Any tricks to keeping a HOT Magnum sealed???

[grimlock3000]

My HOT Magnum worked fine for about 12 hours the first time I assembled it and put it in the tank. Before getting any fish in the tank, I wanted to check and make sure I have the filter sleeve on correctly since I though the inlet difuser might be caught on it. I took the filter apart, checked the filter sleeve (it was caught, but just barely), and put it back together. Once I did that, I had little bubbles going into my tank from the outlet difuser. Took the top of the filter apart apart, put it back together. Still had bubbles. Took it apart again, cleaned all the O-rings and the D-ring, put it back together, it was fine for about an hour, then I had bubbles again.

I rebuilt the filter again, with silicon lube on the D rings + O rings, and replaced the O ring on the inlet tub with the O ring from the gravel cleaner. This was fine for about a week, but now I have some bubbles again. No air is getting into the intake strainer, so the air has to be getting sucked in through an O ring or the D ring. After playing with it for a bit, I am pretty sure the intake tube/O ring is the problem. I called Marineland, and they are sending me a new intake tube, and four more O rings to make sure the intake tube is cleanly sealed.

I am happy that Marineland is sending me new parts with no hassle, but is this common? If it is common, how can I seal this thing up? I was thinking of using thick automotive O rings but I would need to find the exact right size to be OK.

If I need to be constantly messing with the O rings and/or the D ring, I am not going to want this filter and will end up with a Emperor 280 or something more simple

 

[Guest]

Mine will do that from time to time, but in my case, I found out it was the Outlet tube. I wiggle it a couple times and the bubbles stop.

 

[loganj]

How long are you letting the filter run after you put it back together? Mine will always blow bubbles for a little while until it purges itself. They have a purge tube inside the filter. Anytime the D ring doesn't seat on my HOT Magnum, I see the water level in the filter dropping and it will start to make some really strange noises.

 

[grimlock3000]

loganj, i made sure the filter was running for hours before getting picky about it. when i rebuilt it a few times in a row, it was obvious that was sucking in air since i could wiggle the parts around and make it stop. once i had the d ring not seat correctly as a test and it caused some wretched gurgling noises

i am probably going to order another filter this weekend. the bio wheel does not fit on my tank well (the screws hit the molding), my tank is filled with micro bubbles from the bio wheel, and now my canister is getting air in the water stream. i really like this setup and might keep it for water polishing, but i am looking for something more reliable to use every day.

 

[loganj]

Strange...I've been running a HOT magnum with a Pro 30 bio wheel on my 55 for years with almost no trouble. Maybe you just got a bad one? If you're going to buy something else, an Emperor 280 would do a great job on that tank.