• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Twinstar..what is it?

Guys we do run them in half of our tanks now. Around 11 tanks probably in our gallery. The ones where we have it installed is absolutelly stunning.
Less issue when we leave the shop for a few days and no fertilizers are in, or we skip the water change etc. Like an angel sitting on our shoulders 🙂

You can browse my flickr gallery and you will see how many tanks got it.

Super clean sand, mosses which never gets algae and no need to vacum them at all. Just these 2 things are super value for us.

I am still love with them. But back to the cleaning question, i do not have a good answer unfortunatelly.
Plates gets clogged by minerals that can be cleaned in a few hours. The issue is when the plate gets darker and will diffuse less.

We had a contest in the past 2.5 months with our community and we used these devices to run the tanks without major issues. Will open up a thread for this as the whole contest was exciting. But these devices performed really well there too.
 
Piece-of-fish said:
I have tried to find out how to safely clean with something different than superge. Heard Twinstar is releasing special liquid soon.
On the feedback note I am loving my 2 units and would like them in every tank now 🙁
Having more than 5 aquariums with co2 does not help!
Click to expand...


Ok thanks, please keep us posted.., also really loving mine and has added the extra sparkle and clarity to the tank, just in time for IAPLC picture fun.

I thought I could perhaps get away with two units in 760l, probably closer to 600l minus the hardscape, especially as they fire so rapidly when you first put them in, but three seems to be working for me, as recommended by the Twinstar folk .. will get a side view pic up at some point..

I managed to momentarily get the bottom part of the one control unit wet where the input sockets are located, it was fortunately off at the time. It was easy to take the back cover off the control panel with the three screws, so made sure the circuit board was dry with a blower and then let it dry for a further day, and it seems to be working 100s.
 
viktorlantos said:
Guys we do run them in half of our tanks now. Around 11 tanks probably in our gallery. The ones where we have it installed is absolutelly stunning.
Less issue when we leave the shop for a few days and no fertilizers are in, or we skip the water change etc. Like an angel sitting on our shoulders 🙂

You can browse my flickr gallery and you will see how many tanks got it.
.
Click to expand...
How are sales of the units going Viktor? Is it gaining in acceptance / curiosity / trend?
 
NatureBoy said:
How are sales of the units going Viktor? Is it gaining in acceptance / curiosity / trend?
Click to expand...

To be honest device is selling well. But it's worth to think about why it is meanwhile the UV filters are really not going well.
I think the reason why more people jumped in because they've seen expert feedback for the first time. Had many positive tests and the long-term tests feedbacks are positive too.
People who sell this are really not average shops. They are usually expert in their field. And if they feel good about it they easily sell it.

Most of our client are happy about it we do use many of them in our showroom and just like Dave Chow we slowly add this into most of our client installations.

I do use them in the past 8 months and this is really good. But still my ealrier comment is valid. This is for someone who knows the basics. As for beginners there will be many other issues to solve and get over on it.
For an advanced person this is really helpful.

In my country some folks did already the DIY version of it. So it is not about it anymore that it is effective or not it is much more about how we can do this at home. 🙂
 
  • Like
Reactions: tim
viktorlantos said:
I do use them in the past 8 months and this is really good
Click to expand...
Hi Victor,

Do you think it really helps keep rocks clean? Every month I have to pull out rocks (Unzan Stone) and treat them with Excel or H2O2. If the Twinstar reduced the need to do this I think it's worth the cost, plus for some scapes you might not be able to take the rocks out...


P
 
I've seen cases when the seiryu stayed clean with Twinstar. But if you have a super powerful light no matter you have this thing, your stones will be green for sure. Like in this client tank where all plants looks super healthy, but the stones goes green in a short time
https://www.flickr.com/photos/emze75/13953170740/

Of course he is using an ATI light. But sand is clean, no algae on plants, water is clear.

He used an EI fertilizer here and his stones become green in a minute. Then he switched to an ADA one where nitrate is super low almost zero and PO4 is also low, and the stones stays clean much longer.
So sometimes the ferts also plays here. But i have to add that with the EI his plants grown a lot. If he misses the current one for a day or 2 the plants goes pale.

Back to the decor question. As i see dragon stays clean using Twinstar. Lava stones too. But Seiryu usually goes green as Manten too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: xim
Piece-of-fish said:
I have tried to find out how to safely clean with something different than superge. Heard Twinstar is releasing special liquid soon.
On the feedback note I am loving my 2 units and would like them in every tank now 🙁
Having more than 5 aquariums with co2 does not help!
Click to expand...

I had to resort to trying some plain old de-scaler. I was doing the shower head in a solution so decided to drop the diffuser in as well. 30 minutes later, clean and clear 😉

I have been cleaning every week, in strong ADA superge (suggested a capful per litre, my solution was a capful in a mug sort of thing so considerably stronger) and this was left overnight. Performance does seem to have dropped off quite a lot...

I'm also getting weird white deposit on my diffuser, this appears every week! Thought it could be food particles that rest on the plates but it's definitely not, can't be any rocks in the tank as it's never done it before. So pretty clueless why this keeps reappearing, anyone else had the same??

IMAG0035_zps2f6acc5a.jpg

It's soft at first but gets harder when left. ADA Superge doesn't do much to help and i'd resorted to poking at it all with a pin, but the kettle de-scaler soon got rid!

Think i need a 15 second reset to beef mine up again! lol

Regards,
Rob
 
Try household limescale remover.
I do really like my Twinstars now. Been sceptical I must admit. I do want them in all my tanks now. They are not magic but they do what they claim. My maintenance has reduced and both hardscape rock and glass are much cleaner now.
I have been talking with Twinstar at interzoo and they suggest we can use bleach for cleaning. It should not harm the diffuser. The calcium deposits if any could be cleaned with hydroshloric acid or household limescale remover.
You do want sufficient units for your size. One nano is efficient for an aquarium up to 180l. Bigger than that and you want 2 units. I am using one on exactly this size tank and that is were I see it working. Because of not so good flow distribution I have green rock on one side of the tank which I clean every day. The other side which gets more bubbles is spottless and I have not touched it in about 6 weeks now (from the beginning). I have added a powerhead to help with the distribution and will report once I see the results.
 
Piece-of-fish said:
Try household limescale remover.
Click to expand...

It is not working. Here is the unit after OVERNIGHT soak in limescale remover 1st June

010614_zps36071947.jpg

Here is the unit in the tank on 3rd June, 3 DAYS LATER

030614_zps8a4190fe.jpg

This is what is happening constantly. Limescale remover gets it back to like the first pic, but in a matter of 3 or 4 days it is covered in white bits again. Going to be a lot of work and cost a lot to keep it clean!! 🙁 🙁

Anyone have direct contact details for Twinstar as i'd be interested to hear what they have to say?? It did not start doing this until a few weeks ago, after the first few months of faultless operation.

Cheers,
Rob
 
Does twinstar sell spare diffuser plates? Sounds like a lot of hard work but you could rotate between them like people do with their CO2 diffusers.
 
Mr. Teapot said:
Does twinstar sell spare diffuser plates? Sounds like a lot of hard work but you could rotate between them like people do with their CO2 diffusers.
Click to expand...

I think they have just started selling them but they're not cheap (and to be honest the original should perform well beyond 4 months without issue, especially when meticulously cleaned so regularly!!).

And it wouldn't make a difference as the diffuser cleans up in limsecale remover within 30 minutes (soaking overnight does no better job) but i should not have be doing this every 3 or 4 days lol

I have found their email address anyway and emailed them the images, have to wait and see what they say...
 
Rob P said:
It is not working. Here is the unit after OVERNIGHT soak in limescale remover 1st June

010614_zps36071947.jpg

Here is the unit in the tank on 3rd June, 3 DAYS LATER

030614_zps8a4190fe.jpg

This is what is happening constantly. Limescale remover gets it back to like the first pic, but in a matter of 3 or 4 days it is covered in white bits again. Going to be a lot of work and cost a lot to keep it clean!! 🙁 🙁

Anyone have direct contact details for Twinstar as i'd be interested to hear what they have to say?? It did not start doing this until a few weeks ago, after the first few months of faultless operation.

Cheers,
Rob
Click to expand...

The problem is that, your diffuser plate turned black. This could be for several reson like too strong cleaning solution, iron dosing etc. this can not be cleaned. Once the diffusers plate turns black and diffusion stops, cleaning solution not works, the diffuser unit have to be replaced.

It cost like 50 eur, so not cheap, but as far as i know this is the only way.

Originally the meshes are white. Like a teflon covered mesh. But when it is black it looks like this coating melted and you only see the wires
 
viktorlantos said:
The problem is that, your diffuser plate turned black. This could be for several reson like too strong cleaning solution, iron dosing etc. this can not be cleaned. Once the diffusers plate turns black and diffusion stops, cleaning solution not works, the diffuser unit have to be replaced.

It cost like 50 eur, so not cheap, but as far as i know this is the only way.

Originally the meshes are white. Like a teflon covered mesh. But when it is black it looks like this coating melted and you only see the wires
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comments Viktor. I don't think there's a UK distributor selling replacement diffusers yet! That's a sod if i've only got 4 months use from it. I sent email to sales@twinstar.kr with images/asking for advice but I have not had any reply after over 2 weeks 🙁
 
for such an expensive toy you would expect it to last longer....much longer also come with some cleaning instructions....

viktorlantos said:
iron dosing
Click to expand...
If it can't even handle iron than what is it doing in a planted tank.

I only cleaned it with normal vinegar and it stopped working totally...a bit disappointing about this I have to say.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top