[Fishstein]

I've used a small diffuser with a ceramic disk in the past - it worked very well until it got clogged - I had to unclog the ceramic disk by soaking it in bleach and water about every 2 weeks, so I kept 2 on hand that I could switch.

I was thinking about getting a Red Sea 500 diffuser, but my only worry is that I have Malaysian Trumpet Snails, and while they are good for the substrate and plants, the small ones crawl onto the surface of my powerhead intake and clog it so that I have to pull them off about once every two weeks. Since the Red Sea works with a powerhead, I'm afraid I'll have to do the same maintenance to pull off MTS from the intake.

I've used a powerhead to chop up bubbles in the past, as well as a cannister filter, but I don't like having thousands of small bubbles all over the water column, and it may not be healthy for the fish (I've read somewhere that the many small bubbles can cause fish distress, not sure if true).

What would be the lowest maintenance diffuser I could use in tank?

And if my best bet would be an inline diffuser, what recommendations do you have and how can one avoid water leaks through the hole where the C02 is fed?

 

[mott]

I have both and MTS and I have to say the reactor is less maintenance IMHO.MTS will crawl in the mixing area but I didnt notice any at the pwhd intake...
Also I dont know about anyone else but I found it hard to get the reactor going after a WC.Maybe because it didnt stay submerged when I did the WC?

 

[Fishstein]

Thanks Mott. So you do like the Red Sea 500? How low in the water column do you have it? Perhaps keeping the unit very low (I like to keep my diffuser very low and hidden at the bottom and back of the tank - hence part of the reason to avoid maintaining it all the time) will keep the unit from rising during water changes. Or try weighting it with a rock leaned against it or tied to it.

 

[mott]

Yes it seems to do just as good a job as my rhinox 5000.I have to bleach my 5000 every 2 or 3 weeks and as I remember the 500 didn't need cleaning for a good 2 months,I am a stickler for clean equipment tho
I kept the 500 not too low in the tank, in retrospect I should have kept it a lot lower and left it running during WC's.
Good luck.

 

[Fishstein]

Can anyone suggest any small easy to hide glass diffusers that will do the job in a 75 gallon tank and require little maintenance that I can also consider?