Hello,
This is my first post here, but I have been recommended to this forum for aquarium advice from another, unrelated forum. I have kept fish in the past, like 15 years ago, and just recently, about a year ago, started taking up the hobby again.
I used to keep large aggressive fish like cichlids, piranha, electric catfish (my favorite, he shocked me once) etc. Although this time around I decided to start with my most abused fish, as my username hints. I started with goldfish as a kid and graduated to feeding poor goldfish feeders to my aggressive big fish, now I’m just raising shubunkin and common goldfish and enjoying their peaceful interaction and learning to appreciate their individual personalities I never realized existed. Anyway.. to my question.
I had about 8 (ranging from 2”-4”) of them in a 75 gallon with 2 sponge filters rated for 100+ gallons each, I’ve since moved them into a 125 gallon aquarium and wanted to use a canister filter for them. I did some research and decided to go with a Marineland magniflow 360. I chose this model because it has a high media capacity and I wanted to be able to use Purigen in one of the baskets to help keep my nitrates under control. I was getting about 80ppm in the 75g with weekly 15% water changes. Ammonia and nitrite were always 0ppm.
However, I’ve been having some real issues with this canister, it seems to be sucking in air bubbles constantly (not sure where) because every time I tilt it, it stalls and starts chopping air then sputters back to life. It’s been running a couple of days and every time I shake or tilt it has tons of air built up inside. I came home today to it being completely stalled and the top of the housing was warm to the touch. I shook it and bubbles spurted out and it started running again, then died. I left it unplugged about an hour and tried again, it came back to life, same thing with bubbles. Then died again, then back to life. It’s still running currently, but I’m kind of over it.
I did read all of Marineland’s FAQ and made sure the intake hose is flush with the rib on the intake tube and that the clamp is right up to it. I used channel locks to cinch that sucker down. And the sponge filters are nowhere near the intake, so it’s not sucking in air bubbles from there. The main o-ring was lubed with pure silicone grease prior to installing (scuba diving food grade stuff) and so were the intake tubes on the block that locks into the canister. I’m not sure what else to do. Could be this is defective and has some flaw somewhere. It’s still on the Return period through amazon, so I’m considering exchanging it for something else.
I’m considering a hydor 350 or Fluval 406, these were my other options prior. Either way I plan to get at least two for backup and ditch the sponge filters once the canisters are established. I don’t know much about hydor except that they’re fairly new to the filter market and have relatively large capacities and decent flow rates with the media installed. I’ve known Fluval for years and used their ‘03 models in the past and never had issues with them. Though I don’t know if they have kept up their quality since then. Any suggestions?
Thank you
This is my first post here, but I have been recommended to this forum for aquarium advice from another, unrelated forum. I have kept fish in the past, like 15 years ago, and just recently, about a year ago, started taking up the hobby again.
I used to keep large aggressive fish like cichlids, piranha, electric catfish (my favorite, he shocked me once) etc. Although this time around I decided to start with my most abused fish, as my username hints. I started with goldfish as a kid and graduated to feeding poor goldfish feeders to my aggressive big fish, now I’m just raising shubunkin and common goldfish and enjoying their peaceful interaction and learning to appreciate their individual personalities I never realized existed. Anyway.. to my question.
I had about 8 (ranging from 2”-4”) of them in a 75 gallon with 2 sponge filters rated for 100+ gallons each, I’ve since moved them into a 125 gallon aquarium and wanted to use a canister filter for them. I did some research and decided to go with a Marineland magniflow 360. I chose this model because it has a high media capacity and I wanted to be able to use Purigen in one of the baskets to help keep my nitrates under control. I was getting about 80ppm in the 75g with weekly 15% water changes. Ammonia and nitrite were always 0ppm.
However, I’ve been having some real issues with this canister, it seems to be sucking in air bubbles constantly (not sure where) because every time I tilt it, it stalls and starts chopping air then sputters back to life. It’s been running a couple of days and every time I shake or tilt it has tons of air built up inside. I came home today to it being completely stalled and the top of the housing was warm to the touch. I shook it and bubbles spurted out and it started running again, then died. I left it unplugged about an hour and tried again, it came back to life, same thing with bubbles. Then died again, then back to life. It’s still running currently, but I’m kind of over it.
I did read all of Marineland’s FAQ and made sure the intake hose is flush with the rib on the intake tube and that the clamp is right up to it. I used channel locks to cinch that sucker down. And the sponge filters are nowhere near the intake, so it’s not sucking in air bubbles from there. The main o-ring was lubed with pure silicone grease prior to installing (scuba diving food grade stuff) and so were the intake tubes on the block that locks into the canister. I’m not sure what else to do. Could be this is defective and has some flaw somewhere. It’s still on the Return period through amazon, so I’m considering exchanging it for something else.
I’m considering a hydor 350 or Fluval 406, these were my other options prior. Either way I plan to get at least two for backup and ditch the sponge filters once the canisters are established. I don’t know much about hydor except that they’re fairly new to the filter market and have relatively large capacities and decent flow rates with the media installed. I’ve known Fluval for years and used their ‘03 models in the past and never had issues with them. Though I don’t know if they have kept up their quality since then. Any suggestions?
Thank you
