want to hijack OP's thread. :bounce:


Well, I'll just say that I found my full post from January of 2013 that I wrote up when I tested the pump for height. I never ended up posting it to my tank journal, but I still have the document. If anybody wants me to post it in here, I can do that. 

For now, I'll just post how fast the pump actually is, because everybody know's it nowhere near 79 GPH, and I think it might help the OP. With my brand new Zoomed 501, right out of the box with the OEM hoses and no filter media, moved water at 42 GPH. When loaded with media, it moved water at 36 GPH. That's just enough to turn over a 3 gallon nano 10 times per hour.


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

SunSun 602B is a great option, cheaper than ZooMed and doesn't need to be on the same level.


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## dru (Mar 9, 2013)

BeastMaster said:


> I'll PM you w/reply. Don't want to hijack OP's thread. :bounce:


I am curious too

I am planning on running a Zoo Med 511 (Nano 30) on a shelf underneath a 20g long

I have 2 501s but they are both positioned at tank level


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

dru said:


> I am curious too
> 
> I am planning on running a Zoo Med 511 (Nano 30) on a shelf underneath a 20g long
> 
> I have 2 501s but they are both positioned at tank level


Okay, if you're curious, here you go. In January of 2013, after all of my testing, I wrote up this post for a thread here on the zoomed where people were debating if you could put it under the tank. For some reason, I never ended up posting it, but I had saved it in a text file on my Mac, so I still have it.



> There are plenty of reviews showing how it works [it refers to the zoomed filter] and what it comes with, so I'm not going to cover any of that. I'm only analyzing it for use as an external canister to be mounted below a < 5 gallon nano tank. I bought this filter hoping that it performs nowhere near it's 79 GPH max rating. I'm using it on a 3 gallon tank, so a mere 30 GPH would still turn it over 10x per hour. If 79 GPH is accurate, it'll make my little nano tank into a whirlpool.
> 
> Testing methods: (1) Fill a 1 gallon jug with water. (2) Insert the hoses and let the pump cycle for a few minutes to get all air out of the lines. (3) Move the output hose over to transfer all the water to an empty jug sitting right next to it, and time it with a stop watch.
> 
> ...


After I going back and reading this today, I did see that I tested using 40" of hose, which yielded a 30" height difference, so my memory was a little off when I said a 4' difference in my post above. I still stand by my results and testing method though.

The reason it can pump the same volume when placed 30" below the tank is because it's a SEALED canister system (where the intake and outtake are at the same height). This makes the intake and output pressures equalized. If you had a reef setup, with a lower tank and upper tank, and had to actually pump and lift the water up to the upper tank, with no equalized pressure pushing back down into the system, then yes, height would make a big difference. In fact, this little pump could barely even lift any water at all when I put one jug on the floor and put the other jug 30" above it.

All that aside, I think I'd look at that SunSun 602B that MABJ mentioned above. That looks like a sweet cheap little filter, and has flow control!


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

Aye, AH, it's a great filter. I use both the sunsun and the zoomed


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