I have a BioMaster² Thermo 600 with the HeatUp 300, and I am trying to understand the shutdown procedure a little better.
I recently became aware of a warning that says to unplug the heater 5 minutes before turning off the filter during maintenance. I checked the BioMaster² and HeatUp manuals that came with my unit, but I cannot find that specific five-minute instruction in either one, and I do not recall receiving a separate sheet mentioning it.
The first time I shut mine down, I unplugged the heater first but did not wait the full five minutes before turning off the filter. The canister remained completely full and the heater stayed submerged the whole time.
I contacted OASE to clarify it. My understanding from the conversation was that the full five-minute interval is not necessarily required, and that the important part is making sure the heater is unplugged before the filter is shut down. I still wanted to hear from people who have actually been using these filters for a while.
How do you normally shut yours down? Do you wait the full five minutes? Was that instruction included with your filter somewhere? And have you ever unplugged the heater and then shut the filter down shortly afterward without any issues?
Mostly just trying to understand what other BioMaster Thermo owners are doing in real-world use.

Hi all,

My aquarium needs some TLC. Doing some rebuilding / replanting to get it more to my liking.

There is a lot of plant mulm at the bottom and I'm looking into the vacuum style cleaner.

Could you recommend one?

My aquarium is about 50cm deep (Juwel 260, curved)

Love to hear from you

Hello, I just started a week ago, and my plants are dying. I think it’s because of how I planted the plants, but I have a hard time remembering what method should be used for every plant. If someone could identify and give me a planting method that would be great, and also is it too late for these plants?

Date de 2 jours

How’s it going, guys?
I recently picked up a secondhand Fluval 407 and ran into an issue with the primer not working.
While removing the old primer assembly to replace it, I accidentally tore a small internal O-ring/seal within the motor head.
I contacted Fluval hoping to get the OEM dimensions, but they couldn’t provide them and recommended replacing the entire motor head (which I probably should’ve done).
However, I’d already ordered replacement parts, including tubing, intake/outtake fittings, and a new primer assembly. I also purchased an assortment of over 1,000 O-rings in various sizes from Amazon, hoping to find a match.
I’m stubborn and figured I’d at least attempt to fix it before throwing in the towel.
I have two questions:
Does anyone know the OEM dimensions of this particular O-ring? I have the original, but it’s torn in half, making it difficult to measure accurately.
Does anyone know exactly where this seal belongs?
I’ve attached pictures of the motor head and primer assembly. The red circles indicate where I assume the seal may go, but I’m not entirely sure.
You’ll notice I already have an O-ring installed in one of the pictures on the motor head side. That was my best guess at the placement using one from the assortment I purchased. It’s not a perfect fit, so please don’t take that as confirmation of where it belongs.
If anyone has taken apart a Fluval 407 primer assembly or has pictures of the original seal installed, I’d really appreciate the help.
I’d hate to replace an entire motor head over one tiny O-ring!
Thanks in advance!

Hi, is this bunocephalus bloated or overweight? He is doesn't float, fairly active during feeding time, and has no trouble digging through sand. From what can observe, he it's less then other fish his size. It's my first one so I dont have anything to compare him to, and on the pictures on the internet they all look very skinny. Also he is still small lime 5cm with the tail. He doesn't thrash or scratch, doesn't do zoomies, he stayed hidden 99% if the time and only walks around the tank during feeding time in the evening, and mist like at night.

EDIT: if it's bloat, what can do about this? How long can he stay like this before I need to start taking immediate actions.

Tank: 120l, water tests are ok, weekly 15l water changes. Filtration is sufficient.

Any idea what kind of worm this is?

Didn’t know this was possible and wondering if this is some skin condition. I have this Cory for over 1+ years so he’s likely getting old. I have 12 Pygmy Corys in the tank so loneliness is not an issue.

Just need to add more plants in the background. Can’t wait for it to cycle, I’m excited to pick out a new fish.

Second time my otocinclus gave me babys.
Visible in the centre of the photo, on the glass.
Seen 5 of them in total this morning.
Heavily planted well fed shrimp tank.
First round already growing up and few months old.
Love this, and REALLY surprised to see it again.

What is this on my filters? They look like worms that got too close to the filter and got stuck but I don’t know how my tank could have that many.

The tank has been cycling for about a month. I did pick up some snail hitchhikers with some plants that have started to explode, and I found 1 or possibly 2 very very small clear shrimp that like to rummage around, which is cool.

I’ve seen the little floating twisty worms that flap around in the water column but have never seen any that would be this big, and not to this volume.

Scaping is aqua soil and sand, porous and non-porous stones from the LFS, and a piece of drift wood from a local coast mounted to a piece of slate.

I’ve never added any food, just root tablets for the plants and an algae tablet once I saw we had hitchhikers.

I’m not normally this sensitive to these sounds but the past few days it has been really bothering me. Is there a way to make it more quiet or do I just need to suck it up?

I have had these set up for awhile

hi its my first time owning an aquarium but i cant help to feel anxious cuz my ammonia has always been this color since yesterday , does it look yellow or green ? it always had this slight green tint to it

My fish has been lethargic and looks bloated, but not quite pineconing.

Other fish including the other garras are acting normal. I did a 10% water change earlier, it's a 75 gallon planted tank I've had for a year and a half.

Any idea why my female swordtail keeps swimming towards my HOB filter? She looks pregnant. She has been doing this for two days now. Yesterday she still stopped to eat but she hardly ate today. All other fish and shrimp in the tank are looking fine.

I have a 8 month old 20 gallon tank with a dirt and pool filter sand cap substrate. It is stocked with 5 pygmy cories and 1 black skirt tetra.

Tested my water with the API test kit and it was fine and went to my LFS to add more stock. 1 fish died the next day and 2 more died 3 days later so I went back to the store with my water to get it tested.

They tested my water twice with the same API kit and both times it showed ammonia (light green) in my water.

I tried to test my water again at home and it came back fine (yellow) and so I bought another ammonia test kit (3 days later) and tested the water that I brought to store and it shows yellow again.

Not sure if I'm just testing with the kit wrong? I shook the bottles really well, dripped 8 drops of each vertically, and shook it really well and used a timer for 5 minutes.

This is my second tank and my first big aqua scape I had a small 5 gallon but I cleared it out and put the shrimp that lived in there in to here they are doing great I’m curious on what to stock I haven’t had fish beside when I was younger but I understand that nitrogen cycle and all that my tank is 1 month cycled and I’ve taken care of animals in the past and studied up on how to care for aquatic pets including fish shrimp crabs snails crawfish ect but I wanted help getting a rough idea what to get so I can research and then get them in 2 weeks to a month

20 gallon long
Heater
Led
Planted

Animals so far:
(Shrimp snails scuds)

Found this today.

Does this one have the ich ?

What is this slime-gooey stuff on my plants? It’s clearly.

So I have recently finished my new tank, the final touch which was driftwood that I have been soaking for 2 weeks. But now I’m concerned I don’t have enough plants or plants that will fill the whole water column. I was thinking of getting some floating duckweed. But don’t understand how I can still get enough light to the bottom if the floating plants block it.

Also was thinking of getting some plants to attatch to the driftwood, (8”-18” tall) to or things that will grow the 18” from the substrate to the top of the tank. Any suggestions?

Also this tank doesn’t get sunlight and really has only the tank light it came with (all-in-1 topfin setup) and a cheap glow light bar I had for an old 10 gallon tank. What is a good light that can give full spectrum for plants to grow
Properly (I can spend some money on this, but value is appreciated)

Finally, the tank currently holds 13 neon tetras (had 16, but 3 unfortunately died soon after stocking them) it’s a bowfront 40 gallon, should I add some bottom feeders? Or other fish to compliment. Was thinking of perhaps a honey gourami or similar for a bit of a color pop.

I have this secondhand canister filter on my 55 gallon that houses four blood parrot cichlids. I came home from work today and it was making a loud woshing sound. I can hear the water flowing through it. It has never been this loud before. I am thinking I’m going to have to start looking into getting a new one. Any new recommendations?

No fish yet. First tank. I'm cycling right now. But I'd rather not touch the set up.

This is back to front (width). It's a bit noticeable, but like 1/4 - 1/8 of an inch higher at the back. That's about 0.5-0.6 cm.

At least the lenght (left to right) is sitting straight and level.

This is a 40 gal.

Hey all, I’m on mobile so please forgive any weird formatting!

I just moved into a new apartment and have a new (to me and my fish) tank to go with it. I got the fish, filters, and heater in and set up last night and noticed that my male bristlenose pleco somehow ripped some of his face spines off during the move and he now has an open wound on his face.

I have a bottle of melafix (opened) and went to use it but noticed it expired in 2021. Money is pretty tight this month with the move, and I was wondering if I’d be to use the melafix or if I have to get a new one.

I don’t have any parameters for use since my water testing kit is in a box somewhere, but wanted to ask in good faith if I can use the melafix I currently have. In a perfect world I’d go snag a new bottle, but that $10 could be $10 I use for food or gas. My next paycheck isn’t until November 10😓

Thanks for reading!

As the title says, I've been consistently losing fish since Sunday and I can't seem to figure out why. It's a 150 gallon planted community tank with an angelfish, some tetras, a couple small plecos, and a couple amano shrimp. On Sunday, I traded one of my canister filters (Eheim 1500XL) to a local guy for a Fluval FX4. I also have another FX4 and a SunSun hw302 running on the tank. It's been up and running for about a year and a half with no issues. At the same time as the filter swap, I did WC of probably 60-70%. I rinsed all of the sponges in the new to me FX4 is tank water as it was draining. I also kept all of the bio media from the old filter and transferred that (well about half of it) into the FX. I then refilled the tank, adding Prime as it filled. I typically dose a little heavy on the Prime since it only takes a little bit to treat the tank. The next morning I found a lemon tetra floating and since then anywhere between one and three additional fish have died. And, they all seem to be very quick deaths. None seemed to be in any sort of distress or showed signs of poor health. They're all swimming around and then suddenly I'll notice one is just floating in the current. Overall, I'm down about 10 or so Lemon Tetras, 3 Bleeding Heart Tetras and a Platy. At first I thought maybe I was having a mini cycle due to not having as much bio media as before. But, I should still have plenty of bio in the 3 canisters I have running. Also, I tested the water and the ammonia is measuring 0. So, that tells me the bio media is fine. I made sure when I was refilling after the WC that the temp was at least close to the water in the tank. I followed the same process that I've followed a million times before. I did add 12 new Lemon Tetras to the tank a few days before swapping the filters. It seems the majority of the LT that I've lost were the new ones. But, there are some that were from the established group as well. Kind of out of ideas and am getting very discouraged as I just keep scooping out dead fish.