What the hell are these plastic things?
 

The barb fittings that come with eheim pumps, they have these plastic collar type things that screw onto the fitting. What are they for? You can't possible use them to screw down the end of a hose!

I assume it would be for pond or aquarium applications. They would be of no use the W/Cer.

http://home.attbi.com/~scompracer/forums/fitting.jpg

This fitting? It's like a compression lock. I use the one on the intake hose. Used it with silicone and Tygon, no problems. The edge of the hose just needs to be past the barb. If you don't trust it, use a clamp.

oh damn!! you're right, scompracer, I never considered turning the collar towards the hose, I always tightened it down towards the pump.

Any idea if/where you can buy more of these Eheim fittings? I'm sure I could order them direct from Germany or something, but I'm wondering if there's another distributer, or a similar substitute. The rubber o-ring on these fittings are amazing!

btw, scompracer, why is your pump outlet brass? It looks like the original eheim fitting, with the collar and all, but its not...

Pet / aquarium shops usually carry Eheim parts.

My 1250 came with a fountian adapter fitting, and no US PVC size pipe would fit in it. So I took a 3/4" to 1/2" PVC adapter bushing, cut 3/8" US pipe threads in it, and screwed a 3/8" barb fitting in it. I put it in a 1/2" drill and turned the adapter down until it was a snug fit in the fountian adapter. Then I primed it and glued it with PVC cement, wrapped the 1/2" barb fitting hreads with teflon tape and screwed it in.