Nov 6, 2026
BIOHOME FILTER MEDIA, FILTER UPGRADE KITS AND FOAMS HERE: http://www.filterpro.co.uk
Since starting the DIY internal aquarium moving bed filter videos on Youtube I have been searching for ways to make them more useful, better to look at and easier to make.
A few months ago a guy sent me a video where he had used Hama beads and they appeared to work very well. I made a couple of small filters which I had working for approx 2 months and they performed well, prompting me to make the filter in this video.
If he is reading this, please comment or send me a message as I would like to give him credit for having the Hama bead idea and put a link to his channel here - I cannot find any of his videos after searching for ages.
This filter is designed to be a supplementary filter to constantly seed your main filter with good bacteria made strong from their time in the moving bed.
In a moving bed filter only the very strongest bacteria can survive so any which has populated the surfaces of the media then been dislodged by the chaotic motion of media will be looking for a new home. When they are taken in by your main filter they will rapidly establish and get to work processing pollutants.
Moving bed filters tend to process ammonia and nitrite extremely well but are known to generate nitrate.
By using Biohome filter media in your external or sump you can reduce nitrate too.
Full Biohome Q&A video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGI-yb...
How to set up an external filter video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szrUlH...
'Invisible' aquarium filter video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIrQ_R...
If you like DIY aquarium themed videos you will find loads in the 'Aquariums and Advice' playlist on my channel.
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Thanks for watching.
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Hello there, I'm Richard from Tyne Valley Aquatics
and the Pond Guru channel on YouTube.
Today I'm going to show you how to make
a very small bacteria generating filter.
So these are the ingredients I'll be using today.
We've got an Original Source
shower gel bottle. This is a travel size.
See how small it is in comparison to my hand.
We've got some hammer beads.
These are black and brown ones just sorted out
from an assorted pack.
You can get just black,
or you actually can order just about any colour under the sun on eBay.
And these are gel bacteria balls. There's live bacteria in here.
So we've got our little bottle here.
We need to drill three holes in the top,
or four holes, or two holes, however many you want to drill.
That's for the air to escape. We need some holes in the bottom.
I've drilled six small holes for water to be drawn in,
and one slightly bigger hole for an airline.
I've also drilled holes around here as well.
So now we've got a nice clean bottle with holes
in need to take these stickers off and if there's
any residual glue on there just give it
a good scrubbing off with hot water it's come off really
nice can't feel any glue at all on there that's our basic filter
so if we're going to use this
whilst we were setting the tank up i.e whilst we recycle
in the tank we would fill this about 50
with the gel balls that would allow bacteria
to flood out the top of here
and colonise your main filter.
No need to have this full of gel balls once the tank's cycled.
So for normal use, i.e. after cycling the tank,
we'd fill this about two-thirds
with hammer beads,
take the top off,
and in this top here a few of those
gel balls, probably only get a couple in each side,
and what that's going
to do is provide this media
with a constant supply of good bacteria.
As the water flows over the gel balls it
It gradually dissolves them.
The bacteria settles where it can on this media
as this media is all knocking together it knocks
the good bacteria off and that ends up
in your other filter it's basically a bacteria generating
filter. That's it there really tiny little filter
and I suppose you could use it to filter the waste
from fish in a very very small tank
but really this is a it's a supplemental filter this is
This is going to be generating bacteria
For your main filter, whether that main filter is in your tank,
or whether it's an external, or whether it's a sump.
Now I've had these hammer beads working in a filter
that I made probably about two months ago.
So they're quite well mature now, they move very well.
And I'm hoping when the air goes
into this tiny little filter that they will move well.
If you make one of these, the beads might
not move very well for at least a week, possibly two weeks.
They need to build up a little bit of bacterial film
and a bit of slime on them
in order to move through the water properly.
Now because this filter is so small it's no good
for the likes of BioMotion, Hel-X or K1.
That media is simply too big to move properly within
the confines of this container.
That's enough of me talking, you probably want to see it working
in a tank so I'm going to set it up and video it in a tank.
Well that's it working there.
I put an airline in the bottom just leaded away up the back
and out the back of the tank there.
Very little air going into there it's probably
the equivalent of about maybe 30 liters an hour maybe.
So even a tiny little air pump would be able to power this.
I actually added some more hammer
beads so it's operating there probably about 75% full
and even the ones up the top here are
chugging you know they've got a good chugging motion they
are rubbing together and moving.
The gel balls that sit in the cap
will be slowly dissolving over the next couple of weeks,
seeding this media with bacteria,
which in turn will be feeding on ammonia and nitrite,
and then eventually it'll be getting spat out the top
when it gets rubbed off,
and that'll be colonizing your main filter.
One thing I've done differently on this one,
compared to the previous moving bed filters that I've made,
is just had this clip on,
so it's really easy to lift out.
There you go, you can see the airline in the bottom.
See how well the media is moving. It's going very well.
All you would do is just unclip it, lift it out,
do what you've got to do, and put it back.
Really versatile.
There you go. I think it's a great little filter.
And if you're having problems cycling your tank,
if you fill that with those gel balls,
you're going to have no problems cycling your tank.
The ammonia and nitrite is going to get absolutely devoured
by the bacteria that live in those gel balls.
When your tank is mature,
Having the hammer beads in here.
We'll support a really strong, vigorous bacteria.
They'll constantly be getting knocked off
as the media's in sort of chaotic motion.
They'll be flying out the top of here, in your water,
getting taken into your big proper filter.
And that'll ensure that your proper filter is always fed with good,
strong, hungry bacteria.
So if you've liked what you've seen, please click like.
Feel free to share it on Facebook, Twitter.
any of the social sites, forums and so on and such forth.
