Old Powerhead Maintenance

[paul b]

This powerhead has been running non stop since the eightees when they invented them. It has only stopped a a few times when the power was out.

Lately, if it stopped, I could not get it running again and I would have to take it apart and spin the impeller a few times to start it.

I decided today to do a little badly needed maintenance. Of course, I could always buy a new one, but anyone can do that. Part of this hobby is maintenance and repair.

The shaft was badly worn allowing the magnet on the impeller to contact the sides of the housing and the hole where the shaft attaches to the housing was egg shaped due to age and vibration. I epoxied the shaft in the hole so I could center it and I used shrink tubeing on the shaft where the metal was worn away. I also lubricated the shaft with food grade silicone. Now I know the shrink tubeing will not last 20 years like the stainless steel shaft but It will probably last a year or two. If not, who cares, I think I got my moneys worth out of this powerhead by now.

Besides I do have some stainless steel radio antennas which I could make into a new shaft, but that is a project for next year.

Now the thing runs perfectly.

 

That strange looking below it is my surface skimmer. I think I built that the same time I got that powerhead. I don't have a sump or any holes drilled in the tank so that "device" skimms the surface of the water and feeds water to the homemade skimmer which feeds the algae trough.

So that one powerhead provides surface skimming, protein skimming and supplies the algae trough.

 

 

[hbh]

HI! Would you be willing say again how you keep your black worms and in what? I bought some today and did stick a small piece of paper towel into the bag and they are now in the refrig. I really hope my teen daughter does NOT see them! If she does see them, it's likely she won't eat for a week! Hmmm... a new way to save on my grocery budget?

In the long term I'd rather they be in the tank. My pump system goes across the top of my tank so flow would be fine. My clowns didn't care for the worms but the 1 large PJ cardinal really did and soon another was eating them too. In my 20L the tomato clown and turbo damsels really enjoyed their snack of worms. Thanks for talking about it!

[Origami]

HI! Would you be willing say again how you keep your black worms and in what? I bought some today and did stick a small piece of paper towel into the bag and they are now in the refrig. I really hope my teen daughter does NOT see them! If she does see them, it's likely she won't eat for a week! Hmmm... a new way to save on my grocery budget?

In the long term I'd rather they be in the tank. My pump system goes across the top of my tank so flow would be fine. My clowns didn't care for the worms but the 1 large PJ cardinal really did and soon another was eating them too. In my 20L the tomato clown and turbo damsels really enjoyed their snack of worms. Thanks for talking about it!

 

Holly, look here for Paul's worm keeper: http://www.wamas.org/forums/topic/30557-live-blackworms/page__view__findpost__p__264858

 

Please note that they're kept in fresh water, not salt.

[paul b]

Thats it, and if you keep them in the fridge, you should not feed them paper towels or anything else. You only need to feed them if you keep them at room temperature in something like I pictured. They die in seconds in saltwater

[treesprite]

Shrink tubing - very clever.