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Any other use for a biorb, other than the local tip

In Australia we pay about $250-$300 for one these puppies. The setups I have seen in LFS are atrocious though. George's work is stunning.
 
When got married we had large bottle garden as a gift. At the time they were as l recall the must have in your front room like a rubber plants. Not having much of a clue at the time it got neglected probably neglected. Now l know more l may get another
 
dcurzon said:
I am now the proud (?) Owner of a biorb! Quick maths tells me the volume of a sphere with a 20cm radius is 33litres, so biorb30.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with it myself either! But I'll find something 🙂
Click to expand...
Please share what you end up doing with it! I’m thinking maybe mosses with mine once the shrimp have migrated to their new home (though I spotted the first babies this morning, so wish me luck getting them all out 🙄)
 
aec34 said:
Please share what you end up doing with it! I’m thinking maybe mosses with mine once the shrimp have migrated to their new home (though I spotted the first babies this morning, so wish me luck getting them all out 🙄)
Click to expand...

Ive been taking a look at the sphere. and doing some scratchpad maths... As I haven't got the tools for accurate measuring, numbers have been rounded up/down
Biorb 30
With the standard filtration system, the surface area of the substrate is donut shaped as the centre has to be kept clear. This gives a substrate area of:
300cm^2
And as the standard filtration requires a very porous bio gravel, this also isn't very good for putting plants in. Water filters through the 300cm^2 porous gravel, through the course foam donut and then the finer filter in the middle and up through the pipe back into the tank. It's quite a good system in theory, as long as you don't want any plants. Although epiphytes and mosses attached to wood or lava rock could be used.

For perspective, my small 12l rectangle tank has a substrate surface area of :
540cm^2

So I have a few thoughts on this... and my initial thought is...
1. Remove the centre pipe (just a twist and pull)
2. Connect a length of air hose to the hose connector in centre
3. Place a foam donut in the bottom of the centre 'conduit', to prevent substrate getting under the grill.
4. Leave the coarse outer foam donut in place to prevent substrate getting under the middle grill
**steps 3&4 aren't essential
5. Fill with substrate of choice to approx 8cm of height (measured from the bottom of the internal filter gubbins)
**This gives a substrate surface area of about 800cm^2 - more than double the initial surface area
6. Place a normal uplift foam filter on the substrate. Connect the extended airline from step 1 to this.

I can't get the lights to work unfortunately, so some improv will be needed there
 
@dcurzon I’m liking the arithmetic on surface area (not something I’d thought about). I’d also not realised I’d be able to keep the airline and ditch the filter donut - good shout! My next step was probably going to be mastic-based, and just use it as a lit bowl.

I’ve got epiphytes on bogwood, and moss (mine’s only 15l) but having to keep the top of the central filter clear of everything to get in for the occasional clean is a real pain. The massive distortion through the acrylic makes it tricky to arrange anything, but without the central tube it might be a bit easier 👍
 
aec34 said:
@dcurzon I’m liking the arithmetic on surface area (not something I’d thought about). I’d also not realised I’d be able to keep the airline and ditch the filter donut - good shout! My next step was probably going to be mastic-based, and just use it as a lit bowl.

I’ve got epiphytes on bogwood, and moss (mine’s only 15l) but having to keep the top of the central filter clear of everything to get in for the occasional clean is a real pain. The massive distortion through the acrylic makes it tricky to arrange anything, but without the central tube it might be a bit easier 👍
Click to expand...
Ah, you'll have to do your own maths 😀. but yes, extending the air hose and using a 'normal' foam filter, will give a whole load more space, and you can move the foam filter away from the centre this way also. Increasing the area in which you can plant AND providing flexibility of where to place the filter should make a massive difference and be much easier on a maintenance perspective too 🙂
This will be a slow project for me as I have a few other things going on also, but its good to bounce some ideas..
 
The lighting issue has been solved! I'd tried every Chinese LED remote control I own with no success, seems that Biorb use a different frequency range or something, but @Raws69 found the remote and the top ring bit, and the MCR (multi colour rrrr?) is functioning. Actually there was 2 sets of lights, and both are working, even though I took one apart. 👍
 
Wel I have discovered just how difficult these things are to photograph once they have water in them....
I had a bit of a Eureka moment, and have been prototyping a different filter set up, using the airline feed that's already in the orb.
On my model, I have the flow running clockwise around the tank top to bottom. Unable to measure the flow rate at the moment but hoping the final version to be about 3-4x flow.

Once I've got things made and ready, I'll be able to strip it down, build it up and take proper photos. However right now it's balancing next to the kitchen sink and the kitchen is an unsightly mess!
 
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Looking good! I emptied mine and took it apart the other day (finding 3 more baby shrimp), and was really pleased that the old airstone pulled out, and that the hose I’ve got will push on the inlet at the bottom of the tank.
The airstone *really* looks like an old fag end!
Just waiting for my soil to arrive now...
 
Is it a spherical biOrb, or a more rectangular shape? If it's rectangular you can overcome the challenges with some effort. I'm pretty happy with mine: Current setup, Fireplace aquarium In my experience you can make your life a lot easier with a biOrb by NEVER changing the filter. Pour some aquasoil over the ceramic rocks the biOrb comes with to give you a nice surface for plants and so detritus can be vacced off the surface rather than getting trapped down in the rocks and I think you'll find you're good to go. I also have some Biohome Biogravel in there, but I'm not really convinced it does anything useful.
 
I have never actually got around to it but at one time i had this idea about tuning a biorb into a sump driven marine inviroment .
Anyone who has taken one completely apart would of discovered there is a ‘O’ ring sealed hole in the bottom!
I think it would be quite possible to fit a central overflow pipe that went through the hole and up to the surface level and allow water to overflow into a sump.
Then you could have a clutter free display with almost unlimited filter options!
 
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