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Quality of aquarium gear - What did you have to replace in the last few years?

Joined
26 Feb 2013
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3,412
I had to find out the hard way how many things can go wrong....

In the last few years numerous things broke on me.

I replaced several heaters. Surprisingly the only one that lasted is a brandless Chinese heater I got with one of my tanks for free from a shop that was closing down years ago. It still works like a champ and its been many years.... The rest of them just stopped heating the water. A tetra heater is still working but has locked itself on 25'C. And I still have an Eheim heater but it is relatively new so early to tell...

The light that came with my Juwel 15G tank broke 3 times and I had to return it for replacement. On the third time I bought an Arcadia stretch light. It too failed just after 2 years of use but was promptly replaced by the retailer.

A custom made LED light broke multiple times, starting from the led drivers to the leds themselves but the one that made the light disappeared in thin air. It is repairable though if I had the skills and will to do it.

The old T5s on two of my tanks had a bust tube each too.

My eheim filter needed a hose connector, o-ring(both causing leaking issues)Then the impeller shaft broke, then the impeller itself broke. This all happened time apart.

The impeller of my koralia powerhead cracked too.

I bought a sand bed filter years ago which leaked. I threw the filter in the bin after 1 year use or so.

A JBL inlet and outlet cracked around the connectors...They were connected to my Eheim so perhaps too much pressure for them because the outlet was "whistling" at some stage and I had to drill the holes bigger....

I will not mention 2 glass tanks failing for various reasons and numerous carpet flooding incidents, a couple of which due to the outlets detaching and the water making a turn and travelling down my back glass :) I guess there's only me to blame for that...

So far the only things that lasted were all my Fluval internal filters and my APS external filters. The Chinese made powerheads on two of my trickle filters were working the last time I disconnected them. And the Eheim external pump is still functioning perfectly.

I am probably forgetting something.....:)
 
Only heaters in my case. I buy the fix temperature ones because I don't need much heat where I live, and of course I don't use them in spring-summer-autumn. Every time I need them they just don't work. Also lily pipes, I managed to break one every other year but always my fault (going much too fast in all the cases). The rest is perfectly doing for some years now (cheapo lights, JBL/Eheim filters, CO2Art stuff for CO2)

Jordi
 
Eheim jager are the dogs. Not the longest time ever but mine are on for 5 years now as well as a Hydor inline 5 years on. All others I've had are lucky if they get past a year.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
 
Two of my heaters have failed too, though I've had a circulation pump behaving badly & have some bad silicone work on a tank too, always faults happen at the weekend - when mot easy to replace quickly!
 
Eheim jager are the dogs

Yep, that's the one that is still working but I only bought it a year or so ago. It's been quite good so far and I was planning on getting another one.


Two of my heaters have failed too, though I've had a circulation pump behaving badly & have some bad silicone work on a tank too, always faults happen at the weekend - when mot easy to replace quickly!

Strangely enough, every time I had a disaster I was at home. It was either in the evening or the weekend. The worst was the last time as it happened Sunday night but the sound of splashing water was so loud, it woke us up :) At least I saved all fish but I lost hundreds of shrimp.

The failing heaters were quite easy to spot as I put the fish food under the water every day in order for it to sink easier, and I have developed "thermometer probes" on my finger tips over the years :)
 
A couple of hidom internals, x3 aquael internals, aps heater, tetra ex800 and an ehiem air pump. So a fair bit for me has malfunctioned since 2013 when i started keeping fish properly. The air pump and an aqauel internal still needs sending back, its not troubling me though since i don't plan on using them. I started out buying tanks from second hand shops that came with loads of stuff but some of the stuff with it like filter didn't work or out of date treatments. I learned real soon to just buy new.
 
Eheim ceramic impeller shaft's for me.
Don't know why they can't make them from stainless steel.
Have other canister's,powerhead's,HOB filter's, that all use stainless steel:rolleyes:.
 
I have a solution for the heater problem. Not all of its in jest....

1.seek out good condition second hand heaters over 2 years old.
2.test them before you purchase them..ie hang around the sellers house for 5 hours while your temperature logger does its thing.
3.buy and enjoy them for 5 more years then go back to one.

:wave:
 
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