My Tank is Eating Filters Left and Right

[Twoapennything]

My large tank, the 40 gallon one, has burned out three filters in less than a month! I have a Marineland Eclipse 3 aquarium with built in filtration. Well, the impeller burned out (I've only had this tank for about 5 months) so I had to rush to Petsmart and get a hood and a new filter. I got an Aqua Clear filter, installed it, got it up and running . . . about a week goes by and I'm puzzled because the tank is cloudy and it smells weird. Turns out the filter had stopped working - it was completely empty of water and I lost my biofilter from the original Eclipse filter that I was using to seed the tank. So, I go out to Petsmart again and this time I buy a Marineland biowheel filter - this was just on Monday - and it's already making grinding noises, the kind of noises the impeller makes when it's about to totally break down.

WTH?!?! Why am I burning through filters so quickly? It's obviously something in my tank, as it's happening with different brands of filters. Could it be the sand substrate? I cannot afford to buy a filter every week, no way. Has this ever happened to anyone else?

 

[TCool]

Yes, could be the sand. If you get too much in there it will ruin your filters pretty quickly. I've ruined a few with sand myself. Can you put a prefilter on at all? Like a bio sponge over the intake to keep some of the bigger particles of sand from reaching the impeller.

 

[mommytron]

what kind of sand are you using? that is extremely possibly the problem. finer sands will get sucked right into the filter very easily. there are coarser grains, like PFS, that won't get sucked in quite as easily as finer grains, like play sand i believe.

 

[dkpate]

You can cut of a little of the intake, to make it higher up, because your fish are probably knocking sand in there, mine did. I cut mine off about 2 inches, and never had another problem!
If you hear it making funny noises, turn it off, pull the filter and intake out, and rinse it. Don't just rinse the impeller, make sure you get the hole it goes into also.

 

[TCool]

Good ideas. But, I'd still put a prefilter on it to be safe. But, I am a bit paranoid, especially since it took me all of like 2 days to ruin my brand new internal filter when I first got it.

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

If you could post a pic of how close the intake is to the bottom that would help, I'm very suprised at the aquaclear going down...I swear by those things. I've also heard of ppl cutting sponges up and shoving them inside the intake tube for better filtration as well as placing pantyhose over the intake.

 

[meegosh]

I highly doubt it is caused by sand. AquaClears don't seem to have the impeller problems with sand like some of the other brands do. Is it possible you are losing power and then the filters lose their prime? I've never heard of an aquaclear running dry like that unless it lost its siphon.

 

[logansmomma1228]

hmm this is very interesting. going to try some of these things with my filter maybe that's what is wrong with it! Keep us posted!

 

[dkpate]

I highly doubt it is caused by sand. AquaClears don't seem to have the impeller problems with sand like some of the other brands do. Is it possible you are losing power and then the filters lose their prime? I've never heard of an aquaclear running dry like that unless it lost its siphon.

In my AC, the intake goes directly into the impeller area.

 

[Twoapennything]

I think it is the sand. I moved the filter over to an area of the tank that doesn't have as much loose sand (it's covered by decor) and I've barely heard the noise. It makes sense to me that sand getting into the impeller would cause it to stop working and burn out.

The sand that I have is very fine sand. It's easily moved by the fish and stirred up into the water. I miss my rocks! I only put sand in the tank for my goldfish, so he wouldn't choke on the rocks, but he's no longer with us. I wish I could switch out the sand for the rocks.

I went ahead and ordered the replacement parts for my Eclipse 3 hood with the built in filtration - I ordered a new motor and a new impeller. Maybe once those arrive, I'll take the plunge and totally clean out the tank and switch back to rocks, because it's very stressful constantly being nervous about the filter going out. Besides, I like the hood that came with the aquarium - the one I'm using right now is pretty bad - it doesn't fit the tank very well at all.

Not looking forward to cycling with fish, that's for sure.

 

[logansmomma1228]

Maybe you could mix some river rocks in the sand? Don't know if it would help any but it is an idea that popped into my head. Did you try to put a sponge in there for added filtration?

 

[BillD]

Sand will stop an AC filter, (one of the few complaints) as it will any filter where it can enter the impeller area. One of the hazards of using sand is that it can stop/ruin a filter pump. A chunk of foam over the end works well, pantyhose not so much because it reduces the flow.

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

Maybe you could mix some river rocks in the sand? Don't know if it would help any but it is an idea that popped into my head. Did you try to put a sponge in there for added filtration?

I have this in one of my tanks, i took the large pebbles and put it in the rear of the tank and then fanned it out to about the middle. About two month later and the fish have moved rocks all over the tank and it looks pretty good. Just a suggestion and youd save yourself from having to switch out all the substrate and losing a lot of bacteria.

 

[Twoapennything]

What kind of sponge should I use and where should i put it? Would it go into the uptake tube, for extra filtration. Like, if I took an old Aqua Clear sponge and used it in the uptake tube, is that what people mean by using a sponge for extra filtration? I'm certainly willing to try!

 

[TCool]

What kind of sponge should I use and where should i put it? Would it go into the uptake tube, for extra filtration. Like, if I took an old Aqua Clear sponge and used it in the uptake tube, is that what people mean by using a sponge for extra filtration? I'm certainly willing to try!

Get a sponge to go around the intake tube at the place where water enters. I know they make cylindrical sponges with holes in the middle for going on tubes, you could use something like that. Or, you could even just take a flat sponge and wrap it around the tube and use something to secure it.

 

[logansmomma1228]

I just took a sponge and put it in the uptake tube, right where the water goes in. it's working so far.

 

[meegosh]

In my AC, the intake goes directly into the impeller area.

Sand will stop an AC filter, (one of the few complaints) as it will any filter where it can enter the impeller area. One of the hazards of using sand is that it can stop/ruin a filter pump.

I ran an old AC50 on my 30g when I switched to sand to get the haze out. I thought for sure it would be ruined but it still runs as quiet as can be. It seems like the impellers on the AquaClears are a little more forgiving than the other brands. It could also be that my sand is a lot finer than some other substrates I've seen.

I did wrap my 'good' AC50 with some polyfiber around the end and secured with a rubber band to act as a prefilter. That seemed to work well other than a slight reduction in flow (like BillD said).

 

[logansmomma1228]

OK so I did run into one issue with stuffing the sponge inside the intake- it's kind of a pita to get out lol . Do they make foam blocks that will fit around it? Could I just get regular foam and stick it over there?

 

[TCool]

OK so I did run into one issue with stuffing the sponge inside the intake- it's kind of a pita to get out lol . Do they make foam blocks that will fit around it? Could I just get regular foam and stick it over there?

There are filter sponges that they make to go over the tubes. Or, you could just pick up some of that filter pad stuff and wrap it around the end and secure it with a rubber band or something.

I don't think I'd go the route of shoving sponge up the intake tube. I'd be too worried about that getting sucked up into the impeller.

 

[dkpate]

I wonder if you could use the poly fiber you can get at Wally World to wrap it?