mistakes

I accidentally damaged some of my aquarium equipment. When swapping out the old filter for the new last week. Getting all the parts of the HOB ready to put away for storage, I wanted to clean it well of water deposits and crud. Scrubbed most stuff under hot running water with a toothbrush, and I set the sponges in scalding hot water for five minutes. Then I also put all the plastic parts in a pan of boiling water, for five minutes. Except I had my hands occupied when the time went off, and thought "Oh, it will be okay for another few seconds."

Nope. I went over there to take the pan off the heat too late. Several of the pieces got warped by the heat.

I can't use these again (those ends are supposed to be round). Which is really annoying, because I had already bought a second set of this adapter to replace one part that was cracked (my patch job with aquarium sealant wasn't sufficient). Well, between the two sets I probably have enough usable parts to fit one prefilter sponge back on the HOB if I have to, someday.

More aggravating is what happened with my new canister filter! Everyone told me this thing would be dead silent, I wouldn't even know it's running. Not so- mine has a persistent gentle hum. Which I easily ignore most of the time, it's really only noticeable in the late evenings when the house is really quiet. But it's my own fault it makes a sound at all, I found out.

The instructions in the packaging weren't so easy to understand. I watched a few instructional videos online but somehow missed the important point that when you are servicing the filter, ought to drain the water before opening the lid. I didn't, the first time. And couldn't figure out why it wouldn't come open. I tried a bit too hard, before stopping and thinking about it and opening the valve to let water out into the sink. Suction released, lid comes open okay. But I'd bent one of those clips that snaps the lid tight onto the canister body. Now it doesn't make a tight perfect seal- so I think a bit of air leaks in and that makes the hum. Because if I press down on the lid while it's running to make it very tight- the sound stops. Kinda mad at myself now. 

I'm tempted to try and bend that clip back into shape, but the metal they're made out of seems flimsy, and I'm worried I will snap it in half.