Operation Aquarium Pump

For the past four years or so, I’ve been using a Tetratec DW96-2 with my 80 gallon aquarium.  The pump has already been great (it’s very quiet), but a few months ago I noticed the air flow started to weaken.  I changed air stones (I figured I’d try the cheapest fix for the problem first), but eventually there was just no air flow at all.  So, I confidently ordered a repair kit, imagining that I"d just remove the pump case, pop in a new rubber diaphragm, and voila, repair!  Unfortunately, it was oh, so much more complicated than that.  The repair kit was a fairly big bag of lots of parts, not just a single rubber diaphragm.  There were four diaphragms, four rubber hinges, four rubber washers, sixteen little tiny pieces of other things, and a large cotton filter.  I didn’t know what part might not be working, so I replaced everything, and it took about two hours.  It was all so tiny and fiddly (and hot—I’d neglected to unplug the pump until right before I started to work on it).  When I finally reassembled everything, I hooked it back up to the aquarium and plugged it in and… nothing.  There was still no air flow.  I removed the rubber tubing from the pump and could feel air coming from the outlets, so I fiddled with the tubing a bit and all of a sudden, there was air flowing beautifully through the aquarium!  Now I wonder, though—was there anything wrong with the pump to begin with?  I just assumed the pump was worn out, but what if all it needed was a bit of adjustment to the rubber tubing?  I don’t even want to think about it.

I do hope the fish (yes, one single fish in an 80 gallon tank) is happy.  He has fresh water and lots of little air bubbles… the place is like a fish jacuzzi.

I was poking around online and stumbled across one of those things that really puts your life in perspective.  I’m always worried about our dogs and black widow spiders, so much so that I won’t take Eli out for walks at night because there are too many spiders around the sidewalks.  Then I read this blog entry written by someone in South Africa, and wow, it sure made my spider problems seem petty.  The story unfortunately doesn’t have a happy ending, as the dog in question dies despite some pretty heroic efforts, so be forewarned.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/17 at 12:00 AM

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

  1. Your fish tank story had me smiling. At least now you know the pump is almost as good as new. :-)  How come just one fish? Is he the anti-social type? :-)

    Posted by Coll  on  09/17  at  08:57 AM

  2. What kind of fish is he? I’m assuming a large one, to need the whole tank to himself….

    Posted by Helena  on  09/17  at  11:07 AM

  3. Victor says… mmmmm fish. Must be a big one to need 80 gallons!

    My son has had a 2.5 gallon aquarium for a few years… we’ve gone through guppies, Endler’s Live Bearers (an exotic type of guppy), and rainbow tetra in that tank. AFTER we started this, I was told how much easier it is to keep a large tank in balance. Dispite a small fortune on chemicals and test kits, no fish lasted really long except Blue, one of our first guppies.

    Then we got a half gallon Betta keeper and Quake, our Betta. I split the air pump in order to put a very small tank filter into Quake’s bowl… and immediately had air problems. If the tubing was run right, the air stone in Tank A or the filter in Tank B would get too much or too little. What a pain. Quake was an enjoyable fish and lasted the longest of any of them, but I’m kinda relieved to be out of fish. I think if we try again, we’ll get a betta and put him in the 2.5 gallon aquarium.

    Anyway, I can TOTALLY relate to your story. If you ever get a cat fountain, you can expect the same problems because they filter the water on its way out, not in (full of fur). Um, duh?

    Posted by Victor Tabbycat's Mom  on  09/17  at  12:59 PM

  4. I didn’t intend to have just one fish… it just ended up that way.  The fish is a fairly large pleco, but he definitely doesn’t need to have the entire tank to himself. I just haven’t been able to decide on what sort of fish to put in with him since the death of Bob the oranda.  Yes, Bob died just over two years ago, but Flippy wants another goldfish, and I just want smaller fish (with smaller personalities), so we’ve remained undecided.  When people have a dog or cat die, I always hope they’ll adopt another one and give it a good home.  When Bob died, though, I felt so helpless at my inability to give him essential medical care that I’m reluctant to be put in that position again.  When your dog or cat gets sick, you take it to a vet and it’s out of your hands.  When a fish gets sick, you’re on your own, and it’s stressful!  I’d even consider another oranda if we could find one which looks healthy, but they never seem to when we check them out at petstores.  Maybe we’ll compromise with a betta.

    Regarding “aquarium health”, larger is definitely easier.  I go a bit overboard, and I’ve got two large filters (enough for a 200 gallon tank), and two UV sterilizers, but the tank stays incredibly clean.  I clean each filter maybe twice a year, and even then, they’re never very dirty.  My biggest problem is hard water and evaporation.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  09/18  at  12:37 AM

  5. I’m guessing that after your aquarium trials, you’re not thinking of a career in fish tank repairs.

    Posted by Diana  on  09/19  at  10:31 AM

  6. I knew I shouldn’t have clicked on that link, I knew it!  Curiosity killed the cat as they say, and now I’m bawling at work!

    Posted by Great Dane Addict  on  09/19  at  01:50 PM

  7. Keep in mind… Betta don’t get along with any other fish, including other Betta. Hold up a mirror, and they expand their lovely fins and mane to look fierce. Quake had personality and we were sad to see him go. I liked the rainbow tetra and at about 1 inch each, you could fit a large school in your tank. I never could tell our two apart, so they were attractive but I didn’t grow as attached.
    Hard water and evaporation - d’yup, know it all too well.  Drs. Foster & Smith’s web site has an aquarium section you might check out.

    Posted by Victor Tabbycat's Mom  on  09/20  at  07:30 AM

  8. I’ve had a betta in with a pleco before and they’ve gotten along fine… I think it’s because they use different parts of the tank (the betta stays up top, and the pleco stays on the bottom).  I’ve read that you can even put bettas in a large community tank as long as there are plenty of hiding places, and as long as none of the other fish have long, flowing fins, but that’s never worked out for us.  One male betta ate our female betta, and another one ate all the small neon tetras we had, so we stopped buying bettas once we moved on to goldfish.

    My thoughts of buying a betta rather than different community fish, like tetras, are cost-related.  One betta is about $10, but I think stores charge about $2 each for tetras.  We’d probably need at least 20 neon tetras to make an impact in the aquarium, and I’m a cheapskate :)

    I love the Drs. Foster & Smith website… I’ve often pondered buying a new goldfish from them, because I feel like they’d offer good quality.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  09/20  at  10:16 PM
    9. Page 1 of 1 pages

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Next entry: False alarm

Previous entry: Good luck, Ramona!

<< Back to main