southamericancichlidguy23

happy birthday :)

It came with the tank that was bought used. Why?

here question i broke the little hoses that go in the tubes can u buy them new i hope so

Next, using a gravel vacuum, clean the gravel to get out as much junk as you can. It looks like your gravel is pretty deep and uses a large grain size. For that reason you may have to stir up the gravel and then replace 50% of the water. I'd only to this is the gravel vac doesn't appear to be lifting out the dirt from the gravel. If you do stir up the gravel and remove 50% of the water, the tank may appear dirty for a day or so. You may even have to repeat the gravel vac in a week or so but you should be vacuuming it every other week anyway

If after all this you have to look for two things: 1) Are the bubbles flowing strong enough 2) are the bubbles flowing evenly between the four tubes. If the bubbles aren't strong enough you’re due for a new pump. If the bubbles aren't even then you'll need to buy a gang value to control the air flow to the individual tubes.

Hope this helps!

Here's what I do and I have the same setup as you although I'm only using 2 of the four lift tubes.

On each lift tube you should be able to remove the top leaving the long tube connected to the undergravel plates. You can buy a brush that will fit in the long tubes to clean them without removing them from the tank. When you remove the tops, a long skinny tube should come out with them. At the end of these long skinny tubes is the air stone that can be replaced. The LFS store should sell them. They come in fine or course bubbles. I like the course ones. You can put the tops back on the long tubes after you've replaced the air stones and cleaned the tubes

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