Spray Bar Dislodged

[newfin]

Hi Everyone.

I have a couple of Apple snails in my 150l tank. While I was away over the weekend I suspect they managed to dislodge the spray bar - they can be found crawling on it sometimes, and I guess their weight pulled one of the suckers off. As a result I came home to a 'silent' tank and two of my catfish - a panda and sterbai had succombed, as well as a glowlight tetra. I was pretty shocked but am SO glad I was only away for the weekend. The people caring for the tank in my absence hadn't contacted me. I reattached the bar at height to agitate the water and did a 20l change. This corrected things and remaining fish in tank recovered.
My concern is what I do to prevent it again. Do I invest in new suckers for the spray bar or an air pump as holiday back-up? What do you guys out there think? I'd be really grateful for any advice. Thanks.

 

[waterdrop]

Gosh, I can't quite picture that happening. My spraybar is on so tight I just don't think any size snail could make it come unhooked from its tube. I also can't see it making a big difference if the spray part came off. Mine would still just shoot a sideways stream across the surface of the water and surface movement would continue to happen.

Can you explain further?

WD

 

[helterskelter]

I would replace the suckers, as with age they do stop working.

 

[newfin]

Thansks, I'll look out for new 'suckers'.
The current ones are about 3yrs old now. Although they seem to work fine I think/hope another one or two to the bar will prevent a repeat. The snails seem to like crawling up the back of the glass and push under the bar, this can then dislodge it and the water jet would otherwise be below the surface and not provide enough gaseous exchange at the surface. All day today one of them has been resting on the bar, hanging from it! It's typical when you are around to check on things, nothing happens.....
I guess the morale here is not to have fat apple snails!