# Filter-Max III Prefilter on an Aquaclear 70/110 HOB



## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

Looking to add a prefilter to the Aquaclear 70 and 110 to prevent shrimp and fish deaths and wondered if any one had used the Filter-Max III prefilters with these large Aquaclear HOB's before.

Wondering if the piping would fit these tubes as they come with 3 size adapters.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

I have not used those so no help there. 

As an alternate, have you thought of just using AC sponge over the inlet? I have used those on several different filters when I had fry. Cutting a slit for a tight slip fit seems to work for me. The AC sponge is a better size pore so that it seems not to stop up as quickly as other sponge I tried.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

acitydweller said:


> Looking to add a prefilter to the Aquaclear 70 and 110 to prevent shrimp and fish deaths and wondered if any one had used the Filter-Max III prefilters with these large Aquaclear HOB's before.
> 
> Wondering if the piping would fit these tubes as they come with 3 size adapters.


Yes, the filtermax III will fit the aquaclear 70 and 110.
Am using them for precise reason you mention.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

PlantedRich said:


> I have not used those so no help there.
> 
> As an alternate, have you thought of just using AC sponge over the inlet? I have used those on several different filters when I had fry. Cutting a slit for a tight slip fit seems to work for me. The AC sponge is a better size pore so that it seems not to stop up as quickly as other sponge I tried.


I am already using a trimmed 110 sponge over the inlet but wanted something more useful and more attractive for the tank. 

My current workaroudn is to cover the intake with a coarse media bag which allows ample water flow while blocking the larger detris and livestock. This apparently works very well as i only have to clear this once a week. 

On a separate tank, a finer media mesh bag on a Aquaclear 50 gets clogged every 15 minutes or so demanding clearing several times a day. The coarser mesh bag clearly is the way to go however this type of media bag isnt readily available locally. Its way cheaper than buying an aquaclear 110 sponge, though i suppose any coarse sponge would do the trick. At the cost of getting a stainless steel prefilter cover, i figured the filtermax III with a bio sponge might be more useful.



roadmaster said:


> Yes, the filtermax III will fit the aquaclear 70 and 110. Am using them for precise reason you mention.


Thanks for chiming in. Is it a direct plug and play using the wide pipe adapter or were modifications necessary? If this is really straight forward, i may consider adding these to my other shrimp tanks too which all use aquaclear HOB filters.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Yes, Slap a couple pieces of plastic elbows together and it will slip snuggly around the intake.
Are photo's on side of box that these came in depicting powerhead application or over the intake to the aquaclear 's .
I bought a couple of the replacement sponges for intakes on my eheim canister's and the replacement sponge for the filtermax III fit's perfectly over the intakes of the ehiem 2217.
Don't know about larger canister's.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

For larger mesh temporary things, I find wedding veil called tule at fabric stores is really handy. Sells for like a dollar a running yard which is 72" wide. A yard of it lasts a really long time and makes all kinds of handy things like nets, dividers and filter covers.


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

The larger a surface area you can add the less water flow there is at any one spot, so small critters have less chance of getting stuck. 

I have added PVC pipe and fittings to make up to 4 intakes to serve one Aquaclear 110 HOB. 
Each intakes is covered with a 2" x 2" x 4" sponge, which is easy enough to hide among the plants. 

If you use the same size sponge (same pore size) on the intake as is in the filter then the same size debris will get caught in the sponge over the intake before it gets to the filter. Then the intake sponge needs cleaning more often, and the sponge inside the filter is not trapping much. 
I use a coarser sponge outside the Aquaclears and canisters (they usually have a similar sponge to the Aquaclear). 
For smaller filters I will use the Aquaclear sponges over the intake. This is actually the first mechanical media in the system.


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## jbrady33 (Jun 7, 2012)

Very happy with the max III on my filter, comes with lots of adapters.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

@Diana

I love that idea. going to have to visit lowes/home depot this weekend for some pvc


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