What I have realized is that by adding more media or adding crushed coral in the basket, this compresses the sponge into these grates and emphasizes the bypass even further.

It also gives the sponge itself a flat surface to rest on, somewhat. The basket does have 'baffles' or sort to hold up the sponge and this is partly just due to manufacturing and wanting to have a clean edge and encourage flow internally. This also means we might be able to use something like eheim mech (thanks pondguru for the idea) to diffuse the flow itself. If Seachem feels like it, they can resolve issue #3 by adding some baffles in this space. There is a bit of space below the basket itself. If we look at the filter box itself and the basket, this is what we see. Let's take a look at why this helps and what is really going on. For the Tidal 35, this alone has resolved most of the bypass issues and has given me a few notes. Simply cutting new sponges that allow water into the basket itself. I want to attack these 1 by 1 and demonstrate each of these, but I will do this in a follow up post.įirst up we have the easiest thing we can do. Because of flow strength, media order, and bottom to top flow design, it's difficult to use something like purigen because of the high flow / bypass that forces lighter media off the top of the media basket and into the tank itself fairly easily. The filter basket design is very restrictive and tolerance on sponges is often undersized, which caused bypass when you do manage to get the water into the filter media basket.ĥ. the flow into the HoB filter basket can cause bypass simply due to the flow strength. The pump is incredibly strong and might be too strong in some instances. The flow path of the water itself in the pump is not well defined and the water constantly avoids filter media and filtration.ģ. The reduces the viability of something like an intake sponge and causes many issues for nano fish, flat bodied fish, or plants being sucked into the intake.Ģ.

There is an excess of openings on the intake and this forces most of the intake of the filter to be provided via the skimmer, pump housing cover, and minimally from the inlet pipe itself. In each Tidal Filter, a Seachem's Matrix for biological filtration and a foam filter for mechanical filtration are included.1. When extra cleansing is necessary the basket can easily be set onto the filter's lid to avoid watering the aquarium's surrounding. The Seachem Tidal Filter is compatible with any kind of filtration media which can be put directly into its inbuilt basket. The Seachem Tidal Filter comes with a self-cleaning impeller and an additional signal pen which becomes visible when extra cleaning is necessary. Intake as well as flow can be regulated manually. The pump is self-priming, so there is no need to fill the filter with water before use. With its high power output combined with multiple integrated extras the filter cares for beautiful, clear water and is easy to use.Ī dual water intake in installed, effecting an automatic surface cleansing (skimming). The Seachem Tidal Filter is an innovative backpack filter for high-quality and comprehensive filtration of aquatic water.

Seachem 55