What A Good Idea! Options

[white horse T1]

find this at AF, can adopt?

[mountain]

ask buddha ask buddha!! he got something similar and he face this problem every water change

for my IOS .. its a pain in the butt , sometimes i dun even bother after a while..
have to use a really thin stick to push a small piece of cut-off wool to push the pileups down

but u need somemore filtration?

and the drawing/concept a bit funny..

[LASERGUY]

Use $5 guppy brand sponge filter lah, cheap and good...easy to manage also....

[white horse T1]

How to clean that tunnel???

bro

that is an inherent problem in IOS system u touch on.
the idea is covering with black acrylic to groom bb.

the same question goes to those who have clear piping leading from pump to outlets. don yr piping get dirty, how do u clear them?

for me, use the old army way, pull through rod with wet small cloth at the end.
the pull through rod is improvised from a cane which is flexible to bend and turn

[HappyBuddha]

ask buddha ask buddha!! he got something similar and he face this problem every water change

I measured the gap of my IOS's "tunnel" and it's 15 mm (about 5/8 in) so the gap isn't too tight...

I cut a 1 inch thick blue wool and swipe it inside the tunnel with a long wooden chopstick. It works. Just do it once every few days before the gummy slime starts to lodge themselve deeply....

[mountain]

sharks in my tank.. mine is barely 5mm! faint man.. i hate the chap who made my tank.

[HappyBuddha]

sharks in my tank.. mine is barely 5mm! faint man.. i hate the chap who made my tank.

5 mm only?

No wonder you were telling me you don't like IOS being difficult to clean yet till now I don't find any serious problem with mine.

Upgrade to a 4x4x1.5 ft bare tank! You can tell mrs mountain that "It's no big deal; everybody has a 4 feet tank."

[mountain]

hard to sell. anyway, fyi, that main tank turned greeny.. strange(no light and with loads of bio materials).. keke.. gonna tekan my fish by not changing the water for 2 more days keke.. better not, i think i will stay home to change water tomorrow nite

[mountain]

i think i must change the water tonite.. wtf am i thinking.. dreaming and misleading myself.. wakE uP Mountain Tortise

[desireless]

Actually I got a question on sponge filter... First time using.... Should the Sponge be fill with water at all? It was not written on the box cover/instruction leh

The first time I used it, I squeeze the sponge and let it suck full of water before I put in my tank. But after one day, all my ranchu become inert. Like tio stunned like that. So I took out the sponge and wash... Guess what? The water becomes BLACK! It seems the sponge can decolour one. So new sponge must really be washed thoroughly. Squeeze to absorb water, then squeeze to remove water. By the 3rd or 4th time continuously, you will probably see the water blacken. Keep rinsing till the black colour disappear.

[mountain]

huh .. tat never happen to me .. think your sponge got problem one..

although i do wash a new sponge before usage to clear off dirt .. but ... decolor.. something is dreadfully wrong brother ..

[desireless]

Bought it from the corner TPY69 shop leh. Is that the one that has everything very cheap? The sponge cost about $4 plus.

[HappyBuddha]

I have many guppy brand sponge filter and never experience black water (). I do rinse them a few times before use, using water from the destined tank.

It's the middle shop (with one auntie who sits behind a table watching TCS8 whole day) that ask for $4 for the filter. Pian Yi Dao Siao of TPY!

[mountain]

why why why ..

later i post my readings .. go ahead and post your guesses wat my reading will be .. i am running a fullly loaded bio-filtration hor.. and my lamp was damaged 4 mth back

1 pic is without flash, the other is with flash

[mrchoco]

pobably high nitrates.
for the tunnel,
my IOS tank uses glass which i cannot change.
What i do is find a small pleco and throw it in. heh heh.
clears up in 2 days.
good job.
make sure the outlet of the tunnel is sealed with something that still allows water through but not something big like a fish to go into the filter.
mountain bto you might want get those hard solid filter wool and cut them to cover the bio balls and rings cos BB thrives in dark conditions.