How to Hide the Pipes for a Canister Filter

Freshwater aquarium fish and marine invertebrates such as sea anemones pollute their water with metabolic waste on a continual basis. Aquarists typically use canister filters, which incorporate mechanical, chemical and biological filtration to clean the aquarium water. Typically canister filters are innstalled below or behind the aquarium, but their intake and outflow pipes are suspended in the tank. You can use living plants, pieces of driftwood, false backgrounds and rocks to disguise the canister pipes and keep the aesthetic look of an aquarium.

Things You'll Need

  • Scissors
  • Aquarium
  • Plastic background
  • Living aquatic plants
  • Plastic plants
  • Tall piece of driftwood
  • Live rock
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Instructions

    • 1

      Trim a sheet of plastic aquarium background material to fit along the inside rear wall of the aquarium. Cut the background in half vertically and place the two pieces into the aquarium. Position one of the pieces of background material further from the back glass pane than the other to create an opening or gap between the two pieces.

    • 2

      Place the intake and outflow pipes of the canister filter behind the background. The opening between the two halves allows water to circulate between the section of the aquarium between the background and the water in the main section of the tank. You can use these plastic backgrounds in either a freshwater or marine aquarium.

    • 3

      Position a number of living aquatic plants in front of the intake and outflow pipes, as an alternative to using the plastic background. You can either plant these plants in the aquarium substrate or leave them in their pots. Use tall plants and plant them in a half-moon shape around the pipes. You can also substitute plastic aquarium plants for live plants.

    • 4

      Place an attractive piece of driftwood in a vertical position against the pipes. Push this piece of wood into the substrate to help support it, if necessary. Use driftwood in freshwater aquariums.

    • 5

      Stack a number of lightweight porous live rock pieces toward the back of the aquarium and place the canister pipes behind this pile of rocks. Live rock is so termed, because the rock is covered with encrusting living sponges and attractive higher algae. Use live rock in a marine aquarium.