Testing Time: Fixing the Seachem Tidals Bypass

[nabokovfan87]

Minor Update:

There are a few new holes that are the focus to keep the pump clean.  Plants DEFINITELY DO get stuck in here and this is a main source of input for the pump.  The one circled here is a "feature" for the heater holder. and you can see some skimmer holes on the side there that I need to keep track of on the modified HOB container.  The others do not need to be there, but are likely in place for the plastic molding process.

@TeeJay Did you fix the noise issue you mentioned? Did you fill those slots on the side and the ones I just closed or leave them open?

Edited September 14, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/14/2022 at 1:52 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

For clown plecos, it's pretty obvious where they hang out!!! 😂

Literally hanging. ☺️
 

On 9/14/2022 at 1:52 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Apparently this didn't post yesterday

Yeah I actually cut back my post since then. I looked at it later on and I was like, man, that was long winded and way off topic. Thanks for the reply!

I did dig a little ditch under the pfs but I still have to take the intake tube off to get the sponge off because there’s not enough clearance for the sponge alone to be removed. Taking the tube off creates the swirl of mulm. 

[TeeJay]

On 9/14/2022 at 1:57 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Minor Update:

There are a few new holes that are the focus to keep the pump clean.  Plants DEFINITELY DO get stuck in here and this is a main source of input for the pump.  The one circled here is a "feature" for the heater holder. and you can see some skimmer holes on the side there that I need to keep track of on the modified HOB container.  The others do not need to be there, but are likely in place for the plastic molding process.

@TeeJay Did you fix the noise issue you mentioned? Did you fill those slots on the side and the ones I just closed or leave them open?

No I left those open when I did my modding. When I came home from work last night it was making the same noise again. So I took it out and apart and checked everything. No major buildup of anything. Just a really dirty pre filter sponge on the intake tube. Obviously way more in it now than ever before sinc all the flow is going thru it. So set it all back up and have it running again. It's been about 12 hours an no noise yet. I'll check again when I get home from work.

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/14/2022 at 3:35 AM, TeeJay said:

No I left those open when I did my modding. When I came home from work last night it was making the same noise again. So I took it out and apart and checked everything. No major buildup of anything. Just a really dirty pre filter sponge on the intake tube. Obviously way more in it now than ever before sinc all the flow is going thru it. So set it all back up and have it running again. It's been about 12 hours an no noise yet. I'll check again when I get home from work.

Interesting.  If you hear it again, send me a video showing as much as you can in the tank and HoB itself.  It's the pump struggling to get water, in some way.  For me, I've only ever heard that with air under the intake and it's the sound of the bubbles popping in the impeller.

Edited September 14, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[TeeJay]

On 9/14/2022 at 6:38 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Interesting.  If you hear it again, send me a video showing as much as you can in the tank and HoB itself.  It's the pump struggling to get water, in some way.  For me, I've only ever heard that with air under the intake and it's the sound of the bubbles popping in the impeller.

I mean the pre sponge filter was massively dirty so maybe it was struggling to pull water in 

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/14/2022 at 3:47 PM, TeeJay said:

I mean the pre sponge filter was massively dirty so maybe it was struggling to pull water in 

I ordered a new prefilter, I'll let you know. It's from a pond brand, but has the correct dia hole (just need to trim the outside.  Also, did you drill out the base of the intake tube itself?  Let me see if I can find a photo.

Edit: prefilter has a hole in the bottom, not on the website. Cool. So that's a no.

Edit: I didn't post the one I had because it looks so bad, but... here's what I did on mine to increase the flow from the tube:

I used a 1/8" dia drill bit, but use what you have that works.  I did 4 holes (North, South, East, West) of the existing hole, and then add the 4 on each 45 degree to those.

 

Edited September 15, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[TeeJay]

On 9/14/2022 at 6:51 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I ordered a new prefilter, I'll let you know. It's from a pond brand, but has the correct dia hole (just need to trim the outside.  Also, did you drill out the base of the intake tube itself?  Let me see if I can find a photo.

Edit: I didn't post the one I had because it looks so bad, but... here's what I did on mine to increase the flow from the tube:

I used a 1/8" dia drill bit, but use what you have that works.  I did 4 holes (North, South, East, West) of the existing hole, and then add the 4 on each 45 degree to those.

 

No I didn't not do that. I didn't catch that in the thread the first time around. I should have time to drill it out tomorrow morning before work.

On 9/14/2022 at 7:06 PM, TeeJay said:

No I didn't not do that. I didn't catch that in the thread the first time around. I should have time to drill it out tomorrow morning before work.

It hasn't made that noise since I took it apart and clean it last night so my best educated guess is it was so clogged it was pulling air.

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/14/2022 at 4:06 PM, TeeJay said:

No I didn't not do that. I didn't catch that in the thread the first time around. I should have time to drill it out tomorrow morning before work.

My mistake, sorry about that.  The plan when I'm done messing around is to have a concise 1 post summary with "this works well enough to fix some issues".  There's notes and comments and I think I mentioned it, but just didn't have the photo because tube mod #1 didn't look great.  I went for 1 too many rows of holes 😞 .

On 9/14/2022 at 4:06 PM, TeeJay said:

It hasn't made that noise since I took it apart and clean it last night so my best educated guess is it was so clogged it was pulling air.

Good to hear.  Adding those holes is quick / easy, and it will increase your flow on the bump by a pretty good margin.  Necessary from what I was experiencing without them.

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/14/2022 at 2:38 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Yeah I actually cut back my post since then. I looked at it later on and I was like, man, that was long winded and way off topic. Thanks for the reply!

I did dig a little ditch under the pfs but I still have to take the intake tube off to get the sponge off because there’s not enough clearance for the sponge alone to be removed. Taking the tube off creates the swirl of mulm. 

Oh.... Yeah. Those have a super long intake. Not sure why. Removing the mid strainer, potentially attaching the lower part to the HoB container might work, but from what I remember it doesn't fit that way. Let me know. Maybe I can figure something out.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/14/2022 at 10:38 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Oh.... Yeah. Those have a super long intake. Not sure why. Removing the mid strainer, potentially attaching the lower part to the HoB container might work, but from what I remember it doesn't fit that way. Let me know. Maybe I can figure something out.

I seem to remember trying to shorten the tube, but the mid strainer is wider than the two tubes it connects.  Those two tubes are the same diameter (well, they are rectangular actually, but whatev) - and they don't fit together.  I guess where the mid strainer is, perhaps I can put the intake w/ PFS up there?  It sure would make maintenance easier, and I have a co op sponge filter on the bottom for any of that low-floating debris.  I might have to finagle the spiderwood too, because there is this scraggly branch that likes to sit near that area where the mid strainer is.  I am limited to driftwood position though because I have these cool java fern roots in the front of the tank, and I like 'em there. I think it's peaceful to watch them swaying in the current, and the ram likes to go in and out of them.

When I trialed the aquaclear, I liked how that tube was set up.  Intake basket was integrated into the tube, and then if you want to go longer, you just add another tube/basket combo right on top of the other one.  Too bad it dry runs if power outage though.  Shame on you, AquaClear.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/14/2022 at 6:51 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Edit: prefilter has a hole in the bottom, not on the website. Cool. So that's a no.

Lame. 😐

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/15/2022 at 5:51 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

trialed the aquaclear, I liked how that tube was set up.  Intake basket was integrated into the tube, and then if you want to go longer, you just add another tube/basket combo right on top of the other one.  Too bad it dry runs if power outage though.  Shame on you, AquaClear.

Ironically. they sell extension tubes because of the complaints of the intake strainer trapping so much stuff and not letting it go into the filter / sponge.   AC has a lot of different parts and mods, but.... it's so hard to find parts locally for me and they tend to break.

I checked the Marineland book again and it's.....
1.  Very weird they decided square tube was the way to go.
2.  Very weird that they force some pretty long intakes on small filters.

You can take the basket and connect it to the upper tube, but you're not going to have the length to the base of the tank.  You can also try to cut the bottom section of tube so it is shorter.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/15/2022 at 12:15 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

but you're not going to have the length to the base of the tank.

That's the easiest thing.  I noticed other filter brands' intakes hang at approx. that level.  I have an ACO sponge filter at the bottom anyway, so nbd if we don't go to the bottom with the HOB.

On 9/15/2022 at 12:15 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

You can also try to cut the bottom section of tube so it is shorter.

Could be a small weekend project, and I'd get my preferred length that way.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

For some of these mods you are doing @nabokovfan87 & @TeeJay, have you ever tried plastic mesh?

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Darice-Plastic-Canvas-Sheets-7-mesh/643290441

I went into a physical Walmart and went to the craft section; they sell 6 sheets for $2.95.

Also these are really great for placing over gaps in the lid, if you have any!

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/15/2022 at 10:11 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

For some of these mods you are doing @nabokovfan87 & @TeeJay, have you ever tried plastic mesh?

I've seen it. The main issue with the Tidal is that the intake sucks (not water) in from everywhere but the intake tube.  75% of the water would literally just come in as overflow in the skimmer grates. That clogs with plants, causes issues.

Then you have the mid-water skimmer and it's right around the pump and completely open. That's the other main part of the intake.  That clogs with plants, then you'd be lucky to get anything to flow through the pump.  It also makes it a pain to feed because everything is just sending the food right to the media chamber.

Blocking those off.... I'm sure @TeeJay will agree that it's day and night difference. It's a great pump, when the flow is right!

I have seen people use it to keep debris. I would use it for moss.

Edited September 15, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[TeeJay]

On 9/15/2022 at 4:17 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I've seen it. The main issue with the Tidal is that the intake sucks (not water) in from everywhere but the intake tube.  75% of the water would literally just come in as overflow in the skimmer grates. That clogs with plants, causes issues.

Then you have the mid-water skimmer and it's right around the pump and completely open. That's the other main part of the intake.  That clogs with plants, then you'd be lucky to get anything to flow through the pump.  It also makes it a pain to feed because everything is just sending the food right to the media chamber.

Blocking those off.... I'm sure @TeeJayiwill agree that it's day and night difference. It's a great pump, when the flow is right!

I have seen people use it to keep debris. I would use it for moss.

Oh yes it's a day and night difference. The sponge collects so much more gunk now than it ever did. And the pre filter sponge is pull way more garbage in now as well since it actually has real flow going through it now. It's been modded for about 2 weeks and it clogged up enough to suck air instead of water it. So it's def doing its job now.

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/13/2022 at 10:57 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

The one circled here is a "feature" for the heater holder. and you can see some skimmer holes on the side there that I need to keep track of on the modified HOB container.  The others do not need to be there, but are likely in place for the plastic molding process.

Not sure why I was worried. Even in the photo you can see. These "skimmer holes" are depressions and not through the box itself.

Cleaning the filter and then going to go ahead and add back in the modded, re-modded, super duper intake of awesome suction.

Please stop eating my moss tidal!!!!

[TeeJay]

Update on the mods on my tidal 55. After a couple of weeks of running the new mods it started to suck a bit more air into the filter and cause an annoying sound. So on @nabokovfan87 advice I took the intake tube off and drilled 5 more holes into the bottom of the tube to hopefully help with pulling more water 

[nabokovfan87]

 @TeeJayWhenever you hear (if) you hear that noise again, I'd recommend for the sake of the testing and making sure you're not risking equipment damage:

A.  Take a video showing the HoB with the lid off so we can see flow
B.  Intake to show it's not an airstone and how the input/intake flow looks
C.  Take the filter apart and then show the pump / impeller housing (that piece you take off to clean the impeller blades) as well as the black box that surrounds the pump to see if there is and how much gunk is blocking things.

On the intake tube itself.....
1. Remove the blue dial
2. Drill out the opening so you have a full circle
3.  Fill the blue dial holes / grill holes
4.  Holes in the base of the intake basket
5.  Pre-filter sponge

I am listing the above for the sake of clarity to make sure something wasn't missed in translation.  I know the thread is back and forth, so I wanted to just briefly list it out.  Let me know if you need anything.

[AndEEss]

New reader of this thread. 
 

I run two 110s on my 75g. A couple of thoughts:
 

1) I bought and cut Poret foam to size/shape and have ~4” of foam in each filter. All 20ppi. 

2) I used plastic mesh to make a grate that is U-shaped and sticks out 2.5”-3” into the water, horizontally, from the filters. 

3) Drilled out the bottom of the baskets.

4) Added mesh to inside of the basket. Filled remaining volume of the baskets with K1. I have 2x airstones in one of the filters. There’s a discernible rotation of the K1 media, forming a poor man’s moving bed filter. 

5) Like others, I want the water to come from the intake tube only. I’ve got a very large pre filter sponge on each but neither is jammed up at all. I may modify the intake tubes to try to get more flow through them, if possible.

6) When the surface skimmer on a 110 is blocked, it sounds like the world is about to end.

 

 

Edited October 10, 2022 by AndEEss

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/9/2022 at 8:49 PM, AndEEss said:

2) I used plastic mesh to make a grate that is U-shaped and sticks out 2.5”-3” into the water, horizontally, from the filters. 

Can you send a photo of this? Very interesting. Sounds similar to the rain gutter guard I saw someone use.

On 10/9/2022 at 8:49 PM, AndEEss said:

6) When the surface skimmer on a 110 is blocked, it sounds like the world is about to end.

Definitely agreed! This is also literally just due to water level also.

On 10/9/2022 at 8:49 PM, AndEEss said:

5) Like others, I want the water to come from the intake tube only. I’ve got a very large pre filter sponge on each but neither is jammed up at all. I may modify the intake tubes to try to get more flow through them, if possible.

If you don't plan to seal the skimmer, no way to reliably boost intake on the intake itself. (Hopefully that makes sense)

On 10/9/2022 at 8:49 PM, AndEEss said:

I have 2x airstones in one of the filters. There’s a discernible rotation of the K1 media, forming a poor man’s moving bed filter. 

Especially for the size, very interesting! Have you ever used the ziss bubble bio?

[Huckleberry]

When I first bought my tidal 55, I removed the motor and wedged in some 30 ppi aquarium foam behind the skimmer. After running it for a while I started noticing bypass with the basket. After modding the basket a couple different ways, I decided to remove it all together. I cut 2 peices of 30 ppi foam to fit the filter. They stand on end.  Then after that I have a mesh bag of crushed coral and another mesh bag with bio rings inside of a fine cartridge filter. Water moves left to right and filters just fine. I have foam zip tied as a pre filter on the inlet.  

 This filter is on a 37 gallon, only thing I don't like is the length of the down tube. It could be longer.

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/12/2022 at 5:37 AM, Huckleberry said:

This filter is on a 37 gallon, only thing I don't like is the length of the down tube. It could be longer.

There is a video in the OP, Dude just used PVC on the intake and it worked fine.  Might be an option if you can find the black PVC that fits.

@TeeJay was asking about the foam only.  If you can please show off your setup and how it's been for you.  I wasn't a fan when I ran it on the Tidal 35.

[nabokovfan87]

A few pretty big changes and updates.

Of note, I'm still annoyed at this thing for being such a pain to run for 1 week (or you know, 3+ days) without the clean me warning going off.

I am going to start the practice of cleaning the prefilters on the tank a bit more due to the week's issues.

First up we have something that @TeeJayhad experienced with his mods and we tried to troubleshoot.  There was this air bubble noise coming from my filter. It started randomly. For his scenario the solution was to open up the intake and increase flow a bit. The pump was getting air bubbles into it and the noise was those bits of air getting into the pump and then getting broken up. 

In my case I was going to sleep and I heard the tank being extremely loud. It wasn't a mechanical issue, didn't seem to be, but simply a flow issue or something where the pump was doing exactly what was mentioned above with the air bubble and something hitting the pump and making that noise. I checked the air stone to make sure it wasn't somehow feeding air into the tube and that everything was working fine. That didn't help, and so I wanted to see if there was an air bubble or something that was causing this noise. Ironically, this is a VERY COMMON issue with the aquaclears. I'll have to find a video or something of the noise that can happen when you first turn one on and air is stuck in the intake.  That's exactly what I feel like is going on. I turned off the tidal and there was 5-8 big glugs releasing air out as the water filled the pump chamber.  I let it run again, turned it off, same thing.

My assumption is that the little opening on the left side of the pump is feeding air potentially or causing some sort of method for air to pool in the pump. When the intake clogs a little bit, that leads to flow coming from the side of the pump housing a bit more and that issue getting noisier and prevalent.  Once I cleaned the prefilter sponge the noise stopped and I had a pretty good idea what was causing it.  The holes on the bottom of the intake tube are small and not really deburred well. This simply means it is creating bubbles somehow, potentially and that is getting sucked into the pump.  It very well could just be that when I removed the tube, I saw bubbles there because of the shape of water holding itself into those holes, but I really don't know how to explain air building up on the sponge or something and feeding into the pump.  Either way, something is building up air in the pump housing and that's causing some annoyance.

Here's photos of everything once I cleaned it to give you a feel for how bad it was when I cleaned it out. Reminder to everyone, at least once a month, check the impeller.

I'm calling this soil/dirt buildup a circumstance of all the BBA floating around in my tank that had bloomed and this is the result of the improvement to the intake and flow.  Running a course prefilter means some stuff can get into the pump and that leads to stuff like this internally.  Absolutely not an issue, but something everyone needs to be aware of running a HoB style filter or anything with a pump.

 

[TeeJay]

On 10/18/2022 at 4:22 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

A few pretty big changes and updates.

Of note, I'm still annoyed at this thing for being such a pain to run for 1 week (or you know, 3+ days) without the clean me warning going off.

I am going to start the practice of cleaning the prefilters on the tank a bit more due to the week's issues.

First up we have something that @TeeJayhad experienced with his mods and we tried to troubleshoot.  There was this air bubble noise coming from my filter. It started randomly. For his scenario the solution was to open up the intake and increase flow a bit. The pump was getting air bubbles into it and the noise was those bits of air getting into the pump and then getting broken up. 

In my case I was going to sleep and I heard the tank being extremely loud. It wasn't a mechanical issue, didn't seem to be, but simply a flow issue or something where the pump was doing exactly what was mentioned above with the air bubble and something hitting the pump and making that noise. I checked the air stone to make sure it wasn't somehow feeding air into the tube and that everything was working fine. That didn't help, and so I wanted to see if there was an air bubble or something that was causing this noise. Ironically, this is a VERY COMMON issue with the aquaclears. I'll have to find a video or something of the noise that can happen when you first turn one on and air is stuck in the intake.  That's exactly what I feel like is going on. I turned off the tidal and there was 5-8 big glugs releasing air out as the water filled the pump chamber.  I let it run again, turned it off, same thing.

My assumption is that the little opening on the left side of the pump is feeding air potentially or causing some sort of method for air to pool in the pump. When the intake clogs a little bit, that leads to flow coming from the side of the pump housing a bit more and that issue getting noisier and prevalent.  Once I cleaned the prefilter sponge the noise stopped and I had a pretty good idea what was causing it.  The holes on the bottom of the intake tube are small and not really deburred well. This simply means it is creating bubbles somehow, potentially and that is getting sucked into the pump.  It very well could just be that when I removed the tube, I saw bubbles there because of the shape of water holding itself into those holes, but I really don't know how to explain air building up on the sponge or something and feeding into the pump.  Either way, something is building up air in the pump housing and that's causing some annoyance.

Here's photos of everything once I cleaned it to give you a feel for how bad it was when I cleaned it out. Reminder to everyone, at least once a month, check the impeller.

I'm calling this soil/dirt buildup a circumstance of all the BBA floating around in my tank that had bloomed and this is the result of the improvement to the intake and flow.  Running a course prefilter means some stuff can get into the pump and that leads to stuff like this internally.  Absolutely not an issue, but something everyone needs to be aware of running a HoB style filter or anything with a pump.

 

Yes I didn't notice mine sucking in the air until I drilled the holes into the bottom of the intake tube for more water flow. In turn clogging the pre filter sponge faster, in turn more air bubbles