Anyone have a Hydor Ario Air Pumps?

Tommy Gun · 05-20-2007, 06:06 PM

Hello fellow fish addicts!

I recently purchased three of the Hydor Ario Turbo Air Pumps hoping that they would liven one of my aquariums up after 'lights out' each night. I bought the Ario 4 w/ LED versions; two red ones and one green one. After placing them in my tank about two weeks ago, I have only been able to get one of them to actually pump any air. I have contacted both the store I bought them from and the company that makes them and have gotten no good info on what I am doing wrong. I can get them all to work if I fiddle with them enough, but two of them will only run for a couple of minutes. I have followed the directions the best I can and still have no luck. So, I thought that I would turn to you guys to see if you can help me out here. Any tips or tricks you can give me?

Thanks in advance,
TG

BJP · 05-20-2007, 07:12 PM

I'm not sure how helpful contacting the company itself will be. I'm not sure they actually invented or introduced anything. Looking at their product line it appears to be mostly bought out patents from companys that went under like Rennasaunce which was the company started by the original Whisper employees that quit after Tetra bought them and reopened in the original Whisper plant in Italy once Tetra moved Whisper production to Asia. They had a good solid cannister filter that was low priced and I loved the HOB power filter that was basically the Whisper with decades of improvement added. I would actually purchase those two products again if they haven't fiddled with them too much.

I think they had a contract to supply Petsmart for a couple years but the product line disappeared from there.

That makes me a little nervous when combined with the earlier failure of Rennasaunce that I might once again get stuck with equipment but no media or replacement parts.

It appears the company itself is headquartered outside the US so it may take some time to get through if it's possible at all.

If you get fed up with it you can always just hook a normal bubblewand in a circle and put your led light in that. Several companys offer flexible bubblewands.

Tommy Gun · 05-20-2007, 07:24 PM

Thanks for the reply BJP. I actually have been using some regular bubble curtains with some moon lights shining specifically on them to get the same effect, but the reason I thought that these would be cool little gadgets is because there is no change of an air pump vibrating itself across my floor until it is touching the wall or something, which causes that very annoying buzz (at least annoying IMO). You are right about contacting the company though....they seem to know less than I do about their own product and so that is why I posted the question here. Its not a big deal, but it would be cool to get these things to work since I know they can be cool because one of them is working as we speak.

BJP · 05-20-2007, 08:19 PM

Are you having the problem in your saltwater tanks? Are the saltwater tanks grounded to a grounded outlet with a titanium grounding probe?

Tommy Gun · 05-20-2007, 09:06 PM

All three of these pumps are for my freshwater tank and even though I know I dont really need all of them to get the benifit of gas exchange, I want them for astethic reasons so I can see my fish more often since it is almost always dark when I get home from work. My saltwater tank is just fine, but I do use the Ultra-Ground Titanium Probe just to be safe since it seems like a cheap and easy security blanket to have around. I dont use any airstones or the like in my salty tank because I have a sump which airates the water well enough as far as I can tell.

sovereignman · 05-14-2008, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tommy Gun

All three of these pumps are for my freshwater tank and even though I know I dont really need all of them to get the benifit of gas exchange, I want them for astethic reasons so I can see my fish more often since it is almost always dark when I get home from work. My saltwater tank is just fine, but I do use the Ultra-Ground Titanium Probe just to be safe since it seems like a cheap and easy security blanket to have around. I dont use any airstones or the like in my salty tank because I have a sump which airates the water well enough as far as I can tell.

Hey Tommy Gun, thanks for the link to www.drsfostersmith.com I will be getting a grounding unit. But I really liked their selection of artificial saltwater corals&plants. I have been looking for these items, i want the look of a reef in my SW, but not the reef hassles. So here is a good one for you to check out www.thatfishplace.com I have been to the store there when I used to live in Pennsylvania. Now I'm in Northern Idaho

Steve C · 05-15-2008, 06:32 PM

I have 3 of these in the boxes waiting to go in my Tropheus tank when I do one.

My LFS however has 4 of them in thier big 200 gallon display tank.

Do you have yours connected to an air pump or just using the airline and relying on the propeller to generate bubbles? Did your models come with the stands with suction cups or the plain plastic back plate?

I'm going to my LFS tomorrow, I'll squeeze behind his tank and check out how his are running and get some info from him.

I hope you get them worked out. He has red ones in a cherry framed 200 gallon oceanic and they look incredible.