First time reader, first time poster, long time enthusiast here. I've had freshwater tanks off and on through my whole life (I'm 28 now) and have just completed the first several stages of setting up my dads old 30 gallon tank (he was using this same tank when he was in college!).
Anyway I'll probably be posting a lot about several things soon...but this one came to mind first and I was wondering what your opinions might be.
Without getting too detailed about how the tank is set up (the basics: 30 gal, live plants, community tank, running for about 3.5 weeks now, 6 black neons added yesterday...first fish, woot!)
I'm using a Penguin HOB filter (170 I believe, I'm going to pick up another filter today FYI). The inital problem I had was that the outflow from the Penguin was splashing so much that it was spraying water up on my lights and along the side of my hood...causing water to pool along a railing and drip down the front of the tank. I didn't want to modify the hood so I did, what I feel, is a pretty good fix.
I took two pieces of thick-ish mylar and attached them to the filter. On runs from the bottom of the outflow slot into the water, the other runs from the front edge of the lid to the water. In essence it creates a sort of "chute" that the outflow travels through to get into the tank (imagine two pieces of paper on top of each other, roughly 1 inch apart). I realize it is pretty dificult to describe so I hope my explanation makes sense. I do have some pictures that I'll post if there is any interest.
The benifit has been no more splashing, a drastic decrease in noise (just a very soft trickling sound), and much smoother water surface.
My concern is that the bio-wheel may not be getting enough air to function properly. The lid for the filter does have several air vents however.
Can anyone else think of any concerns?
My apologies for an epic long post!
Tachometer
Anyway I'll probably be posting a lot about several things soon...but this one came to mind first and I was wondering what your opinions might be.
Without getting too detailed about how the tank is set up (the basics: 30 gal, live plants, community tank, running for about 3.5 weeks now, 6 black neons added yesterday...first fish, woot!)
I'm using a Penguin HOB filter (170 I believe, I'm going to pick up another filter today FYI). The inital problem I had was that the outflow from the Penguin was splashing so much that it was spraying water up on my lights and along the side of my hood...causing water to pool along a railing and drip down the front of the tank. I didn't want to modify the hood so I did, what I feel, is a pretty good fix.
I took two pieces of thick-ish mylar and attached them to the filter. On runs from the bottom of the outflow slot into the water, the other runs from the front edge of the lid to the water. In essence it creates a sort of "chute" that the outflow travels through to get into the tank (imagine two pieces of paper on top of each other, roughly 1 inch apart). I realize it is pretty dificult to describe so I hope my explanation makes sense. I do have some pictures that I'll post if there is any interest.
The benifit has been no more splashing, a drastic decrease in noise (just a very soft trickling sound), and much smoother water surface.
My concern is that the bio-wheel may not be getting enough air to function properly. The lid for the filter does have several air vents however.
Can anyone else think of any concerns?
My apologies for an epic long post!
Tachometer
