Filter died...

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Regen311

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jan 11, 2005
Messages
384
Location
Ohio
I just got back from the closest GOOD lfs (30 minutes away) with a couple of ghost shrimp and a snail. I did a partial water change, cleaned out the filter, then added the fish. When I reassembled the filter and plugged it in, I noticed it wasn't working. THe filter is a penn-plax cascade 80, a hang on back filter. I got it with a 10 gallon kit, so I was planning on upgrading the filter with my birthday money (March 11, I'll be 20) from relatives. However, I guess I'll have to do that sooner than expected, unless someone knows something about these filters... It's not sucking the air up. There are bubbles IN the filter, so it's stirring the water around, just not sucking it up. I'm lost for what to do... I'm supposed to leave tomorrow night to go home for spring break (a week long), and so I guess that means I have to go to the LFS tomorrow, again, to get a new filter because I don't want to leave my fish in a 10 gallon without a filter for a week. They had the penguin biowheel 100 filter on sale for 24.99, is that a good price? Any help would be greatly appreciated...

This is the filter:

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=22167;category_id=1721;pcid1=2885;pcid2=
 
I just looked at bigalsonline, and the same filter, I think, is 12.99 there! Now I don't know what to do. 12.99 is half the price of the filter at the LFS, but I can't leave my fish for a week without a filter... I wish I had more time!!
 
about six months ago my canister went out on my 55g. Bought a new one at the LFS since I didn't have much choice. Went back a week later and they had the canister on sale, $80 off. DOH!

I don't know anything about the filter you have but have you looked to see if there's any type of air intake and if the intake is plugged?
 
If you think your filter is broken, I would go buy another filter at your LFS. You're right, you can't leave the tank unfiltered for a week. It sucks you have to pay the LFS price, but it doesn't sound like you have much choice. Your broken filter uses cartridges, or a sponge or something, right? If I were in that situation I would take the cartridge or sponge out of your old filter, then put it in your new filter (or float it in your tank if it won't fit) while you are gone. That should help to prevent any cycling that could come from replacing the entire filter.
 
Do you, or anyone, have any experience with filters at wal mart? Do they have those kind of filters there usually?
 
Oh, and also, nothing is blocked. It's making the loud noise like it's working, but no water is going through.
 
try pulling the impeller right out. It should be magnetic. My aqauaclear stoped after servicing once and I cleaned out the impeller really well (with tank water of course). That is the only thing coming to mind. Never used your filter but they all have the pretty well the same construction. Don't count on this working just thought I'd share my similair experience and how i fixed. HTH
 
I've poured water directly into the filter filling it up to sort of prime the unit, I've had similar when air can get in the tube (bad connection?)..

Just unplug the unit, fill with water, plug in the unit, let it run for 5 secs, then unplug it, wait 10 seconds, then plug it back in... see what happens..

The walmart brand "Regent" are Marineland Penguin Bio-wheel filters..
 
Went to wal mart, they didn't have anything with any sort of biowheel. So, I went to meijer. I got a pengiun biowheel mini, it says it filters 100 gallons per hour. It was 23 dollars, but what's 10 dollars in the long run :) My old filter didn't even have biological filtration, just chemical and mechanical. There was no sponge or anything, so I don't think I have anything I can put in the biowheel. The actual "filter" part was covered in what appears to be brown algae. Slimy gross stuff... it reminds me of the stuff that used to float on top of our neighbors pond... anyway, I guess that's that... I can't believe my old filter didn't have biological filtration, probably good that it broke
 
oh by the way, I tried about everything before I left. I took apart everything, put it back together, made sure everything worked, (the thing that spins definately works, it just made a whirlpool in the filter, no uptake of water though).
 
Did you pour tank water into it to prime it? Some will not prime when dry or have a long lift tube. Did you brush out the cavity where the impeller is? After pouring it full of water, try lifting the siphon tube up and down a little.
 
once in a while i find very long and fine hair wrapped around the impeller and i can barely see it most times because it gets tucked underneath something. one time a hair made my impeller completely stop spinning on my eclipse...a single hair! maybe there's a crack in the intake tube? or maybe the impeller is working but not very efficiently, meaning you need a new one. there could be some junk you missed where the intake tube meets the impeller housing and water is redirected. how long have you had that filter? i've only had biowheels so i dont know how the penn-plax filters look but i think it has something to do with the intake tube because the impeller should last a very long time. oh yeah i've had that happen when i didnt put the impeller all the way into the slot so the intake tube was sitting higher than it shouldve been. hope that helped.
 
Sounds as if the intake yube may not be aligned properly, or is allowing air into itself at some emerged part.

If you go buy a new HOB...I would suggest an AquaClear mini or 150.
 
My Cascade has a valve on the intake tube that restricts the flow, also have you tried it with the top cover, maybe putting that in with it is distorting the intake tube
 
Back
Top Bottom