Two new products aimed at the saltwater area of the hobby have been launched by Dymax.
Marine keepers will find the Dymax Wave Deflector a cracking piece of kit. Bearing quite a misleading name, it’s basically a rotating flow director that attaches to the nozzle of any suitable outlet, say a powerhead or return pipe from an external canister. As water flows through, it creates movement within the deflector, altering the flow through 360 degrees.
That’s superb if you want a varied flow for corals or chop and change the way food floats around for your fish.
The deflector comes with an adaptor for different sized outlets, but I’m confident that, with a little ingenuity, it can be attached to pretty much anything — and its great price tag gives it an awful lot of potential.
Less appealing is the Dymax Bubble Reducer designed for the outlets of its protein skimmers, although it can be used with most kinds of skimmer.
This is basically a fine mesh sock, looking ugly and clumsy at best in the tank. It requires regular cleaning, otherwise becoming clogged, so expect increased maintenance. It gets dirty fast, too.
When attaching it to a couple of skimmers I had a problem securing it tightly enough and it kept falling off.
I’ve always felt that an excess of bubbles exiting a skimmer means something has gone awry. I’m dubious of the value of this product in trying to offer a quick fix to something that might be a more pressing issue.
Prices: Deflector £10.95; Bubble reducer £10.95.