Oase BioPlus Thermo 200: geni.us/Vx6L Biohome products: www.filterpro.co.uk Dremmel 3000: geni.us/4uMl This series is all about trying to squeeze more efficiency out of internal and external aquarium filters which generally have a limited filtering capacity - If you have a filter you'd like me to feature in a video then please contact me on: sales@filterpro.co.uk 07772848730 (Richard) Anyone who sends a filter will have it upgraded and returned to them for free and the only cost you will pay is how much it costs to ship it to me - I'm helping to boost your filter and the resulting videos will hopefully be useful to viewers all over the world so it's a win/win. *Please do not send any filters without contacting me first as I want to try and cover every type of filter, not 20 of the same make and model* Oase video for Bioplus: goo.gl/gzSiYJ Due to the high international shipping cost I am currently only taking filters from the UK but I'm hoping that as this series progresses a useful database of knowledge will be built up which will help viewers understand how their filters work, the limitations and the steps you could take to improve filtering capacity and efficiency. The goal with any filter is to try and achieve FULL CYCLE filtration which is the reduction in ammonia, nitrite AND nitrate - if you look anywhere online you'll see people tell you that the nitrogen cycle in an aquarium ends with the production of nitrate which is removed by regular (often large) water changes. That is HALF the cycle and is done by AEROBIC bacteria which favors highly oxygenated conditions and is very easy to grow on any surface. The last part of the cycle (reduction in nitrate) is completed by ANAEROBIC bacteria which favors an environment which is very low or devoid of oxygen. It takes filter media with a very specific internal structure to support both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria to allow for full cycle filtration but a suitably sized, well set up filter, will allow the full cycle to complete which results in more stable water conditions and less water changes (typically 10% every 1-2 weeks). Canister filters will generally offer the best provision for filter media but even internals can be significantly improved to boost water quality and fish health. The following videos will be useful to anyone interested in learning more about filtration, bacteria and making the conditions for your fish as good as possible: Sizing a canister properly and filter set up: goo.gl/om19un Looking INSIDE different filter media: goo.gl/hZWS6c Bacteria and filter media: goo.gl/123gAF How to clean an aquarium: goo.gl/bPMhvh Aquarium tips / filtration playlist: goo.gl/pXgqVj Check out my channel for hundreds of videos on a wide range of my hobbies - many of the videos have educational content so if you have enjoyed any give them the thumbs up and share anywhere you think others may benefit from viewing. This channel is purely a hobby for me so I will never ask viewers to donate money for any of my projects or charge anyone for information - information should be shared freely and I certainly don't consider myself an 'expert' in anything I pursue as a hobby so please do your own research, never accept anything as 'fact', reject anyone claiming to be some sort of authority or 'expert' and make your own minds up about anything you wish to study. We all are on a long path of learning......... RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS ON AMAZON: goo.gl/jMaBWy INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/pondguru_outdoors/ FILMING EQUIPMENT: Panasonic HC-VX870 HD camcorder geni.us/3UwE +Rode stereo microphone: geni.us/4OL +Rode 'deadcat' mic cover: geni.us/1pmn JVC Everio quad proof HD camcorder: geni.us/e09e +Rode 'deadcat' mic cover (opened up and held between tripod and camera base) geni.us/dee24 Zomei Z666 tripod: geni.us/1a1af3 Manfrotto MTPIXI-B PIXI mini tripod: geni.us/87f7 See you next time. Pondguru

Nice to see u back to aquarium guides Sir. Please educate us more. You’re the reason why I am into aquarium hobby. loved bio media. Your office looks awesome by the way. Cheers from Buckinghamshire

I LOVE your Videos. It’s so easy to listen to you explain everything. You have loads of knowledge. Me and the family are about to start a 40-50 gallon aquarium. Also. I really miss your shooting videos. Keep doing what your doing. Look forward to seeing your videos on the playlist

Hi Richard, just an update on my 'Pimped Filter'. Working an absolute treat. By far working 100 times better than the sponges. Looking like will be less maintenance intervals also having the bio gravel in aswell compared to the sponges. Water clarity is gin clear, cant ask for more than that really. Many thanks again for everything, Ian :-)

I don't have this type of filter but totally enjoyed it. Great to see you back.

I'm delighted you're back with this terrific series! You taught me how to hot rod my aquaclear 110's and I'm forever grateful, I learned so much by watching your videos. Keep up the great work and Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. I'll look forward to more!

My new Oase Bioplus was a slow runner. I have not drilled any holes. What I have done is changed the filter pads and added filter media to two canisters. Runs really well now and does not block like before. Thanks

Nice to see you back on the tools! "Studio is looking great" and that filter is now supercharged! 👍😀

LIKED after 30 seconds. I'v e been waiting for this since it was announced - I bet this will go semi viral being such a specific pound/fish stuff.

awesome upgrade & new studio looking great man!!!

This was brilliant! I am planning an aquascape and this is one of the only filters that will work for the tank and tank location. The tank will be heavily planted so that will mitigate some of the filtration misses...but this really gives me much more confidence that my first adult aquarium will not be a complete failure!

many thanks buddy since i changed my set up with the new filters and bio water seems so clear now and the cleaning process has been cut in half amazing product many thanks

Richard great video , we have missed you

Biohome... the best purchase I made for my tank. Cheers fella.

Excellent video Richard as usual, very informative keep up the good work from Australia.

the new studio is looking nice

so happy to see you back at the filtration explanations. great idea showing us how to make better use out of the filters we have rather than reinventing the wheel. most of the filters are really good but are usually not fitted for our needs. Recycle reuse and remake.

Hi Richard. I see you got your studio finished, very nice! I wish you all the best on your new series!

Excellent video buddy looking forward to seeing the rest of the series

Good day to you Richard !! 👍👍😁😁 Thanks for sharing your thoughts, knowledge and experiences with us all today !! i'm going to really like this series as i'm making my own filter for my fish pond in all the info i can get the better 😁😁👍👍

Hi there Richard, Good work mate, thanks for it and best regards from Down Under, Tony.

Missed ya man :). Loving my biohome,. Just ordered 10 more lbs. Don't stay away so much

Nicely explained, got my mind racing over possibilities. Although I don't have this filter available here and don't need a heater as I live in temperate climate (actually need a fan for the aquarium) but still will try to apply these concepts to something else like a sponge power filter.

I tuned the 50 version of this kind of Filter without drilling a single hole and using Biohome Plus (ca. 200 g) . Update on how it runs hopefully this weekend on my channel, but in german. Will you do updates on how the filter is running after some weeks?

Awesome 👏 now you are back and more educational in sink with your title pondguru is back

I'm glad your back on the filters.. Please pimp the fluval 206.. And if u can fluval u3

Brilliant and very clever.

Hello and Thank You--I'm glad your back-I looked through my past video's that you've done and I could not find your phone number - i could swear you put it on one of your vids - anyway I bought a pond boss pump and low and behold you do this vid--Oh Well----My Best to You and Yours'

Oase is the most well done filter i had come across and i think you should leave it as it comes, but of course you can put for example eheim substrat pro or bio home in one or two containers!

Nice one Richard. Couple of ideas for filters to upgrade from me. The fluval hob that came with those Edge tanks. I've got one on a planted 5 gallon with biohome in the media basket with a fairly coarse intake sponge (medium just ruins flow!) I've also got one of those allpondsolutions cannisters. Got it packed with alfagrog e25 with sponges in the bottom and one on the intake but I'd be interested to see what you can do with that one, I know it's fairly popular here in the UK.

As ever, a richly informative and educational vid, Richard. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with hobbyists like myself. I’d very much like to hear / view your thoughts and comments and ideas on upgrading an anoxic filter basket for greater efficiency. Thank you again. Warm regards, Paul

Cheers, it's improved the flow

Cheers for the Vid. Done mine and it has made a noticeable difference.

Great video well done.

Brilliant Sir Danke sehr.

Great video! These are great tips! Thank you!

I want to mention to whoever has this filter, to make sure to also add coarse sponges to the sides and the base plate (you can see it at 4:30, in this video). I found 1 ember tetra and 2 green neons, dead in the filter. There was also a live green neon stuck inside the base plate. I used a 2cm thick coarse sponge foam and cut it to shape for the base plate, then cut it again on the middle to make a 1cm thick pad. For the sides, just cut a 2x2.5 cm strip and cut 2 of the corners to make a prism.

Seachem makes a HOB Tidal.. If you can get those filters there that would be a good one to upgrade.

New office is in business! Pimp boss in the house! LOL

Channel is growing nicely 👀

Another great informative video!

Thanks man. Intresting video.

Brilliant Sir 👏

Thanks for the video, dude! I got this filter today, and it leaves me confused as i disassembled it. The first i thought was "why the fxxx is the foam stuff in "dead" chambers???" I drilled the holes like you, to get more water flowing through the foam. i think now they do the job good like my beloved (but noisy) JBL i80.

Hi Richard, awesome info as usual, fluval 206 upgrade would be great to see please!

Hi Pondguru. Thanks for the videos. My first DIY filter I made was an invisible filter with a decoration rock inspired on a old video of yours. It would be interesting to see upgrades on small filters for nano tanks, like the Dennerle nano corner filter or the JP series of SunSun. Thaks in advance. Looking foward for more videos like this one.

Hi Richard, great video as always. Any chance you could do a video on upgrading a Fluval 406? It'd would be great if you then sold the 'kit' for viewers that wanted to follow your advice. Cheers, John.

The original design of the sponge chambers are such that when you take the chambers out for cleaning the gunk doesn't fall down in the aquarium

Awesome video

Hello, thank you for this great video. I just ordered Oase Bioplus 50 for my 35 liters. How to put the filter media since there is only one box. I'm going to use Matrix Seachem and probably buy the ceramic noodles and the foam plate. thank you for your reply. Excuse the mistakes but I made with the translator

hello, how do you go about cleaning it all? replace foam and gravel? or just clean the gravel, foam and media and put it back in? how often should this be done?

Richard, love this sort of video on how to maximise the performance of what area are often quite expensive filters. I don't have this filter but the concept as you say can be applied to many similar ones. My only ( minor ) question is with the increased weight how well would the original suckers hold it on the glass post modification? Also and I might be wrong with the additional holes has this increased the volume of water per hour the filter will process. Guess would be good to see a before and after with each filter running that you are planning to do 😊

Nice !

Can I do this to the Oase Bioplus 100 filter

This is the filter I was going to buy today (now not at all sure about that). thank you very much. I wonder if a JBL Cristalprofi or Fluval U filter would be a better buy..

Great video.

I use my oase as it comes and it works like a charm:)

Would love to see one on Laguna Pressure Flo pond filter - particularly the 6000 model. I've recently set up my very first tank approx 4.4x2.5x1.5, and I've gone really heavy duty on filtration, as the water needs to be good for both fish, and the lizards in the vivarium the aquarium is inside of - as it's the lizard's primary drinking water. I'm using 2200L Laguna pond pump, and the 6000L filter, which has 4 coarse foams, and 2L of matrix I've added. I'm wondering if it's a good idea to put some filter wool, below the bottom coarse foam.... Would have to squeeze it in, but would then be between the coarse foam and the matrix media.

Great new series pondy like it 👍

Nice video :-) I would love to see you upgrade the internal Juwel filters, many people have them. I set mine up with coarse-medium-fine sponges, like you showed us, and only that small upgrade was a massive improvement :-)

I know this one was done a while ago but just seen this video and I have the smaller model of this one with the two trays and the top small space so would I just put bio home gravel in the one tray and the top small space and use the ceramic rings in the bottom and sponges, this is in a 50ltr tank with shrimp in, thank you

A Fluval FX6 upgrade would be great 👍

You should've put PVC tape over the areas in level 2 and 3 where you didn't want water to go through. The reason why water WONT want to go through the third level even though you didn't put a pad in the intake section is because, even though you didn't, the back pressure created in level 2 and 3 from the additional foam pads add up to create a heavy amount of restriction by level 3. The water will go through level 1 first until it clogs, then level 2, then finally level 3 once everything is clogged. Adding PVC tape in the areas where you don't necessarily want it to go through is the only way to force water to go through level 3 first. Trust me, I'm an engineer and I do a lot of DIY-ing on my aquarium filtration.

Great video. I'm currently putting together a list for an aquascaped tank and was considering the Oase biomaster themo 600 but tbh I'm not convinced the pre-filtration stage is up to it as all the sponges look the same and not graded from course to fine. My tank will only be 108 Litres but as I'll be using a C02 setup it'll need a good 1000lph turnover to circulate the co2, So I'm thinking of going for the Eheim Prof 4 600 now instead and a Hydor 300w external heater.

Does the water still flow past the heating element after this modification? Can the filter unit be removed after the modification without the dirt getting into the aquarium?

I have the 100 version of this filter would it work with exact same set up minus the top section? So rings-course then medium-media-fine then media in little tray at top

Hi Richard, I like this filter, but I have 2 small tanks, one is a 10 gallon betta tank and the other is a 5 gallon betta tank. I would need to use the smallest oase corner filter available with only 1 compartment. Would it be worthwhile to section the single compartment with maybe biohome and a filter pad, or is there a better alternative for a sleek hidden corner filter with build in heater. Also, what are your thoughts on the very old economy corner filters with the clear plastic made by Jardin? Maybe a future pimp my filter? Thanks for all the great content!

Are there any openings at all on the internal sides of a compartment? Before you drilled in the side slots with the round bit in the bottom compartment, how did the water get in? (I dont quite understand how the water is sucked in with the original design because the internal sides of a compartment do not seem to have any holes for the water to come through to the sponge).

Its a shame because Oase used high quality plastic on this waste of time filter. It looks well made, I just can't see how those little course sponges would do anything. I've seen eBay filters with a block of foam and a power head do more filtration. Love you Ponguru.

Still alive 😉 ? How should this filter be maintained / cleaned with this medias in?

Cool vide Rich, and are those the Edifier W830BT headphones I see ;)

Have you noticed any change since these mods

hi i did everything but the dirt is concentrated in the small top filter. The 2 input slots at the top and rear of segment 2 and 3 do not need to be covered? So the flow go from bodem to top and passed to all the filter substances

I find it amazing how bad these filters are set up in the first place. Top vid tho 👌

I want to get into this thing called Aquaponics where you use the fish waste to feed the plants. You WANT the Nitrate to feed the plants so you want to keep it. You need the Ammonia to turn to Nitrite then Nitrite to Nitrate (according to the diagrams) So you don't want to get rid of that. Will your filter media do the Ammonia - Nitrite - Nitrate cycle without taking the last bit out? Also can YOU have a go at aquaponics - I bet you'd enjoy it.

Hi, given the cost of all the other bits you have to buy to make this filter work effectivly, would you reccomend getting a differnt filter? I have a 90L tropical tank, with Mollys and tertra with a few plants. Thank tank came with a Interpet internal cartridge filter, wich seems next to useless, so I'm looking to upgrade to the best filter. thanks!

1kg / 100L ? is this perhaps why many stores recommend a pump that can do at least double the L's of your tank per hour?

Great vid. I'm looking to upgrade my aquarium over time so will be watching these video's closely. It's currently running an under gravel filter. I'm.also looking to change over to better lighting as the fluorescent tubes are ready to be replaced. How about a diy LED lighting video. I'm sure with the availability of various LED units you could come up with a cost effective alternative to some of the over priced aquarium lights on the market. ATB Steve.

thanks for your quivk reaplnse. can you tell me would you be using the same sort of media then i can order more from you for better price ? thanks again chris

I have the exact same filter and I have to say I am so disappointed in the lack of filtration. So sad. I would love to get what you did with this one done with mine.

I would love to see you super charge a Jebo Ap2100f Internal Filter For Aquariums & Small Ponds.

Hey great video . You most come to sweden and presentation your produkt over here to zoo stores. Have you fluvals f5 / f6 filters also? 👍🤗

If I send a filter from the US, will it be a lot of money? and when you put the media inside, do I keep that media that you used to pimp it out? I have the Fluval 207

Thank you so much for this video! I will definitely be making these adjustments to my filter. Any chance you would do this kind of video on one of the stringray internal filters? They're pretty small and crappy 😂 so will probably never make a full cycle but I bet you can do something to improve them. Paula

What about setting up a fish tank in your new cabin?

hi any chance of doing a juwel internal filter for a rio 180. or a quick list of a decent setupas these are fixed in the corner of the tank. i have one of these oase 200!corner filter which i will be upgrading also. great vids. very informative. thanks

Greetings, Richard! Glad to see you back in the fishkeeping world! Lol. Is this the studio that was built ino your new shop? Very nice with great acoustics. Well done!

Thank you very much. I will be carrying out this mod (eyes open) at the weekend. Any ideas on modifying the eheim 200 pickup?

Would be great if you would show us how to upgrade a matten filter. Love that you think outside the box! Where can one get bio gravel in Canada?

Great vid and would love to try these out in my tank, but unfortunately, they are not sold in the US !! :(

I have this exact filter and choose it because of it's integrated spray bar at the top which is an amazing feature! However I am disappointed with the way it diverts water through the chambers/the amount of media. Will you be selling this as part of one your 'Filter kits'?

Hi does this work well?

have you put soffit material on your walls?

***BioHome Media and Nitrates*** I have Biohome ultimate in my FX6, all the trays are full with it. At first, I was sceptical about the claim it could reduce Nitrates. It was not a quick process at all, but 2 years of medium fish stock in my 250ltr (with UV filter) has seem the Nitrates drop from 80PPM with 30-40% water changes 2-3 times a week to, at best, 5PPM with a water change every other week. ***The massive down side to this*** is now I have to buy and dose No3 to keep the plants alive!! Some you win, some you.......ah what ever :)

I run biogravel in the top chamber of my JBL i30, rather than the media the manufacturer designed to be changed monthly

Could you possibly take a look at the bombaster thermo 600, I have got one and am really disappointed with the flow it generates. also It leaks often with mine, usually after cleaning (I put everything correctly) it starts to leak where the pipes connect (while all seals look fine)

Hi Richard, Great DIY! Im wondering, does this filter has an oxygen/air "extrution" ? Or its just a direct pump filtration. (I cant see any tube for air flow) All the best! Nick

Hello, would it be possible for you to do a video on undergravel filters? Thank you for your time.

Bio gravel looks interesting. Useful for small internals. Can it be used in trickle filters, or in air fed moving bed home made bottle filters.. but not actually moving around if you get my meaning. Cheers and looking forward to the series.

great info as always guru... I'd like to see what you would do to upgrade a fluvial 70 HOB..