Fish Tank Mod

A few days back, my newly bought pump busted. The rubber pump bag had ruptured due to the continuous pumping action. This was also the fateful day, one of my goldie died. I managed to save the pump but not the fish. Why? I had used a solvent to melt the rubber together sealing the pump bag. It was able to pump again but not strong enough to pump the air into the bottom of the tank.

So it is time to upgrade!

Let me take you through.


A final look at the electro-magnetic pump. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



The new pump is the Big Boy 6000 purchased from a small time fish shop at Serangoon North ('Ah Beng' Shop, as my friend would call it), costing me $5.50. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



The actual pump has one valve and a 2-speed control. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



A pack of microfiber synthetic wool for the filter, costing me just 80c. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



A closer look at the microfibers. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



The old filter before modding. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



Without the filter makes the tank filthy overnight. An urgent call for a new filteration system is necessary. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



Dismantling the pump was easy. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



A misconception that I long had that the old filter runs with cheap lousy black stones, but I was wrong. It was a meshed foam, too bad the pores are not fine enough to perform to standard. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



Cutting 2 small pieces of the new Big Boy synthetic wool. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



After puncturing the wool in the middle (to guide bubbles to flow through the middle chimney) is necessary. A brand new filter. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



The next challenge is to use my 1 valve Big Boy 6000 pump to channel air into the newly assembled filter and my ring stone. Despite having a Y-splitter, the air pressure difference makes the setting tricky. The air flow was biased towards the filter. This is so as the air pressure required to pump air through the ring stone was more than that of the filter. I squeezed the tubing leading to the filter and realised that the air flow shifts towards the ring stone. However, if I moderate the pressure on the tubing, I can create an even distribution of the air flow. Hence, I intelligently used 2 metal wires to crimp the tubing. With a pair of pliers, I slowly squeezed the metal wire until an equilibrium flow of air is reached. Viola! It now feeds air to the filter and the ring stone! I rather dislike the look though. I think it is a matter of time, I get a 2 valve pump or a proper multi-channel air regulator selling $1 at Rainbow. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



Running short of tubing, I had to elevate the pump up on the box so that I can jack the pump to the Y-splitter. Need to get some tubing. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



A look at the final outcome. The top view withing Big Boy 6000 running at Low speed. A steady stream of bubbles from both the filter and ring stone. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



Violent bubbles when Big Boy ran at High speed. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.


A video of the bubble flow of each speed of Big Boy 6000, can be downloaded via:
(DO NOT CLICK ON FILE, RIGHT-CLICK & SELECT SAVE AS TO DOWNLOAD FILE)
LOW SPEED
HIGH SPEED


Faeces starts to get trapped within the synthetic wool in the filter. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.



Clean waters are happy fishes, happy fishes are happy owners. ~ Property of myBE@RBRICK.


2 thumbs up to Big Boy!

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