Powerhead Maintence

[djcanis]

Anyone have any suggestions on replacement suction cups for Rio powerheads. When I say replacement I mean, does anyone know any good way to mount without having to use the crappy suction cups. They keep deterorating and getting covered with coraline, I'm tired of replacing them every couple months. Any ideas?

 

[sly]

Glue a floating magnet to your powerhead and then stick it to your glass with the other magnet. You may need to get some small rubber feet if there is a lot of vibration of the magnet against the glass.
You can use superglue. It's safe for use in the tank once it has cured for 24 hours.

 

[puffer32]

My solution was investing in some korelia pumps, worth the money if you can switch to them, i never have sand storms anymore.

 

[scsinet]

I'm with Puffer, that is the solution I'm working towards. I have the units for my new tank but am not up and running yet.
However, what I did for my existing tank with Maxi-Jets... if you have a canopy this might work for you. I put a stainless steel sc rew into the canopy above the powerhead, and ran the cord up and over the top of this sc rew, and secured it with a tie-wrap. This way if/when the suction cups come loose, the pump won't fall to the bottom.

 

[al mc]

Puffer and SCSI are correct...but, the other alternative for existing powerheads is the magnet idea. I have used this successfully on about 10 powerheads. You can search for K & J Magnets...their product DC6PC-BLK25
are small coated magnets (don't use uncoated ones...heavy metal in your water is obviously not hgood) that can be superglued to the holder. I find that one pair of magnets per powerhead works.

 

[trippkid]

I just epoxy glue an algae magnet,(not Mag floats, not strong enough for me,IMO) to the PH. I do this for my modified Maxi-jets(3). Has worked very well with no problems for me. Good luck, I know I hated it when my PH's would come off and cause damage to something, then you go to stick back on and 5 min later it is off again. Has never happened with the magnets, I use $12 ones from my LFS, they are from Hagen, and called "Marina". They do the job and are about half the cost of the Sure Grips, or Tunze's(not sure what these cost, but too much for me like the rest of their products).

Matt

 

[djcanis]

Very cool, great ideas. Thanks guys. I think I know what the magnets your all talking about are. They are similar to the magnets they sell to clean the tank. I never really thought about that cause of the price, but I guess at 4$ a pop for the suction cups, 12$ for a magnet is like 6 months worth of cups. Pretty economical now that I think about it. Gonna take a trip to the lfs and see what they got. Thanks for the help, again.
B.

 

[buckster71]

Originally Posted by puffer32
My solution was investing in some korelia pumps, worth the money if you can switch to them, i never have sand storms anymore.

Look at the best you can find. I've gone through a couple of those Korelias already. Either a broken impeller or a burned out motor...
I'm sure that for some people they work ok, but for some reason I've been replacing them more often then I care to. I bought enough for three tanks on sale.