Here is my DIY version of a box filter.
Here are the materials needed
As you can see it started life as a bottle of vitamin water. I removed the center section and cut off enough of the top so that it fit into the bottom section with enough wiggle room for water to flow freely.
I added the bio-media to the bottom. I had spare ceramic rings from another filter so I used them. You could just as easily use spare gravel, which has the benefit of being a bit heavier.
Next I added the uplift tube. Mine shown is and old pickup tube from a small HOB filter. I passed this through the bottle cap. To make the hole I used a jack knife since I haven't got a large enough drill bit to use.
Here are two tufts of filter floss to be used for mechanical filtration.
Floss put in.
Screw the cap on and add an air stone into the uplift tube. Make sure the air stone is only inserted 75% of the way down the uplift tube so that all the air makes it up the tube, producing maximum flow through the filter.