Biowheel keeps stopping!! Help!!

[trennamw]

I have a Marineland filter with a biowheel that's quit spinning frequently the past 6 weeks.

I set up the tank early to mid march, cycled it fishless, added fish mid April.

I've tried cleaning the filter, cleaning the intake tube, adding Vaseline to the axle, gently rinsing the wheel itself in tank water, checking that the pleats are looking good ...

Even when the filter box is empty of filter media, it doesn't spin. So far each time it stopped I got it going again but not this time.

I've got it stored in the tank to keep the bacteria alive. Hoping for an answer quick!

 

[PerfectDepth]

Your flow rate has probably slowed down for some reason. Have you inspected the impeller, and cleaned the impeller and the impeller well?

 

[Pylor]

My marineland emperor 280 is from ~2003 or so, so it may be different, but do you have a spray bar? I find the spray bar's angle to greatly effect the spinning of the biowheel.

Another thing is cleaning the axle-holders with a brush of some sort. Calcium builds up everywhere, and that part of the filter is no exception. When I first started my filter up after 7 years or so, I had to clean that area out extremely well before the wheel would spin correctly.

 

[Coyne]

I had the same issue when I was using that filter. A good cleaning and greasing it up with Vaseline helped, but I would still need to give it a nudge every week or two.


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[trennamw]

I'm a dork. After I cleaned the intake tube I left the thingie that can vary the flow halfway up in the position that covers the holes. It's going great now. All it needed was a tooth brush in the tube where it could reach.