Saltwater & Reef

FishyBusiness · 04-21-2014, 04:39 AM

I've never used a power head before and have a few questions. I have a 90 gallon FW community tank and I run 2 AC 110's. I only use the foam and rings but I also use polyfil to polish. Sometimes my water is crystal clear and sometimes there's small debris floating thru-out. Like my filters aren't grabbing everything. I change the polyfil every 2 weeks. (One, one week and the other the next so I alternate them).

I was thinking in getting a Koralia 1150 and maybe that will help?

**Brookster123** · 04-21-2014, 08:00 AM

Is your tank planted?

FishyBusiness · 04-21-2014, 08:11 AM

No it's not. That might change in the future tho, still debating.

**Brookster123** · 04-21-2014, 08:21 AM

I just ordered one to keep debris from settling, I've noticed poo on the substrate and plants... Is your issue mainly with debris in the water only? Substrate as well? You may need a stronger filter? How often do you clean the motor housing of your ac's?

FishyBusiness · 04-21-2014, 08:28 AM

Debris settles but not too much. Usually just in the water. My filtration should be strong enough since I'm running 2 110's. But it doesn't happen all the time, which is strange. I know someone might chew me out for this, but I've never cleaned the motor before. I have cleaned the inside of my filters before but never taken anything apart. I don't know how, I'll have to search online or YouTube for that. How often does that need to be done?

**Brookster123** · 04-21-2014, 08:41 AM

Ohhhh, you'll be amazed how much crap accumulates in there and slows down flow..a lot!! It's simple, just take the filter off the tank, dump it into a bucket, throw all media in bucket of tank water, untwist motor from box, you'll see the impeller, tap motor on your palm until the impeller moves out of motor, it's just a floating magnet.. Than rinse out motor with hot water and q tips.. Easy!!

FishyBusiness · 04-21-2014, 08:46 AM

Yeah that doesn't sound hard haha! I'll do that this weekend when I do my WC. How often do I do that? And is the cord to the motor going to be ok if I get water on it from rinsing? That stuff always freaks me out.

**Brookster123** · 04-21-2014, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FishyBusiness

Yeah that doesn't sound hard haha! I'll do that this weekend when I do my WC. How often do I do that? And is the cord to the motor going to be ok if I get water on it from rinsing? That stuff always freaks me out.

I do it every 3 weeks or when I noticed flow drops off, you'll be amazed at the instant improvement. So don't fully submerge the whole motor, I just hold it under the sink and blast is with hot water than q tip and repeat a couple times, if you get the plug wet just dry it off well before plugging back in.. You got this

FishyBusiness · 04-21-2014, 09:17 AM

Awesome, thank you. I'm gonna give this a go today and see how it is at the end of the week. I can't handle anything floating in there. At least my waters always clear and you can't see the little stuff floating unless your up close. I'm a neat freak tho, so hope this works! Had these filters for 2 years, this shall be interesting!

**Brookster123** · 04-21-2014, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FishyBusiness

Awesome, thank you. I'm gonna give this a go today and see how it is at the end of the week. I can't handle anything floating in there. At least my waters always clear and you can't see the little stuff floating unless your up close. I'm a neat freak tho, so hope this works! Had these filters for 2 years, this shall be interesting!

you haven't cleaned them in 2 years?!?! Holy cow batman!! Haha those babies will be singing when you're done with them!!

FishyBusiness · 04-21-2014, 09:22 AM

Yeah. Every month I put the media in tank water while I clean the intake tubes and inside of the filter, but never the impeller... Guess I never thought of that. The inside walls and bottom of the filter housing can get NASTY, so I could just imagine what I'm gonna find this morning!

**Brookster123** · 04-21-2014, 09:24 AM

Put it this way... If you had otto's?? You could feed them for months with what your going to rinse outta there...I actually did my ac 30 and 20 last night, after a month the 30 was barely flowing, it was packed with buildup..

FishyBusiness · 04-21-2014, 09:28 AM

Good grief. I'm gonna get my kids to daycare and see if I can get this thing apart lol! May get to save some money and pass on the extra equipment!

FishyBusiness · 04-21-2014, 10:54 AM

Ok. I just cleaned both impellers. I think this is good, but I'm disappointed at the same time. There wasn't anything in there but about 2 qtips of diatom algae. Hmmm. Maybe any larger debris gets knocked out when I rinse that part under the tub faucet when I clean the filter housing?

**Brookster123** · 04-21-2014, 11:28 AM

It's the diatomic slime, sorry if I made it seem as you would be pulling big chunks out, it's the sludgy stuff that slows it down though, did you use very very hot tap water?

FishyBusiness · 04-21-2014, 01:24 PM

Yep! I used my bathtub and we have our water heater set to 130• (F). There wasn't much on the impeller itself, but one qtip was black from in where it sits... If I'm making any sense lol. Now it's somewhat noisy, one of them. But I can deal with it. Kind of a loud humming/vibrating sound... But that one was louder to begin with...