Oase BioMaster Thermo External Filter

[PAYN3Y]

I’m quite upset at how bad my oase biomaster is. The flow is like a trickle. It’s great having the heater in the cannister but the flow rate is so bad I’m thinking of giving it away. I now have a eheim Pro 4 and oase biomaster I don’t want and don’t know what to buy next. The eheim is good but no thermal ones available in my country. My hydor in-line died and cant find replacemen, that’s why I bought the oase. I can’t stand a in tank heater especially in a smaller tank. But this thing sucks so bad. I replaced the intake pre filter sponges with the 35 ppi orange ones. Then I removed one of them as suggested in this thread. Then I removed them all.... maybe it’s becsuse I’m running bags of bio rio in the other chambers ? I did that in my eheim for years and it had heaps of flow. I’ve now removed so much media i can’t possibly remove anymore. I’ve cleaned the pipes more than I ever did with the eheim just to try and keep the flow at acceptable rate but to no avail. I’m tempted to test it to see what rate I’m getting cause it must be a third of advertised rate. Sorry for the rant but I’ve spent so much on filters and can’t get it right.

Which version are you running? I've changed nothing on my 600 apart from removing one blue sponge from a tray and added a 100g sachet of Purigen. With cleanish prefilters I'm finding the flow pretty decent in my Aquascaper 900. Are you running Lilly Pipes or the standard spray bar?

 

[Matt @ ScapeEasy]

I am using what is probably the cheapest heating and filter combo around. The Eden 522. It's a bit noisy but otherwise does the job...

 

[Jack Reilly]

Which version are you running? I've changed nothing on my 600 apart from removing one blue sponge from a tray and added a 100g sachet of Purigen. With cleanish prefilters I'm finding the flow pretty decent in my Aquascaper 900. Are you running Lilly Pipes or the standard spray bar?

Biomaster 350. Rated at 1100 l/hr compared to the 600s 1250 l/hr so I assumed it wouldn’t be far off. It’s on a 60*45*45 so it should be sufficient. I replaced all media with bio rio (just the main chambers). Running ada standard lily pipes. I’m now running one small mesh bag of bio rio per chamber so that half the chamber is empty so the water can flow though and it’s still slow. The only thing is I’m using eheim reducers to take the tubing from 17 to 13 mm. But I also used the same set up on the eheim pro 4 which I had to reduce the flow on because it was too much, so I don’t think that’s enough of a restriction to explain my oase issues.

 

[fishbro]

Biomaster 350. Rated at 1100 l/hr compared to the 600s 1250 l/hr so I assumed it wouldn’t be far off. It’s on a 60*45*45 so it should be sufficient. I replaced all media with bio rio (just the main chambers). Running ada standard lily pipes. I’m now running one small mesh bag of bio rio per chamber so that half the chamber is empty so the water can flow though and it’s still slow. The only thing is I’m using eheim reducers to take the tubing from 17 to 13 mm. But I also used the same set up on the eheim pro 4 which I had to reduce the flow on because it was too much, so I don’t think that’s enough of a restriction to explain my oase issues.

I'm using a 600 thermo without the pre filters and also one blue sponge removed and replaced with purigen. To be honest I am finding that the flow rate doesn't seem that good lately, it seems to be getting worse over time even though everything gets washed regularly (and now I don't even use the pre filter).

Unfortunately my bubble problems are back even though I am not using an airstone. The only thing that's changed is I gave the filter a clean out last week. I'm at a total loss as to what the problem is.

Would you say the Eheim Pro 4 is a better option for flow in general? I am thinking about going for a 350t, but I am hesitating because that's quite a downgrade in filtration capacity from the biomaster 600.

 

[fishbro]

So I went ahead and got a Eheim Pro 4 (350 thermo) but it was short lived as the part that holds the impeller in was broken from the factory.

I think I have resolved the flow problem with my biomaster 600 thermo. When I first got the filter I took out the plastic media in the lower 2 trays and replaced with a combination of matrix and ceramic rings. I guess over time these started clogging up a bit and restricting the flow so I've put the plastic media back in the bottom tray and kept a 50/50 split of matrix and rings in the second tray. The flow already seems much better even with reinstating the pre filter sponges. One of the sponge trays was replaced with a bag of purigen and a thin layer of filter wool so no doubt that helps the flow as well.

The air bubble issue may have been related to the flow issue as after the initial purge I haven't had a single issue and I can hear / feel the filter is completely full of water with no air. A bit of grease on the o-rings for the heater, pre filter and main o-ring was applied so that may have helped too.

The only annoyance now is the sound the heater makes when turning on, but I might put some sound dampening foam around the filter (my cabinet has an open back so you do hear every little sound).

I'll keep an eye on it and see how it fairs throughout this month!

 

[J@mes]

Well my issues with air bubbles have returned. I don't know why but every 10 mins it shoots out a load of bubbles It's no way near the air stone and I even took out half the media to try and improve the flow in the filter to no avail. Anyone else getting this?

I just read in the instructions that it might be fixed by tilting the filter on each side to release trapped air. Worked for me just now

 

[SDIESEL77]

I have the 600 Thermo and indeed at regular times it shoots bubbles. I think this is due to the fact bubbles are going in the the skimmer inlet.
Following media cleaning, and once the oase closed back and running I indeed tilt it few times on each side to evacuate the maximum of trapped air. Once done I switch the heater back on.
I didn't noticed flow issue on mine, I replaced the pre-filter foams by the orange version (30 ppi instead of 45 ppi), removed the plastic biomedia and replaced it with Aquario NeoMedia Soft.
I'm thinking of replacing one of the blue sponge by another tray of Neomedia

 

[J@mes]

I did something similar- orange prefilter sponges, kept the plastic but replaced 2 blue ones with alfagrog and left 1 tray empty.

 

[fishbro]

I have the 600 Thermo and indeed at regular times it shoots bubbles. I think this is due to the fact bubbles are going in the the skimmer inlet.
Following media cleaning, and once the oase closed back and running I indeed tilt it few times on each side to evacuate the maximum of trapped air. Once done I switch the heater back on.
I didn't noticed flow issue on mine, I replaced the pre-filter foams by the orange version (30 ppi instead of 45 ppi), removed the plastic biomedia and replaced it with Aquario NeoMedia Soft.
I'm thinking of replacing one of the blue sponge by another tray of Neomedia

Which skimmer inlet do you use? I was looking for one that would work with the Oase.

I just read in the instructions that it might be fixed by tilting the filter on each side to release trapped air. Worked for me just now

Yeah I do give the filter a good tilt and what not, but at the time it seemed to continue. I have not run an airstone for some time now and I notice the problems have subsided. I also put some liberal application of silicone grease around the seals which seems to help.

I have the plastic media in the bottom tray, then seachem matrix, 2 blue sponges, purigen, then the orange sponge. I noticed remove the pre filter sponges entirely helps a lot, but I think I will look at replacing some of the media over time to improve the flow a little bit

 

[SDIESEL77]

Which skimmer inlet do you use? I was looking for one that would work with the Oase.

Yeah I do give the filter a good tilt and what not, but at the time it seemed to continue. I have not run an airstone for some time now and I notice the problems have subsided. I also put some liberal application of silicone grease around the seals which seems to help.

I have the plastic media in the bottom tray, then seachem matrix, 2 blue sponges, purigen, then the orange sponge. I noticed remove the pre filter sponges entirely helps a lot, but I think I will look at replacing some of the media over time to improve the flow a little bit

I use this skimmer: https://www.aquasabi.com/aquascaping/filtration/surface-skimmer/ista-glass-surface-skimmer-17-mm
Since I moved to an inline Qanvee M2 Co2 diffuser, I notice a lot less air trapped in the filter.

Regarding the media placement, I would recommend putting the plastic media at the top, just below the orange sponge. This will prevent clogging the media with dirt.

 

[fishbro]

I use this skimmer: https://www.aquasabi.com/aquascaping/filtration/surface-skimmer/ista-glass-surface-skimmer-17-mm
Since I moved to an inline Qanvee M2 Co2 diffuser, I notice a lot less air trapped in the filter.

Regarding the media placement, I would recommend putting the plastic media at the top, just below the orange sponge. This will prevent clogging the media with dirt.

Thanks for the tip I am trying that now to see how I go. I am still getting issues with air and even had some small leaks so this really isn't giving me any confidence, especially after the heater problems I had before

 

[Millns84]

Has anyone seen Pondguru's video on these filters?

Granted, the mods are probably of limited use for planted tanks as he focuses on bio media but I found it interesting nonetheless.

 

[rubadudbdub]

I like his idea to make coarse prefilter out of the big blue sponges. Cheaper than buying special oase ones. No idea if drilling more holes will increase flow or not. Has anyone tried it?

I think the principle of having coarse to fine foam in series is fine for normal filters but not sure it follows with this filter the way he's done it. The fine pad inside the cannister becomes the bottle neck to flow which will require cleaning more often and take more effort than the prefilter.

Other than the prefilter mine (biomaster 250) is just filled with ehfisubstrat from an eheim that leaked, no sponges. Even like this the flow is not brilliant.

 

[Siege]

Don’t need much bio media in a heavily planted tank. Just an inch or so in each tray.

Change the prefilter sponges to the courser orange ones 30ppi.

Leave a couple of trays empty if you like.

I’ve added purigen and fine filter floss to the final tray (the one that the orange pad would normally go in).

Flow is fine. Close to my eheim with same rating.

 

[AverageWhiteBloke]

Drilling the pipe will undoubtedly be better I would have thought. I think the logic behind the whole setup appears to be that putting a fine sponge prefilter in first means that you would have reduced the amount of time you had to crack open the main body of the filter, obviously if the fine particles is out before it even gets to the canister the main canister is going to take a very long time to start blocking. The guy in the vid approached things from a non planted tank view so was looking for nitrate reduction as well through anaerobic which doesn't really apply to heavily planted tanks. If it were me I would much prefer to whip out that prefilter a couple of times per week than opening the main body which I guess is it what the filter is designed for and I hate cleaning out canisters. After prefilter I would just fill it which as much loose bio media as needed. The inlet pipe just looks like a 12mm pipe anyway I think he said so could you not drill loads of holes in a spray bar and see if that improves the situation? You still have the old one of that doesn't help.

Putting floss at the end defeats the purpose. That's going to block whatever you do and you're going to have to open up to change that.

 

[J@mes]

The pondguru clip started well, I get the desire to increase flow & improve the filtration but Oase aren’t going to honour a guarantee once you start messing about with their product like that, are they?!

 

[AverageWhiteBloke]

If he used other materials to improve things as long as all the parts that came with the filter are still there should be OK as long as the issue arises when using all the original parts. You just can't say it isn't working properly with some bit you added.

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk

 

[Konsa]

Hi
I use prefilter sponge of 20ppi and although being coarse enough not to inhibit flow if cleaned regularly keeps most muck out of my canisters.Opened two of them this week to get the purigen out for recharging one 6+ months the other about 8 + months since I last opened them for the same thing.Spotless inside despite my heavy bioloads
U dont need floss or fine sponge in filters at all if your prefilter maintenance is good.
Regards Konsa

 

[Andrew Butler]

How does everyone have their Oase biomasters configured then?
Which version do you have and on what size aquarium?
Which foam on the pre-filter and talk me through the trays starting at the bottom.
Any other adaptations you have made or things different from the norm?
If, how and where have you fitted CO2?
What inlets/outlets do you use?
How do you rate your experience?
Enough questions?!

 

[Siege]

I have 2 biomaster 600’s. Like them. Have previously always had various Eheim Pro filters.

With the built in heater for half the price of eheim thermo to me they are a no brainier. Imo flow only just under my Eheim Pro 4 600 (rated on box at 1250 l/ph, same as oase 600).

Did mod the media though to maintain flow.

Prefilter - swapped to courser 30ppi orange foams.

Internally -
1 blue sponge at bottom.
1 empty tray.
2 trays with plastic bio media in the bags that come as standard.
1 tray with a couple of cm Eheim Pro bio media (mature media nicked from existing Eheim)
Top small tray - purigen bag and fine filter floss around it.

Use on EA 600 on its own with viv glass skim inlet & CalAqua outlet.

Also on EA900 with Cal Aqua long inlet, EA outlet and also an Eheim skim 350 to assist with circular flow.

Not saying what how I’ve got it is correct, just how i did it!