dasaltemelosguy

Exactly. They use standard garden hose fittings which in the case of the Fluval, is 3/4" and fits perfectly. I used the clamps you're speaking of for this and the 5/8" hoses on some that I already had in place.

This may be overkill but I find the best deals in UVC sterilization are the whole-house units. They easily hook up to inline aquarium filters (I have mine on 2 of my Fluval FX6's). I haven't seen any algae since installing these. For example, this light has a huge, 55W UV. It can output 700GPH at 99.99% sterilization and it comes with 3 bulbs and 2 quartz sleeves for under $85. Although the bulbs are rated for 9000 hours, if they are kept cool (i.e. not allowed to run when dry), they can still disinfect for up to 2-3 years. My bulbs still output germicidal levels of UVC after a year of continuous use. VEVOR Water Purifier Filter, for Whole House Water Purification, 12GPM 110V 55W, 2 Extra Lamps + 1 Extra Quartz Sleeve: Amazon.com: Tools & Home Improvement As for knowing when to replace the bulbs, this test card will light up if there is a germicidal level of UVC present. It makes it a quick and simple task to know if your light is still disinfecting. Amazon.com: QuantaDose® UVC Light Test Card with UVC Light Wavelength Indicator and Photochromic UV Intensity Test : Industrial & Scientific Even if you do not need this amount of output, the efficacy of sterilization goes up in exponential proportion to the bulb length. The reason is known as "shielding" where bacteria fall in the shadow of debris. The longer the bulb, the lower the probability that bacteria escape the light.

@TealStarlight, The O-ring around the lid and The 2 seal O-rings around the number 1 on directions inlet & outlet discreteness. How do I know when it’s time to replace it? How will I know when its going bad before its too late and starts leaking? One YouTube video (link below) said when it starts to get hard but how long should I wait? I can’t find the information. I’m really confused. It will start leaking air well before it leaks water. When you start getting a lot of bubbles in the output, it will need some attention. Where can I find this information ? The SunSun's use a pressure fitting so as they wear, you cannot compensate by tightening a screw or the like. On all of my 704's I had to add Teflon tape around the channel where the O-ring goes to make the O-ring tighter and that has always worked for me. PLUMBERS TEFLON THREAD SEAL TAPE 1/2" X 520" PIPE FITTING AIR GAS LINES | eBay What would prevent a large water leak like one amazon 1 star review said 50% of gallon tank was on floor. Keeping the inlet high to the top of tank or smthng? I have only seen the top "pop" when the output was completely obstructed so the internal pressure built up too high. What kind of grease do I use for the gasket? Pics attached. One youtube video said to use silicone and grease around the gasket where do I apply it at how often do I apply it? and where can I buy the silicone grease? Is petroleum jelly safe to use on gaskets and it safe for fish such as comet Goldfish? I use plumbers' silicone. It's made for faucets and the like so it's non-toxic and non-caustic to the ring material and has always fixed any leaks I've had. Waterproof Food Grade Silicone Lubricant Grease for O Rings Ring Faucet Plumbers | eBay Where can i get Gasket replacement parts and 4 seal rings for inlet&outlet discreteness piece cuz im still waiting to hear back from the company. Super grateful for the help I love my goldfish so much. I am so grateful for the help. I've never needed to replace a gasket on mine. Teflon tape and silicone has done the trick for the past 5 years. But if you need them, eBay is a great source for these parts at a discount. SUNSUN CANISTER O-RING GASKET HW-302 303 304 402 403 404 702 703 704 3000 5000 | eBay The only area I have had consistent trouble with SunSun's is the UV bulb gets hot enough to melt the tube structure in the trays. This took several years to deform enough to have to replace them (I used 2" PVC pipes-or you can buy replacement trays) though, but it happened on all 3 of my SunSun's. The only other aspect of note that may be redundant is the base must be aligned with the front or the UV light will not turn on. It uses a small magnet glued on the front to trigger a magnetic switch to turn off the UV if you open it. As a whole, the output and reliability is hard to beat a SunSun for the money.

This video from the Pond Guru shows how he loads his SunSun 302 but they are all similar except for the number of trays (i.e. the 704b has 4 trays). They are all pretty much similar in that the flow is from bottom-to-top, so you want the first tray to have the filter pads that @NOLANANO suggested. i used the same ones. From bottom up: Coarse filter, Medium filter, Fine filter and the rest of the trays are filled with biomedia. Pond Guru uses Biohome but use whatever biomedia you prefer or have in its place. They often add some ceramic rings in the very bottom, below the trays as it's supposed to help prevent clogs and improve flow into the trays. Amazon.com : Fluval Pre-Filter Media, Mechanical Filter Media for Aquariums, Ceramic Rings, 26.45 oz., A1470 : Aquarium Water Pumps : Pet Supplies Most people recommend using these in the very bottom. I just add more rings there. It's not easy to find a better choice/$ than a SunSun for media capacity and GPH. Good luck.

@MattyM & @flyingcow, yes, Pothos has that reputation, but many houseplants have that oxalate in the leaves. When we were measuring these types of plants for nitrate uptake, we definitely saw what you were concerned about - some are nutrient hogs and pothos was 2nd only to lucky bamboo in that regard. Particularly under red light, it was an incredible nitrate hog. The oxalate would be mildly toxic if it were water soluble at a pH fish thrive it, but it requires a very acidic environment to actually leach into the water. The oxalate is therefore in crystal form in the leaves and when animals chew on it, it is an irritant. When it dissolves in a pH below 5, it forms oxalic acid which is not toxic at all so you're safe to use it. In the article the others mentioned, there's a late addition where I tested the water for the oxalates with urine test strips as that same test will be positive for oxalates to test for kidney stone risk. None dissolved into my tank water at a pH of 7.5. I literally had to boil the pothos leaves to get any measurable amount of oxalate into the water: Insofar as sucking up all the nutrients for aquatic plants, I can't say but I wouldn't be surprised as it did not mix well with most other houseplants grown emergently. Most that I tried in the beginning died and I assumed, starved out by pothos and lucky bamboo. But I could be wrong about the latter. I had success with balancing the nutrient uptake with stronger lighting over the other plants so you may be able to balance the uptake with the lighting. This is the oxalate / pH. As you can see, there's not a lot of aquatic situations that would see the oxalates dissolve. The diamond line is calcium oxalate: These tanks are packed full of houseplants. When I first installed them, they tended to uptake more nitrates in the beginning. It dropped an overstocked, 200-gallon, large cichlid tank from 80PPM to 0PPM! This eventually settled out at around 10PPM of nitrates which was still quite a reduction: The plants growing in these tanks are: Pothos Lucky Bamboo Lotus Bamboo Monstera Peace Lily Anthurium Prayer Plant Bird of Paradise (cuttings) Earthstars Cordyline I used common plastic lighting grid from Lowes and cut it to size to support the plants and pass the light. All of these seem to be growing. The Earthstars or bromeliads made no sense, at least not with my limited knowledge of plants. They are epiphytes and literally can get moisture from humidity. I added them for 'temporary' color, assuming they'd die in a week or two, but they've doubled in size in just weeks. So, it was a total surprise to see them THRIVE in aquariums. In fact, their growth was so out of the ordinary, I joined a bromeliad Facebook forum just to ask some experts why it worked!🤣 (they all seemed to think that it was probably the unusually high availability of nitrogen for that plant) VIDEOS OF THESE TANKS:

Beautiful fish. I have a jurupari, a mirabilis and a brasiliensis and I may pick up some tapajos. The mirabilis is the most aggressive fish I've ever owned but he's in a tank full of giants which keeps him under control. Perhaps you may see yours in one of these charts: Geophagus - List of fishes - Fishipedia (fishi-pedia.com) Fish Identification (fishbase.se) 26 Geophagus species ideas | cichlids, aquarium fish, south american cichlids (pinterest.com)

Thank you! I've never heard of them before. And these certainly match the description and appearance of stentors.

Hello All, I have a fry tank full of EBAs being grown out. It's about 2 weeks old. About 2 days ago, small, white specs began appearing all over the glass. They now cover every square inch of the inside of the tank. These are the white things on the glass: These are the fry: These are the parents: Not knowing if I was looking at plant or animal, I put them under a microscope, and it seems they are alive and have motor ability. It appears they have tentacles and try to snatch unwitting passerby microbes. They look a little like some anemones. This 1-minute video of them is recorded at 400X: Does anyone know what they are? Thanks for looking!

Hi @suzanneisalive, I've had dojos for about 4 years, raised from juveniles. When I first got them, while in QT, a vicious, fast-moving infection tore through them and @Colu helped me medicate them. During the course of antibiotics, they all developed a similar issue with constipation and buoyancy. Unable to sink, unable to stay upright, and I may be anthropomorphizing here, but they looked terribly uncomfortable. With 6 of them unable to sink or swim normally, I used the Epsom salt bath which worked on one but not the other 5. I did some research on using vibration devices for impaction on fish and spoke with @Odd Duck about it. She had mentioned also that she has seen similar devices work for sand impaction in, I believe, axolotls (but I don't actually remember what the specific creature was). When I used the Epsom salt alone, at least with dojos and with one silver dollar, I had mixed results. For one, it seems to greatly irritate the dojos. I don't know if that has anything to do with being scaleless or they were just so sick. However, when I combined the Epsom salt with the device below, the dojos released an incredible amount of fecal matter overnight. The following day, you could see the swelling had reduced and the buoyancy issue was gone. However, two of them died anyway so it was inconclusive. Of course, it could have been too advanced, or the prior infection may have done damage as well. But I can tell you that it "emptied" them out and rectified the buoyancy issue. What I am still mystified over is the 'psychological' effect the vibration had on them. I've since seen this with a sick German Blue Ram and a silver dollar. It renders a calm across the tank and in fact, some of the fish make an effort to stay or 'hug' the vibrator. Dojos seem prone to this issue. Ever since, once a week I soak the entire tank's food in Garlic Guard with a teaspoon of Epsom salts dissolved in it and I've not seen this issue since. I'm sorry I have no more than anecdotes for you, but this is what I used to the mixed results cited above: Mini Facial & Eye Massage Ball Portable Travel Pocket USB Rechargeable Skin Care Massage Tool Here are two links that may prove helpful. The first is a better alternative to sterilizing your plants in the future: And this is a short piece on the potential benefits of vibrational therapy: Good luck.

@tetra, As odd as it may seem, that sounds like typical Dojo behavior. They will lie on one side, lie on their backs, hang upside down or in impossibly convoluted, contorted positions that makes you think they are ill or even dead, only to scurry off once stirred. I am not exaggerating when I say I’ve thought “I found a dead Dojo” easily a dozen times but it proved to be no more than they’re just plain weird. IMO what you’re describing are just Dojo’s being Dojo’s. BTW mine were in a tank treated with salt several times and they tolerated the salt level that @Colu recommends well. In fact, I went up to 1/5 on the salt without noticing any distress in the Dojo’s for what that’s worth. They hold their heads above the water line and spit, so you’ll hear their mouse-like noises and see water on the floor frequently. The only tragic negative is they are precise and targeting jumpers. If a hole in the tank lid exists that they can fit through, they will fit through it. You can hold them, pet them, hand feed them, even pick them up out of the water. Overall, a hardy, friendly, weird and fun fish. There are few fish that I kept when first I started fishkeeping that I’d always want to keep but Dojo’s top that list. Good luck.

@NOLANANO, I was also going to suggest a student scope as they tend to be ‘no frills’ and inexpensive. I’m no expert but I believe you will not be able to see bacteria with the scope you have a link to, but you’ll see a plethora of invisible creatures, nonetheless. Just a scrape of the underside of the tank lid is a miniature ‘wild kingdom’. I believe you would need 400X minimum to see bacteria but I’m going to tag @Odd Duck because she would know much more about this than I do. This video has a nice comparison of specimen sizes and magnifications to give you an idea of how much magnification you should have. Comparing Microorganism Size Under the Microscope - 40X, 100X, 400X, 1000X

I have no information to add aside from anecdotal experience, but these Dojo's have lived with these SA cichlids for almost 4 years. This particular tank has never had an illness and these Dojo's have grown to circa 8" from under 2" when I first got them. I have kept this tank at 77*F for their entire lives. Wonderful fish. Friendly, not shy, zero aggression. They allow you to pet and hold them, even lift them out of the water. Tragically good jumpers though!

My introduction into emergent plants in aquariums was actually by taking part in an experiment where we were measuring, comparing and optimizing nitrate uptake and emergent's proved to be very powerful in that regard. I did what @Guppysnail did by replacing part of the lid with lighting grid to support the weights and keep the stalks (of the lucky bamboo) erect. This latest incarnation quite literally dropped the nitrates in these large tanks to zero. That will change as they stabilize in growth but nonetheless, they are quite the nitrate sinks.

That may be enough. In high fidelity work it is not uncommon to plug all of the devices in what is known as a "power conditioner". It's really just a big power strip with noise filters but the better ones have the same device that is in a Variac to boost the voltage as losses of a few volts are inevitable. Especially when many devices share the strip. Some designs won't work at all on a strip because they have power tolerances so tight, they cannot even suffer a few volts loss without problems. That chugging is a classic motor speed control problem as well. What you've just done may be enough but of course, it may not be but it's a good test, nonetheless. It also may be subject to the time of the day as peak usage sees house power down slightly. It's much worse in the Summer as you can imagine. I've seen huge home theater installations where the picture literally changed size when the AC kicked on! That is deregulation and is what is going on with the FX6. I use one large Variac for all six FX6's but for one or two, a Variac this size is plenty: LVYUAN Variable Transformer Variable Voltage Regulator, 0-130V Output, 110V-120V Input, (500VA): Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

I have six, FX6’s that have never failed or leaked. They all however have this problem in the video. But this is not a mechanical problem. It’s an electronic problem. A power supply for a motor requires that it have a redundancy of voltage so enough is always available for peak demands or in lower voltage environments. The FX6’s voltage regulation was apparently designed for 240 volts so when this is translated for American power, it’s set for 120 volts. However, it's not uncommon to see house voltages vary from 120v down to 110v or even 105v. It is here where the FX6 has barely enough power to keep the motor regulated. Certain situations cause the filter to require more power; If the flow is restricted, if your house voltage is low, if the outlet is shared by many devices (dropping the effective house voltage), or if you use an extension cord or power strip (also dropping the effective house voltage), etc. If anything drops the house voltage enough, then this “chugging” can occur. It’s due to the motor pulling more current on the push cycles of its rotation and the voltage for that momentarily higher demand falls and isn’t available when the motor is at peak demands. It can also be caused by the filter being run for long periods on lower voltage outlets or if a filter has been dormant for a very long time. Long term operation at less than 120v can deform the capacitors and make them less efficient and cause this chugging. But that chugging will go away if you feed that FX6 with about 130vac vs 120vac normal house current. Often, you’ll find the outlet with a chugging filter will have a voltage drop and read perhaps 105-115v from the drop caused by other loads or that circuit in your house. However, a chugging filter can sometimes be “fixed” by operating it at a slightly higher voltage for 2-3 days. I’ve repaired two such chugging FX6 motors in this way. The capacitors in the motor’s power supply tend to assume an internal shape over time from either running at a lower than optimal voltage or if left dormant for months or years. When this happens, the capacitors become less efficient at higher voltages and the overall power to the motor suffers a voltage loss. This contributes to the low voltage chugging problem, but often the capacitors may be ‘revived’ by a technique called “forming”. A Variac is an autotransformer that can supply typically 130v up or to 150v and any value below this. By plugging the filter into a Variac and running it at 130v or as high as 140v, it “reforms” the capacitors in the motor’s power supply to perform at higher voltages making them perform more efficiently. Flow improves, noise drops, chugging stops and it uses significantly less house power. I would guess that the Fluval was designed in the 240vac configuration and was converted for American house currents (120V). That would suggest the voltage regulators powering the motor are designed for 240/120 and many American households have less than 120v available on the wall and so that can destabilize the voltage regulation. The room I have my system in has such a voltage drop. Only about 112v is available so I use a Variac to power my filters and the flow is strong, smooth, linear and consistent. VARIAC Since I have six FX6's, I use only one Variac for all 6 such that it made the addition of the Variac worthwhile. Otherwise, a $70 Variac per FX6 could make one think otherwise. Still, in hindsight, I wonder if a decent pond canister would have been better. They are less than half the price of an FX6 with potentially enormous GPH’s. The submersible pump makes me nervous, but you can’t beat the $/GPH. POND CANISTER