I own a pair of Gyre 250's in my 72" 125 as the sole means of flow besides the returns, and they are by far providing the best flow of anything that I have ever used. I've also owned a 150 since about a week after they first came out, and I think I disassembled it twice in its entire lifetime, because I used the procedure below.
I'm also having chemical issues that is causing significant precipitation in my current tank, so more than most I need an easy way of dealing with that on a weekly basis and since I keep hearing how hard gyres are to clean, I figured I would share pictures.
As with most tank related problems I wandered into the local Home Despot's plumbing section and ended up with this...
1) Get 2 2 foot lengths of 4" PVC
2) Glue a single endcap to each to make two very tall narrow buckets
3) Fill one with vinegar and one with water
4) Remove a pump, run for 30 minutes in vinegar
5) Rinse in the water filled tube
6) Return to tank
Doesn't hurt to run them in forwards and reverse a couple of times to shake any gunk loose.
It's costing me about $2 a week in vinegar right now, but I can live with that. And yes, I can appreciate that "run your pumps in vinegar" is hardly innovative, but at least the technique prevents you from having to fill an entire 5 gallon bucket full, since these things are a really funky shape.
The 150 was run for about 2 years and disassembled maybe twice. I'm doing this weekly currently because of my dosing problems, but the 150 I did maybe once a month (and by that I mean maybe once every 3 - I am terrible at maintenance). It doesn't eliminate the need for a full take-apart cleaning, but it definitely puts off the need to for a bit.
If you have a handy 6" granite shelf around your tank (product sold separately) like me, you don't need to do anything beyond pulling it out of the tank and placing it into the tube. In my opinion, everyone should have a 6" granite shelf around their tank.
Dave
I'm also having chemical issues that is causing significant precipitation in my current tank, so more than most I need an easy way of dealing with that on a weekly basis and since I keep hearing how hard gyres are to clean, I figured I would share pictures.
As with most tank related problems I wandered into the local Home Despot's plumbing section and ended up with this...
1) Get 2 2 foot lengths of 4" PVC
2) Glue a single endcap to each to make two very tall narrow buckets
3) Fill one with vinegar and one with water
4) Remove a pump, run for 30 minutes in vinegar
5) Rinse in the water filled tube
6) Return to tank
Doesn't hurt to run them in forwards and reverse a couple of times to shake any gunk loose.
It's costing me about $2 a week in vinegar right now, but I can live with that. And yes, I can appreciate that "run your pumps in vinegar" is hardly innovative, but at least the technique prevents you from having to fill an entire 5 gallon bucket full, since these things are a really funky shape.
The 150 was run for about 2 years and disassembled maybe twice. I'm doing this weekly currently because of my dosing problems, but the 150 I did maybe once a month (and by that I mean maybe once every 3 - I am terrible at maintenance). It doesn't eliminate the need for a full take-apart cleaning, but it definitely puts off the need to for a bit.
If you have a handy 6" granite shelf around your tank (product sold separately) like me, you don't need to do anything beyond pulling it out of the tank and placing it into the tube. In my opinion, everyone should have a 6" granite shelf around their tank.
Dave
