[Ryan Mosby]

I've spent all evening and into the night trying to set up a new 20 gallon long. I'm exhausted. Substrate, added water, no cloudiness, all going well, and then comes the part where I set up the equipment. It's my first time using a canister filter, and though the instructions were pretty difficult, there were several YouTube tutorials (Thank you, YouTubers).

Inflow pipe too long:
Apparently my glass inflow lily pipe is too long, it would have to be buried deep into the substrate to fit my 20 gallon long. I've tried searching for glass inflow pipes that are 7-8" long for 12/16 mm tubing, but I can only find ones 5.2" or 10-12" tall.

Heater too long:
I went with the Eheim Jager 50W with the plant to put one on each end of the tank. Well, surprise! They're really tall. I can't put them vertically without them being buried in the substrate, and I know that's a dangerous situation. Can I hide them behind the 3d background, that shouldn't have any substrate behind it? Or hide them behind these, if I can bury out spots in the substrate? Heater Covers HC-001 | Aquarium Tank Products | Universal Rocks

 

[ichthyogeek]

For the heater, can you situate them diagonally?

 

[minorhero]

What is wrong with the smaller 5.2 inch lily pipe?

A lot of folks prefer their heater horizontal. If you stick it behind something like a background then you just have to worry about water flow. If there is good water flow it's fine. Otherwise not so much.

 

[Asteroid]

Not sure which lily pipe you have but you should be able to raise it above the rim to fit. I absolutely hate in-tank heaters, but that's me. You could have went with an in-line one like this. Do you definitely need a heater? My tank goes from 68 to 74 no heaters.

 

[mourip]

How about an OASE Indoor Aquatics Filtosmart Thermo 100 ? or 200 or 300?

Built-in replaceable heater, well made and quiet.

I have two of their big brother Biomaster filters and they are great.

Actually the OASE Indoor Aquatics Biomaster Thermo 250 would be perfect if you have the space for it. It even has the removable prefilter.

 

[AVN]

+1 to the inline heaters, I use one on the canister for my 20L because of the same height issues.

Also, my favorite solution >> throw it all in a sump.

 

[evil8]

How about an OASE Indoor Aquatics Filtosmart Thermo 100 ? or 200 or 300?

Built-in replaceable heater, well made and quiet.

I have two of their big brother Biomaster filters and they are great.

Actually the OASE Indoor Aquatics Biomaster Thermo 250 would be perfect if you have the space for it. It even has the removable prefilter.

I have the Oase Filtosmart Thermo 100 & 200 in my 16g Waterbox aquariums. (I also use the Biomaster Thermo 250 in an old half hex tank I think is 36g.) I can get my glass inflow to just barely fit on the tank with the 200. The tank with the 100 has nano pipes. I do have to use some petroleum jelly on the gaskets when I clean them or I get air leaks, but they are pretty decent filters.

 

[Ryan Mosby]

Inline heaters sound amazing! It sounds like I can set it up with the 12/16mm tubing from my Eheim 2213 filter? Right now I have a 50 W set up on both ends of the 20 gallon long. If I do a 100 W inline on the filter outflow hosing, will one end of the tank be a bit too cold?

I'm hesitant to raise a glass inflow pipe too high because I'd like to try and set a screen down on top of all these cords, to discourage fish (endlers) from jumping out. At the same time, I'm not seeing much other options, since nobody seems to make a glass inflow pipe that's 7-8" tall.

 

[minorhero]

Inline heaters sound amazing! It sounds like I can set it up with the 12/16mm tubing from my Eheim 2213 filter? Right now I have a 50 W set up on both ends of the 20 gallon long. If I do a 100 W inline on the filter outflow hosing, will one end of the tank be a bit too cold?

I'm hesitant to raise a glass inflow pipe too high because I'd like to try and set a screen down on top of all these cords, to discourage fish (endlers) from jumping out. At the same time, I'm not seeing much other options, since nobody seems to make a glass inflow pipe that's 7-8" tall.

I don't think there is a 100w inline heater available these days. I am buying (haven't received it yet, thank you USPS) an inline heater for my 120P build, from my research there are essentially 3 brands of inline heaters currently available in the states. Hydor, Ista, and a random brand sold under different badges but is mostly commonly seen as Datoo. None of those go down to 100w. But Ista sells a 150w. That said, the 150 will work fine for you. Your tank is not so big that you need to worry about the heat coming from only one direction. Water does a pretty good job maintaining temperature and if a 75 gallon or 120 gallon tank can be heated entirely from a single inline heater your 20 gallon can as well.

So long as the inflow pipe is not shooting water up above the rim the shorter pipe will be fine and given the construction of the pipes I sincerely doubt this will be an issue. I am using some nano stainless steel pipes on my shallow DOOA tank and the water definitely stays well below the rim of the tank without any special consideration on my part. Good luck!

 

[mourip]

For short filter intake lily pipes, take a look at Jardli. They have some very short ones listed here.

 

[Ryan Mosby]

For short filter intake lily pipes, take a look at Jardli. They have some very short ones listed here.

The only issue with those is they're too short. A 5.2" inflow will be 5" away from the substrate. Next size up I find is about 10", which would touch the substrate.

Will a 200 W inline heater be too much for a 20 gallon long? I can't do a filtosmart because I already have the filter, an Eheim 2213.

 

[mourip]

Will a 200 W inline heater be too much for a 20 gallon long? I can't do a filtosmart because I already have the filter, an Eheim 2213.

Seems about right. Is your room temp pretty stable throughout the year?

 

[Ryan Mosby]

It's 74 F throughout the year, and 65-70 F during winter. I'd like to keep the tank at a constant 78 F.

I couldn't find any glass lily pipe inflows that were between 7-8" tall so just ordered the short 5.2" long one. I also bought the Hydor Inline Heater 200W. Thank you everyone for the help!

 

[FischAutoTechGarten]

+1 to the inline heaters, I use one on the canister for my 20L because of the same height issues.

Also, my favorite solution >> throw it all in a sump.

I put 4 (soon to be 6) 20 gallon long aquariums together and then feed them to 2 other 20 gallon long aquariums that act as my sump.... so yeah... can throw it all in the sump.

 

[Ryan Mosby]

@minorhero @mourip I received the 5.2" long glass inflow lily pipe. However, the plastic rim of my aquarium is .75" thick. It wouldn't fit. I shouldn't have tried to gently force it, it shattered.

I guess I'll have to go a 10" long one, stick it up higher off the rim, and go without a lid. I'll have to just hope the endlers don't jump out. I could try to cut a hole in the metal mesh screen of the lid, though. Or just move the lid a little more off to the side and hope they don't jump out the gap.

I have one of the tall glass inflow pipes but it has a skimmer on top, so when I hooked it up to the filter (with the entire thing held higher above the rim, and the skimmer way above surface level) it made some pretty bad noises.

 

[mourip]

@minorhero @mourip I received the 5.2" long glass inflow lily pipe. However, the plastic rim of my aquarium is .75" thick. It wouldn't fit. I shouldn't have tried to gently force it, it shattered. I guess I'll have to go a 10" long one, stick it up higher off the rim, and go without a lid. I'll have to just hope the endlers don't jump out.
I have one of the tall glass inflow pipes but it has a skimmer on top, so when I hooked it up to the filter (with the entire thing held higher above the rim, and the skimmer way above surface level) it made some pretty bad noises.

Bummer. I broke my first set of glass almost immediately. It just took one tap. They really do look great when clean though.

I have two sets now so that I can swap them out and take my time in cleaning.

The surface skimmer is really meant to work so that the plastic part bobs on the surface and never bottoms out against the glass beneath it. If it is too high it will just suck air and not do it's job.

Do some browsing in the Tank Journal section here. There are a bunch of 20 longs that are not rimless and use lily pipes...

Good luck!

 

[minorhero]

I have a nano set of stainless steel pipes that would work. If they didn't fit you could bend them a bit.https://www.amazon.com/CHIHIROS-AQUARIUM-STAINLESS-INFLOW-OUTFLOW/dp/B08JCCGLMR/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=CHIHIROS+METAL+JET+PIPE&qid=1613910685&sr=8-3

 

[Ryan Mosby]

I have a nano set of stainless steel pipes that would work. If they didn't fit you could bend them a bit.https://www.amazon.com/CHIHIROS-AQUARIUM-STAINLESS-INFLOW-OUTFLOW/dp/B08JCCGLMR/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=CHIHIROS+METAL+JET+PIPE&qid=1613910685&sr=8-3

That sounds perfect, and like it'd be the right length. Do you use this one (small size) personally? It doesn't say on the listing or their website what the distance is between the pipes, but you say I can bend it enough to fit a rimmed edge?

 

[minorhero]

That sounds perfect, and like it'd be the right length. Do you use this one (small size) personally? It doesn't say on the listing or their website what the distance is between the pipes, but you say I can bend it enough to fit a rimmed edge?

I use this on my rimless tank (Shallow DOOA in my signature). If you give me a measurement of your rim I can measure the pipe and see what you would need to work with.

 

[Ryan Mosby]

@minorhero That'd be great, thank you! My rim is 0.75".