Well, there was some work done in the building. Dirt, cement, plaster dust plus my regular dust got in the air. My central air unit's filter got clogged there was almost no airflow left, so bad it froze and had to be changed (the filter), two Honeywell towers got clogged, dust went everywhere.
The 6 aquarium filters also were incredibly densely packed with filter gunk. One eheim propeller got stuck and had to be replaced. Sure, it was his turn for a big maintenance and that did not help, but all those things clogging at the same time can't be a coincidence.
Got everything running back on track, saved for 2 eheims, those on the heavily lighted side of the tanks. I got some flow back by cleaning the holes on the sprinkling water bar, but something was wrong.
I was wondering if they were just depressed or perhaps needed Viagra and some antidepressants to beef up their manliness and deal with the emotional scaring of having to rely on pills to perform.
Then something happened with, hum, something I use every now and then that involves tubes also. It has nothing to do with fish or tanks. The tubes on that device get clogged and need to be unclogged to regain airflow.
Airflow... water flow! It took a while for me to make the connection, perhaps because I clog the air tubes, but eventually I made the connection.
Then I procrastinated a bit about it because it became something to do that is not pleasant to do and needs to be done. Then last night I switched the plants from my two big tanks (I finally decided that the balansae would do better in the other tank setting) and some sediments got in the water. No prob: WC is tomorrow and i'll make sure to clean the prefilters.
Long story short: Water change today, prefilters cleaned but the flow got very low on these 2 filters. Cleaned the tubing as thoroughly as I could taking them down and apart for the first time, water flow restored.
This is a lesson in life. Sometimes your flow decreases, and it happens so slowly and sneakily that you are not fully aware it is happening because cleaning the prefilters gives the flow a boost and you think all is well because things improve a bit, but the actual flow actually decreased and over time, you get stuck into a downward spiral of low flow. So pay really good attention to your flow.
The 6 aquarium filters also were incredibly densely packed with filter gunk. One eheim propeller got stuck and had to be replaced. Sure, it was his turn for a big maintenance and that did not help, but all those things clogging at the same time can't be a coincidence.
Got everything running back on track, saved for 2 eheims, those on the heavily lighted side of the tanks. I got some flow back by cleaning the holes on the sprinkling water bar, but something was wrong.
I was wondering if they were just depressed or perhaps needed Viagra and some antidepressants to beef up their manliness and deal with the emotional scaring of having to rely on pills to perform.
Then something happened with, hum, something I use every now and then that involves tubes also. It has nothing to do with fish or tanks. The tubes on that device get clogged and need to be unclogged to regain airflow.
Airflow... water flow! It took a while for me to make the connection, perhaps because I clog the air tubes, but eventually I made the connection.
Then I procrastinated a bit about it because it became something to do that is not pleasant to do and needs to be done. Then last night I switched the plants from my two big tanks (I finally decided that the balansae would do better in the other tank setting) and some sediments got in the water. No prob: WC is tomorrow and i'll make sure to clean the prefilters.
Long story short: Water change today, prefilters cleaned but the flow got very low on these 2 filters. Cleaned the tubing as thoroughly as I could taking them down and apart for the first time, water flow restored.
This is a lesson in life. Sometimes your flow decreases, and it happens so slowly and sneakily that you are not fully aware it is happening because cleaning the prefilters gives the flow a boost and you think all is well because things improve a bit, but the actual flow actually decreased and over time, you get stuck into a downward spiral of low flow. So pay really good attention to your flow.
