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Superfish Scaper 45

funkymonk1984

funkymonk1984

Member
Joined
27 Apr 2024
Messages
30
Location
Harlow
Hi guys,

Ive set up a Superfish Scaper 45 tank with the included light and HOB 100 filter. I replaced one of the two media baskets with some established biomedia balls in a bag but kept the fine filter mesh each side.

I’ve been impressed with the tank so far which has been heavily planted but I am not running co2. Quite a few fast growing plants, floating plants and a monstera plant is also shoved in the back.

I’ve not seen much algae thus far (week 3 now) and have been keeping up with water changes. That said I have noticed surface scum is quite bad (biofilm) and bubbles forming like bubble bath near the filter outlet. I have the skimmer section installed but the water flow doesn’t disrupt the surface enough.

I just wondered what others have done? I’ve turned the flow up but it’s pushing plants down violently, I looked for baffles on Etsy but can’t find one that fits that filter.

I am considering getting the oase filtosmart 100 to replace the HOB and I might add co2 with an inline diffuser. That’s obviously more expense, the tank was purchased to house my female betta, some ottos and amano shrimp (once cycled) therefore I need to reduce the water flow somehow but maintain enough movement that the water surface is moved towards the skimmer.

You can see the setup in the photo attached. It’s grown in a bit more now and doesn’t show the biofilm.

I was going to try moving the HOB more to the right so the flow is pushed clockwise around the tank and returns through the skimmer?
 

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Hi all,
funkymonk1984 said:
I’ve been impressed with the tank so far which has been heavily planted but I am not running co2. Quite a few fast growing plants, floating plants and a monstera plant is also shoved in the back.
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That sounds really promising.
funkymonk1984 said:
That said I have noticed surface scum is quite bad (biofilm) and bubbles forming like bubble bath near the filter outlet. I have the skimmer section installed but the water flow doesn’t disrupt the surface enough.
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I wouldn't worry too much. The surface scum will almost certainly, will decline with time. At the moment I might just try skimming the surface layer with a kitchen towel when the HOB is turned off? <"Surface Scum Again…….">.

cheers Darrel
 
The plants in the tank look fantastic, the filter, which is a bit odd in appearance, to say the least, transparent, is well hidden, like Darrel I think you relax and enjoy. Looks really good.
 
Thanks for the advice, I found doing big water changes is helping especially if I break up the surface scum before. It’s only taking 2 days or so to come back atm which is annoying. I thought the skimmer would stop this forming but doesn’t seem to do much.

Fish are in now and seem happy. Cycle completed and levels are all good.

I had one amano climb out which made me double check readings but I’ve since lowered the water level and everything tested ok.

The filter intake does worry me a bit for smaller shrimp. Would you buy a coarse filter intake sponge to slide over it?
 
dw1305 said:
I'm not sure how well the sponge will work with the surface skimmer, if the surface skimmer isn't fixed (so that it can float up and down?)
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funkymonk1984 said:
The filter intake does worry me a bit for smaller shrimp. Would you buy a coarse filter intake sponge to slide over it?
Click to expand...
It’s not a great surface skimmer to be fair. It’s possible to use the HOB without the skimmer which worked fine as there’s a lot of surface movement from the filter overflow to break up surface tension. A coarse sponge over the intake would be fine.

Ultimately I swapped the HOB out for an external canister as the overflow was pushing floating plants around too much.
 
simon_the_plant_nerd said:
It’s possible to use the HOB without the skimmer.
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Is it easy to do? I think Superfish might have changed the design of the filter since release.

In Tiny Menagerie's video "Superfish Scaper 45: An Honest Review of a Starter Aquascaping Tank" from 3 years ago she shows how the connectors won't join up without the skimmer. Riverwood Aquatics released a video "Unboxing & Aquascaping the SuperFish Scaper Qube 15 Aquarium Kit" two months back and he managed to remove the skimmer but I wasn't sure if he used some 3D printed add on or something.
 
I’m certain it can be done without the skimmer without any modification to the pipe work. I bought my tank in November 2023 so there may have a been a design change since the review though. My HOB is in the shed and we’re in the middle of a hurricane right now but I can get it tomorrow once the hang over gets better and take a photo of how it fits together for you?
 
simon_the_plant_nerd said:
I’m certain it can be done without the skimmer without any modification to the pipe work. I bought my tank in November 2023 so there may have a been a design change since the review though. My HOB is in the shed and we’re in the middle of a hurricane right now but I can get it tomorrow once the hang over gets better and take a photo of how it fits together for you?
Click to expand...
Thanks for replying. Thats answered my question anyway to be honest mate, I really like the look of the Scaper 45 but didn't want to have to get some after market 3D print to stop my baby shrimp getting into the built in surface skimmer.
 
So I have an update. The tank has been a struggle fighting algae. Was initially getting a lot of thread algae on plants especially where the flow wasn’t good and the scum would form. I’ve kept up doing at least a 90% water change weekly. I lowered lights to around 70% brightness at their peak and started dosing algaeexit which seemed to improve things a bit but I can still see it (dose once a week with water change - 3 weeks so far).

I then got a bad bloom of blue algae in the corner front of the tank. I’ve done my best to disturb it and siphon it out but it comes back very quickly.

I think it’s to do with the filtration and flow and have been thinking of getting an external filter with co2 inline. What filter would people recommend.

Some have said Oase filtosmart 100 or the Eheim 250T?
 
In my experience the filtosmart 100 is pretty small for the size of tank. I know it's rated at 600l per hour, but my one gets nowhere near that level of flow. I wouldn't have bought it if I knew what I know now.
 
Plus if your still getting thread algea, have you tried floating plants? The scaper light is quiet strong for low tech new scapes.
 
I had them initially but again clogged up with algae. I have a monstera in the back with roots in the tank to soak up excess nutrients.
 
I've just setup my first tank (superfish Qube 25) with the help and guidance from the UKAPS members. I'm just in week 1 at the moment and was worried about Algae mainly because the light is too powerful for initial phase of it starting up so I managed to buy a digital controller that works really well so far. Its set at approx. 50% and running it for 7 hours atm. Not sure if its of any help, link here Interpet Eco Max Digital Controller, i'm pretty sure it will work with your lighting also.
 
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