MarkM

How full is the tub? An exaggerated example of what Ken was saying: Water is at the yellow line you would need much lower airflow (less lift) than if you were trying to get to work with water at the red horizontal line. Ie, if you can, try filling the bucket more. Another thing to check Is the airline sealing that hole tight where it exits the PVC?

I put a screw in hook under my cabinet and the hung the pump from it with an elastic hair tie.

@Beardedbillygoat1975 thanks for the vote of confidence in the big box stuff. Having never purchased it before wasn't sure if there was a huge difference. I'm not as concerned with speeding it up as I am trying to set my expectations appropriately. Tho I say that having already added CC to the canister filter on two of my tanks. I've had Molly fish in one of tanks for ~7 years now and none of them have shown these issues with curved spines. But then again the KH was never this low before. Hoping the mollies continue recovering and KH comes up slowly over the next few weeks, if not I'll try other measures.

That's a great thread on the bamboo, I've meaning to give that a shot but after reading the results might need to prioritize it. My dogs have a tendency to tear up any plant the can get their mouths on so I've had to avoid pothos. I've been using spider plants. Trimmed some babies, propagated in shot glasses on windowsill until they had 2" roots, and then put them in the tank. Originally I just had them at the waterline with steel wire inside airline tubing (not my idea, but forget where I saw it) like this: It worked, was low budget, and I had all the materials on hand. The problem is that the mbuna in that tank treated the roots like a salad bar. So I printed a cage to protect them. I wasn't sure if they just needed a head start or would need full time protection so I only made them ~120mm deep and 120mm wide to hold multiple babies. Its been almost 3 months, and they continue to trim back the roots as far as they can. That's total growth for 5 spider babies, no additional firts and planted+ 24/7 HLC light. Compare that with a different tank that is heavily planted, gets easy green/easy iron, a planted+ 24/7 ALC (better reds) and doesn't have mbuna eating everything they can. This cage is much smaller (about 70mm deepx60mm wide) and only has a single spider plant baby.

Yea, that make sense that large water changes would change chemistry back to baseline tap water. These tanks all take 2-3 weeks for nitrates to creep up to require water changes and then get ~30%. In this case, there was no water change between adding the coral and testing. It was 7 days with no water changes. I am checking strips daily as I try to sort this out and there has been no fluctuation at all. I'm just not sure at how quickly one should see a rise? If it takes more than 2-3 weeks to have a noticeable difference I'll be fighting a losing battle. I'd hate to start having to chase numbers with chemicals. It was slim pickings locally so I had to go with crushed coral from a big box store "top" brand and am wondering if I would be seeing better results from a different brand. I checked if there was any noticeable difference from tap and it looks like there might be a SLIGHT increase in kh/ph from tap. (tap on right and I'm still wondering what changed with the KH from tap water. It was always between 80-120...). For now I'll keep monitoring until the next water change

Is the top glued down? If not, you could try to shim between the plywood and the top brace in that corner.

The Molly fish seem well on their way to recovery. Spines less bent and none of the erratic swimming patterns (100% less floating upside down). So thank you again Colu. There's one thing that has me scratching my head and thinking that it was the medicine that caused the improvement. The crushed coral I added did not appear to have a measurable impact on water parameters. First time using crushed coral, so not sure how quickly I should see a rise, but from what I've read it's slow. After a week 3 tanks all read the same on KH, but one was a 29g with no coral, one was 5 gallon with 1.5 lbs in bag, and one was a 65 gallon with 2 lbs in the canister filter and another 3 lbs on the substrate. Just looking at the strips I'd be hard pressed to tell them apart. They're allll reading between 40-80kh on the coop test strips (more towards 40).

Just To be clearer I used the CaribSea Eco complete African cichlid sand. Which makes the same claims as the zack black substrate.

My concern with the cichlid substrates is that long term it wouldn’t maintain the buffer and I doubt you want to keep throwing out substrate to replenish it. When I set up my mbuna tank 5 years ago I used the Carib Sea white and black sand mix (4x 20lb bags in a 65 gallon tank). This was long before I knew anything about kh/gh so I can’t say if it raised them at the time. But I can say it is not helping buffer now. Water parameters are the same in that tank as my others with different gravel and bare bottom.

Thanks @Colu for the advice as always. Would you suggest keeping the molly fish separated for the medicated food or would you treat the Angel and Sterbai as well? The Dalmatian Molly fish is looking much better today after being moved into his own tank. Measuring KH in both tanks dropped more towards 40 than the 80-120 I am used to seeing. Going to add crushed coral to bring it up.

Purchased new fish on 1/15. 2 Sterbai, a quarter sized angel, and 5 Molly fish (2 creamsicle lyretail, 3 Dalmatian lyretail). All put into fresh 10g quarantine tank with established sponge filter. Water parameters were 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate, Hardness somewhere up towards 300 (hard for me to distinguish the purples), Buffer between 80 and 120, PH around 7.6, no chlorine. Other than normal nitrate fluctuation parameters have remained stable over the past month. Morning 1, one of the creamsicle Molly was dead. I can't see any blatant signs of disease. Start Med trio for the group and add 3 tbsp salt. Morning 2, one Dalmatian lyretail dead, all other fish seem lethargic. Add second Airstone to increase oxygen in tank. This seems to correct the issue. No more issues over the 7 days, do a feeding, then 30% water change. Add 1 more tbps to replace salt that was removed. Continue in quarantine. On 2/4 Another Dalmatian Molly is in distress. Was swimming upside down, but no other outward signs I could see. It was dead within the hour. No other signs of issues with remaining fish. They were all swimming and acting normally. 2/5 decide to do another week of med trio. 2/10 everyone looks hunky-dory, begin light feeding (extreme krill flakes and nano) and test ammonia/nitrite/nitrate daily incase I fried my bacteria. Nothing is out of whack. 2/13 this morning the last Dalamation Molly has a bent spine but is eating and swimming "normally". Within an hour is now swimming in what I would call a tornado pattern with face towards bottom of tank. I prepped another quarantine tank to separate this Molly from the remaining fish in quarantine. 1 tbps of salt and 3 gallons of water. Got some pictures and looks like potentially popeye setting in? It's about 3 hours later and he is floating belly up, not dead yet just upside down. Would be shocked if he lives through the night. The last creamsickle molly is now seeming bent back as well blotchy spots on top of his head. (not just an awkward position, but best picture I could get). Any thoughts for last ditch efforts? They've both been thru med trio twice now over the course of a month. The Angel and Sterbai Cory have shown no signs of distress or weird behavior throughout. If I'm missing something let me know.

petco just had their up to 50% off sale last month, so I’d guess it will be a couple months before they do it again. If you have a petsuppliesplus in your area they have they tanks on sale right now. (29g for $45) Not quite as good as the old dollar per gallon, but figure that’s gone for good.

Haven't been using it long enough to form a solid opinion. The bubbler only took 2g of PLA to print, so very little to lose if I wind up tossing it. Its offline while I wait for delivery of new pumps (USB pump is finally mostly dead.) Bubbles were larger than the ziss stones and ceramic stones, but that didn't bug me so far.

I've cycled a tank with ammonia successfully but it does require you to be diligent. There's a reason many people suggest other methods (https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/fish-tank-cycling included). You need to figure out how much ammonia it takes to raise the tank to the total desired 2ppm. tl;dr Test every day to see where it is. If it's below 2ppm add enough to bring it back up to 2 ppm until all Ammonia and Nitrites are gone within 24 hours. Day 0: Setup your tank with water, decorations, filter, heater. Dose pure ammonia of your choosing to 2ppm. Weeks 1-2: Continue testing for and adding ammonia to bring you back up to 2 ppm each day. You can test for Nitrites to check progress Weeks 3-4: Continue testing for and adding ammonia daily to 2 ppm. You can start checking for nitrates (generally takes a month, but you never know) Weeks 4-6: Nitrate should start to rise. You will know cycle is complete if Ammonia and Nitrite are down to 0 within 24 hours of adding ammonia up to 2ppm. Once that happened I did a 90% water change to flush the ridiculous amount of Nitrates in the water from being a lifeless tank then swore to never do that again. Why do you need the quarantine and main tank up at the same time? I'd put both filters in one tank and cycle the single aquarium. Once cycled you can pull the quarantine filter out as needed.

The exact amount isn't a straight forward answer. It varies based on many factors (grade, condition, etc). Generally speaking a vertical 2x4 can hold a substantial amount of weight. A single 2"x4"x8' for framing vertically can "support" like 1000lbs. For the horizontal spans you can get a rough estimate from http://woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator/ Note, this was designed for shelves it doesn't say when it will break. If you put 9000lbs into the calculator it will just give you how much deflection there is when clearly the wood would break long before that. To get realistic number you could google lumber span tables and dive in. So If you want an opinion about whether a non expert thinks that tank is going to wind up on the floor because you overloaded the wood, I think you'll be fine. At 36" wide I'm assuming that's a 40 breeder (could be 30g, don't think its 50g or 65g) so max weight is like 450 lbs. Properly supported the 8 vertical 2x4 could "support" significantly more than that. If you were to put 450lbs load uniformly across on a 36.25" wide Eastern White Pine 1.5"x3.5" board you would get a deflection of .01inch. You're actually spreading the load across front, back, and sides. It looks like the horizontals are supported by at least 1 vertical 2x4 directly underneath it on each end and you're not relying on screws to carry the load anywhere. You should be sufficiently overbuilt.

First, thanks to Cory for the additional in depth information about the product and for sharing the stats on failure rates that you are seeing. It's far too easy to assume a larger problem exists than really does, especially when there are hundreds of variables that come into play. One of the nicest things about buying from the coop is knowing you're data driven and customer service focused. If there was a larger problem with the pumps I can be sure you're likely already aware of and trying to remedy it. This way I can safely assume that there's some variable in my situation that I might tweak to make better (or infinitely worse, hopefully in a spectacular and enjoyable fashion). Now back to the regularly scheduled electronics abuse. Nano pump #1 died again on me this weekend after running for two and a half weeks straight. This time it wouldn't spin even if not connected to any airline. I tore it open and there wasn't any shredded plastic and the spindle only looked marginally worse. Bellows were still in tact but manually spinning it sounded SUPER crunchy. I gave it a bunch of spins and some more percussive maintenance. This knocked out a bunch of what I am assuming is the brush. Manually spinning now sounded (slightly) less crunchy and once back together it spun right up. However when connected to existing setup (~4ft of airline with a check valve in the middle connected to stone) it immediately died again. With all the information shared by everyone I decided to cut out the middle man. I hung the pump above the waterline, put a little less than a foot of line on it without a check valve, stuck it in the water, and voila bubbles. I was out of fresh stones and so I printed an airstone I found on thingiverse to diffuse it a little. Ironically I just went to get a picture and discovered the pump had died again after running for an additional 48 hours. A nice solid smack got it back to making bubbles. Thankfully it looks like I'll be able to put this pump out of it's misery soon and replace it with the coop pumps. I'm planning on opening up this motor to see if there's anything more I can learn.

If anything I would add additional vertical supports under the side horizontals. But I tend to overbuild and never trust screws to even potentially carry a load.

Based on apparent build quality, they certainly don't see to be fit for long term use. My issue with that is they are not sold to target those limited use cases. Even the coop sells them with the description starting "This small, almost silent, air pump is great for nano tanks or for adding an air stone to an existing larger tank". Personally I wouldn't have purchased if the description was "great little battery run pump for temporary uses such as transporting fish in a car or running off a battery pack at a show. Not for 24/7 use.". But who knows, they're still getting great reviews from people (1025 5 star out of 1160 total). Maybe I just was unlucky with two duds that coincidentally failed in the exact same way within 6 months of purchase. Sample size is small enough that its possible. It's been a week and a half since cleaning the pumps out. They're both still running air stones and don't appear to have gotten any worse. I certainly don't trust them anymore and intend to replace them as soon as the new co op pumps are available. I shared the tear down not to bash the pumps, but rather to help anyone else who was dealing with a malfunctioning device.

My assumption is that they surreptitiously reduced internal part quality in the past year. As Jorgey pointed out it wouldn't be the first time it's happened. Only way to truly know would be to tear apart one of the OG units that function well. If yours does happen to die, I'd love to see the cause.

Tends to come in waves, but its definitely feast or famine around here. If the LFS you were at couldn't bring them in for you I wouldn't see any reason to wait before looking elsewhere.

I am also running check valves (top fin/Amazon, older purchases that were unused before using on these pumps) but I have to imagine the bulk of people are. The motors in mine are definitely not happy and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until they let the smoke out.

Mine were going on the back of my surface pro until the wife started hijacking them for hers. On the plus side she's now more interested in what sticker she's getting that what the heck I bought now.

If a 65 gallon tank is 18"x36" and the substrate is 4" deep that's like 1.5 cubic feet. Dirt weighs ~80lbs/cubic feet (Sand is more, generally over 100lbs) and then it's going to be wet which adds to the weight. Adds up quick... I'd be planning to remove it.

The motor appears crimped into the housing. If these die again I’m going to go the next level of disassembly and grind them out. I’m sure it’s not worth it to remake the parts when the fail, but maybe can prolong life further.

I have two of the USB Nano air pumps in use from the Co Op, both about 6 months old. First purchased July 2021 and Second purchased in August 2021. In December they both started having intermittent failures. Like many others I found out you can make them work by giving them a little smack. The time between failures got shorter and shorter, until finally one of the units no longer responded to the "percussive maintenance". I decided since I had nothing else to lose time to tear it apart. (Insert obligatory "these actions performed by a trained idiot, do not try this at home. Failure to heed these warnings can lead to fire, death, and general mayhem to you and all those you love. And likely void your warranty too.".) As you can see there is a bunch of shredded plastic. My assumption is that this is binding up the works and stopping the pump. Basic design is motor spins shaft. Shaft has that piece of plastic mounted on it. Piece of plastic has offset hole. The bellows assembly has 3 tiny bellows with a metal shaft in center. that shaft goes into offset hole. As motor turns shaft rotates and bellows pump in turn. Problem appears to be that plastic gets all torn up and worn down. A stress crack seems to be forming on one of them as well. And for anyone who is curious, I did take apart the bellows to see what it looked like. The Fix. It appears that cleaning all the shredded plastic out of the housing brought it back to life. Both pumps have been running non stop for the past 48 hours. One runs slightly louder than it used to. Not sure if there was some grease mixed in the shredded plastic that I removed, but adding silicone has not changed the noise level. Its not a significant increase and since that one was completely dead, functioning at all is a big win. Warning, when they say these aren't waterproof they weren't kidding. The green case is the barrier between the electronics and the elements. The power leads are soldered to the motor right on the back end. Surprised they were able to run these things outside at all. From what limited information I was able to gather the newer units are the ones having problems. I'd love to see if older units have the same design and materials to know what changed.