Macready

Oh sorry, I re-read your post, you stated it clearly. My bad!

Did ACOOP ever say why they weren't selling them officially? I noticed they aren't selling them anymore but never saw an official announcement. I had some trouble with them, but I really liked the form factor and the thermometer built in.

I don't run any HOB's but I guess these can really help: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/filtration/products/pre-filter-sponge With it being course it's supposed to not clog as much. It makes sense to me in theory, but I haven't tried. Your Mileage May Vary.

Thanks for the continued replies 🙂 Update: I continue to tweak and monitor. Today I adjusted the heater so it is horizontal and the heating element is much closer to the filter, assuming that the flow into the filter will help. I will grab a picture later. I had previously calibrated the filter to +2 degrees F and I set it back to zero with this maneuver. I will consider adding a second filter, the tank has been up for a year now and seems to be doing pretty well all things considered. Just need to dial the new heater in. Do we think that a single output ACOOP air pump will drive two sponge filters with easy flow attachments? I was hoping the one filter, with the easy flow and the air pump set to "4" out of 5 would be enough flow, maybe not!

My light sits directly above the sponge filter. So I have this issue. I put some electrical tape on the top of the lid which seemed to help reduce the light and thus the algae. I still have to scrape it during monthly maintenance. I also noticed a decrease in the lid algae after I bought a riser for the ACOOP light off of Etsy. This got the light directly off the lid and seemed to help. The Easy Flow addition to the sponge filter really seemed to help, more than the tape, it makes the bubbles go horizontally across the water surface instead of popping all in one area I still get some algae to scrape/wipe off the lid but it is finer and more spread out now.

Thanks for the replies! I angled the heater slightly this morning, but left it in the center of the tank. The tank thermometer shows that it is consistently up 1 degree F since I made this change. I made no other changes. I also spot checked other areas of the tank with the laser thermometer and things seem pretty consistent. The heater seems to be turning off and on quite a bit more than the previous heater. Seems to run for about 2 minutes and then off for 6 or 7 minutes. I'm happier with the tank temperature though 🙂

Howdy, Related, but distinct from, the issue I'm discussing in this thread: I have purchased a new OASE HeatUP 100 heater and currently have it positioned vertically in the middle of the back wall of my tank. I'm calibrating the heater but now I wonder, is this the optimal position? Should I instead place it behind my sponge filter on the back right wall? The sponge filter is running the Easy Flow attachment and I now run the ACOOP air pump at 3 for power. Thoughts? Where and how do you position your heaters? Bonus points if it is the OASE HeatUP 100 🙂 Tank Occupants: 9 RummyNose Tetras 8 Ember Tetras Many Many Cherry Shrimp Plants, including floating water sprite and Sylvania. Tank is a 20G High. Parameters: 25 Nitrate, 0 Nitrite, 0 Ammonia, GH 9, KH 4, TDS 290 - 310. I try to run about 75 degrees F throughout the tank.

The new replacement heater started making the same noise about a month in. I have replaced the heater with a OASE HeatUp 100 and am currently calibrating that. I feel like if there was a systemic issue with the ACOOP heaters a lot of people would be having this issue, I assume there must be something about my environment that is exacerbating it or causing it. We'll see how the new heater does.

Howdy, welcome to the forum. I don't run CO2 personally but I can't imagine you wouldn't want some oxygen in there _somehow_ . I'll let others chime in on that who are more knowledgeable. I haven't read about turning off an airstone with regards to CO2, but I have heard about turning the CO2 on approximately 1 hour before your light comes on, and then turning it off approximately 1 hour before the light turns off. That way it gets utilized best by the plants better. Again, others more knowledgeable will chime in. Take their word over mine 🙂 Other folks will likely want to know some additional info: Size of tank, substrate, plant load, bio load, type of filtration for example, to help answer your Q.

My .02, I'm relatively new to the hobby myself, about to hit a year in. Sorry to hear you are having a hard time with algae. I think you are on the right path, I see you are taking notes and asking questions here so it's just a matter of time (and energy, and willpower, and troubleshooting). Shrimp definitely need mostly consistent parameters, I might be tempted to wait a bit for things to stabilize as you are still troubleshooting things. Particularly hardness so they can molt successfully. Big swings in water parameters are tough on the shrimp. I use a laser thermometer to check temperature, I wouldn't trust the sticker based ones personally. As @Pepere said, new growth and no algae is a really good sign things are on the right track. I had some trouble at the beginning balancing my tank, and things became more stable for me after I added some floating plants. Floating plants can help control algae because they suck up extra nitrate but they also shield out some of the light. It can be annoying to have to scoop some out every once in a while because they have crowded out the top though, they aren't perfect. If I understood this thread correctly you might have an issue with too little nutrients so floating plants might be the exact opposite thing you need and make things worse. Something to tuck away in case you ever find yourself in a situation with excess nutrients I guess.

I did this recently. I left it in the pot for about a month. Then I planted it in the substrate with root tabs. It’s currently growing new leaves and eating the old leaves that started out of water. I haven’t figured out how often or how many root tabs to use yet. I understand they like lots of root tabs.

Update: I have replaced the noisy heater with a replacement from ACOOP support. New heater is in the same spot in the tank as the old heater, set to same temperature and plugged into the same surge suppressor. Difference this time is the flow in the tank is much higher thanks to the Easy Flow thing on the sponge filter. Previous heaters seemed to start having trouble in approximately 3 months, so I guess we'll see. I am considering what you said @nabokovfan87, the heater is plugged into a surge suppressor but I'm running through what else is on that circuit to see if I've got anything that could cause dirty power. Only thing I can come up with is a vacuum cleaner every once in a while. Thanks for all the info.

Yes it is plugged into a surge suppressor. Along with: ACOOP Light (on Eve smart switch), ACOOP Air pump, and Eve water guard water sensor. I... hope that the surge suppressor isn't the issue. I guess it never occurred to me that could be an issue like with other larger heaters (room heaters, etc).

As I understand it, generally when treating you are not supposed to feed. However, in practice, I can't do it! I usually feed a very little amount on day 3 or 4. My thought would be if she eats you can probably get away with a little food (emphasis on little). My hunch is leftover food rotting in the tank will give off more ammonia then output from the fish. Do you have a method of testing water parameters? strips or api water test kit?

Howdy @nabokovfan87, yep I've been in contact with support. They sent a replacement. The concern is this is the second ACOOP 100W heater to do this to me. So I really wanted to make sure it was a defect with the equipment and not something environmental I'm doing. Jury seems to still be out whether it is a big concern or not. I definitely don't like the noise, but support as well as others on the forum have mentioned that it's just high current/voltage over the heating element. I'm just troubleshooting while it is still in the tank then I'll be replacing with the one ACOOP support sent me. If that replacement heater also starts to whine 3 or so months in I'll have to go find another heater. Worth noting that I believe I had a low flow issue prior to starting this thread, and that is resolved now. So perhaps that can contribute to the whine?

Howdy @Matt B, ah I had misunderstood. The heater is only a couple months old and has not reached its end of life, best I can tell. No "EL" warning, or any code on the display. Just the temperature. I confirmed the temperature is accurate with a laser thermometer. The heater works really well except for the noise. Update: I removed the suction cups just to complete the troubleshooting. The sound changed again, shorter duration and higher pitch. I wish I had recorded it throughout so I could control for wishful thinking 🙂 . One final test, I received my easy flow adapter yesterday and installed it, judging by how much stuff is floating around in the water column now I believe I've increased the flow significantly, even more than before. So I'm going to test that for a bit and then I'll likely replace. Hopefully this thread shortens someone else's troubleshooting in the future. Assuming someone else is bothered enough by the noise like I am. Thanks for all the input.

I occaisionaly see a nitrite spike after adding ACO root tabs to my gravel substrate. I usually know when it is going to happen because I see bubbles coming up from the substrate where I put the root tabs the day after. My current protocol for root tabs is to gravel vac the area I'm going to put the root tabs in prior to adding them, and then to place the root tabs as deep as a I can into the substrate. When I do this I don't notice as much issue. I did some research after the first two times I had a nitrite spike after the root tabs, some folks say it could be the root tabs but from what I was able to determine it is more likely to be pockets of gas forming or being released from the substrate as it is disturbed by the root tabs, bacteria that was growing there gets disturbed. IF it is the root tabs, perhaps they aren't being placed deep enough. My best guess is that I'm actually dumping a bunch of ammonia into the water column that would be trapped in the gravel otherwise, which is converted pretty quickly to nitrite and noticed when I measure. My .02. I have a 2-3 inch gravel substrate.

Hey @Matt B Heater is currently free floating in the middle of the back wall on a 20G High. I have a sponge filter, no HOB. I left the suction cups on it, but it is not attached to the wall. I will be removing the suction cups and leaving it free floating to see if I can repeat your experiment. Attached a pic but this pic shows the relative placement of the heater to the sponge filter, it was taken before I disconnected the heater from the wall. TY

This has been my experience with val as well. All sorts or runners, only grows about 2 inches high. I tried some root tabs under a couple of them and no luck, I dose Easy Green weekly. I can't figure out if they are getting too much light (which I doubt because the light isn't that bright) or not enough light, but I'm afraid to increase the intensity of the light too much, every thing else seems to grow fine or at least well enough. I gave up and put a Red Flame Sword where I wanted to val to grow instead. Just left the little val's in place. PH 7.5 / GH 8 / KH 4 / Temp 76 f / 10.5 hours of light a day, 4 hour siesta.

Update: I disconnected the heater from the wall, leaving the suction cups attached to the heater and the noise has changed tone (higher pitched) and shorter length now. I waited a bit to confirm but this is definitely the case and appears to be related to the removal from the wall. I will be removing the suction cups and testing that out as well. More to come.

I have this same issue. GH is really hard to read. I test occasionally with the API liquid GH test so I just use that, but I’d like to understand the strip reading for GH more

It's going to have to be something like that @Galabar but I worry about the light intensity and how close they'd be to the tank. Maybe there is one that is dimmable so the intensity can be controlled, probably not in the 20$/ea price range though. Floating plants might work @a date with nature , added benefit of providing some shade to the tank. Mosses won't hurt but probably grow too slow to help much. Stem plants will suck up nutrients out of the water column, hopefully before the algae does. How many fish are we talking in the tanks? If you are planning on high bio-loads plants might be even more important. Relatively new to the hobby, just my .02.

That helps thanks. Yeah too bright a light and no plants might cause you some algae problems... hrmm... Hoping someone can point you in a direction. If you did throw some plants in there it might help prevent some algae, but I get it if you don't want to get into that game.

Howdy, Trying to get a picture of the problem here, you've got multiple tanks in a 36sq ft area and you are hoping to find one light that will cover it? Will the light be mounted on the ceiling? ACOOP sells a light that can hit 2200 lumens and sits right on the tank, so a 2200 lumen light that is hanging from the ceiling should be safe for the fish, may not actually be enough light depending on how tall the ceiling is, etc... If you aren't worried about plants this should be a pretty solvable problem. I'll be interested to read what others say.

Support replied to me and offered a replacement due to the annoyance factor. They did mention that this happens to theirs as well (like @Lucyn mentioned) and doesn't seem to impact the performance. I plan to do some testing on this whistling heater once the new one arrives, maybe I can confirm what @Matt B reported. Thanks all.