So, It was suggested that I post how I modded my Aquaclear 70 HOB filter into a fuge. I wanted some room for filter floss and carbon if I so choose, so that is how I went at this.

So after everything was out of the box, I took apart the basket and notched the grate like so.



as well as cut the top off one of the sides.



I siliconed (is this a word? lol) the grate over the outflow part of the filter, which most people do. I then took the side of the basket which I had just cut and fit it down the notches so that it sat right before the little bump in the bottom of the filter. Using the top piece of the side of the basket that I cut off, I made a little support and glued it from the base of where the pump is located to the side of the basket.





I found the space a good fit for padded filter floss or the sponge that comes with the filter (cut to size of course).



I will be cutting a whole in the lid of the filter and putting a Taam Rio LED clip on light over this bad boy, sticking a bag of activated carbon on the bottom and a ball of chaeto over the bag in the fuge area and calling it a day. You could also cut the little tab that is where the intake tube meets the filter pump, cut a couple wings of the impeller and other common adjustments to this filter, but this is the basic outlay of how I did it.

Hope this gives someone ideas for their own mod. Cheers!

im gonna be doing th exact same thing this week when my ac70 gets in. nice write up. you gonna incorporate a heater in there too?

Thats exactly what I was wanting to do.... Are you going to add sand, rock and heater to the chaeto chamber? or just adding chaeto and carbon?

I am not going to add sand or rubble to the fuge as I have read it will get messy. I think I will lay a bag of carbon on the bottom of the fuge chamber and have chaeto and other macros on top. Simple.

As for the heater, I have to figure out if my marineland stealth will work if the top part is above the water line as these auto shut-off if they are out of water and have no indicator light. We shall see, but I would love to get the heater out of the DT

After I let this dry, I plugged this baby in and tested it out. I found that the flow was really high and was creating a lot of bubbles in my tank. A few snips to the impeller and the flow is not a nice trickle. I don't know if the filter pads are needed anymore because of the low flow, but they are there none the less. I will update with how the filter pads work out. I may just put a bag of carbon where the filter floss goes if I find that it does not work out so well.

Does your baffle go all the way to the bottom? IIRC, most of the water coming into an AC filter gets diverted downwards (so that it will filter up through all the media and out). If there is a space then most of the water will bypass your sponge.

It does go all the way to the bottom and I have it siliconed at the bottom as well. It did take a little trimming, but it worked out. I also have the sponge placed so that all water has to go through it before entering the fuge area.

I have an ac 30, I may take the propeller from that and put in on the 70, can you tell me how to take the propeller out?

The impeller is only held in my a magnet. You just need to unscrew the pump and pull the impeller out. Make sure there is no water in it

So far, so good with this mod. Seeing nice chaeto growth, running chemipure elite and filter floss, flow is not too high or too low and I finally have a place to put that annoying hermit that likes to kill the other hermits. He will make a nice inmate in the fuge by keeping waste from settling or accumulating

Until that hermit rips your bag of chemi pure apart and the carbons all over your tank.

It is in a part of the chamber he can't get too He can only climb on the chaeto and a couple small pieces of LR I use as frag plugs.

Just put an order in for my AC 70 yesterday along with a Koralia 1 for my 20L. I plan on make a Mod similar to yours. I hope there is room for my 75 Watt Ebo Jager heater in there somewhere though.

Any more pics?

I just made my AC 70 mod, and I like the idea of using the side of th ebasket as your filter baffle.
I made mine out of plexi and had a heck of a time cutting it to fit.
But they do say hindsight is 20/20.

On a note though, while everyone talks that the impellers are the same for AC20/30/50/70, the motors are also physically the same size, so since you have to take the motor off to swap the impeller, you can just do what I did and swap the whole motor.

Here are those pics I promised. I am out of filter floss atm, so the only chemical stuff in there is chemi-pure elite. In total, it only cost me about 45 bucks and I have a fully functioning nano-fuge. I have a ton of pods in the fuge area and the chaeto is growing pretty well, doubling in size every 2-3 weeks. I may stop with the chemi-pure elite after this bag is done with and just stuff that area with filter floss. I hope this gives some people ideas about how they can save money with their nanos and still the pod populations and nutrient export that want.

I just finished modding my ac70 very similar, haven't glued yet though. So you said that the baffle extends to the bottom of the filter? Will it create more flow if it is raised above a little bit? Just interested in what you have experienced so far by having on the bottom. thanks

Having some room on the bottom would most likely split the flow up. I don't think it would be a bad thing

What kind of lighting are you using.
I just modded my Aquaclear and need to figure out how i'm going to do the lighting.
THanks

I am using a show spiral compact light, 60w I believe. I also have a small clip-on LED light that bleached and thinned out the cheato... not sure if it was too close to the cheato or too weak for it. Either way, I am not using it atm.

If you want more info on this mod check out el fab's pico thread. He did these same mods two years ago

It's true. I never said it was original. I made a few changes to suit my own needs, however. It is a slightly different approach and I figured I would share.