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Following on from my last 2 threads - can anyone tell me why my filters keep breaking. Iv'e had 1 Fluval 4+ and 1 Fluval 2+ pack up in the last 2 months and one which is imminently about to die. They start making strange noises, then the flow stops, then they heat up. Then I get scared and take them out the tank!! Cleaning doesnt bring them back to life, there's no obvious damage or anything

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

Hi
You will have to do a careful postmortem dissection of
the filters, at the same time as reading the instruction
manual that came with them.

Rattling noises can only come from the impeller.

That noise is caused by the impeller vanes striking
something. It could be caused by bubbles of air throwing
the impeller off balance causing it to strike the housing.
It could be caused by a some substrate, such as sand,
getting into the pump chamber. It could be caused by snails
getting into the pump chamber. It could be caused by
worn bushings allowing the impeller to wobble on its shaft.

Make sure that you have the media in the filter, in the
correct order of placement. If in back wards, or stuffed
too tightly, you could have fragments of the media either
in the pump chamber or working their way into the chamber.

If the media is stuffed to tightly, it will restrict the
flow through the filter, and also cause impeller
cavitation which would create the rattling noise as it
spins.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Hmmm snails - I've been finding snails in the impellers for a while. Didn't realise that could permenantly break a filter though?

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

Snails can break an impeller quite easily.

You'll need to find some means of keeping them out.

My suggetion is this.

[1] Find an old fine meshed aquarium net that is no longer serviceable as a fish net, but has enough intact material to cover the hole.

[2] Find some clear perspex you can cut into shape so that it will fit over the intake.

[3] Cut two pieces of perspex to fit over the hole. Ensure there is decent overlap.

[4] Cut a smaller hole in each piece of perspex.

[5] Sandwich a piece of the aquarium netting between the two perspex pieces. Glue using aquarium safe silicone sealant.

[6] Once it is set, find a means of fixing the cover over the filter intake. You might have to silicone it into place.

[7] Sit back and enjoy snail free filtration and, hopefully, no more broken impellers.

EDIT : Just put together this illustrative diagram for you:


Attached Image:


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

But come to think of it, only the main tank has snails in. The frog tank with the F2 has no snails.


That sounds awfully complicated Calil - might be one for my engineering BF to look at! I dont do making things with plastic after I got thrown out of materials tech GCSE!

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

I have a question. I know very little about snails & filtration, but if the snails are coming up through the intake tube of the filter............ then couldn't you just get a piece of nylon hose & tie it around the bottom of the tube?

Most of the snails get caught in the filter intake grille.

I'm worried that by restricting the filter intake through the grille, the filter may overheat and die anyway>?

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

"Most of the snails get caught in the filter intake grille."

Right. That is where I wanted the piece of stocking to go....... just tie it around that. Then you could either just pick them off or replace with another piece.

"I'm worried that by restricting the filter intake through the grille, the filter may overheat and die anyway>?"

I'm thinking it wouldn't be that restricting.......... but you might have a point there? Maybe somebody will come on here that knows about it, that has tried it & will tell us if it will inhibit the working of the filter or not. If not, you could make a separate post about it & ask.

It won't affect flow if you clean it very frequently. It will catch detritus very easily though which will slowly block your filter unless you clean it off. Some snails will still get through. The tiny babies will fit and then they will sometimes live in your filter eventually crashing the impeller anyway. I've also had snails climb up the front of the filter against the flow just as often as I've had them go through the intake. It's not entirely possible to keep them out. Covering the intake with mesh can help but will also cause more work to keep it clean. I never bothered. The only filters I've had die due to snails were the cheap ones. My marineland filters just make crunching sounds and then keep going. If they rattled for more than a couple minutes I'd go lift the impeller and remove the snail. The filter always worked fine when I slid the impeller back in.

There's no evidence of snails in the filter corpses, and one tank definitely has no snails present, but the filter died anyway. THe main tank has snails, which have got into the filter, but there is no evidence they have ever been inside the impeller.

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

I don't know anything about the different brands of filters, but years ago I had a HOB regent power filter on my tank, probably a cheap one from wal-mart. Then I resurrected the tank this summer, rinsed out the filter & put it back on & it's been working fine since. But then I don't have snails.

If I were you I would change filter brands & get rid of the snails. You might also consider your outlet or wiring on that part of the house?

Regent is actually a part of Marineland. The aquatech filters they sell at places like walmart are made with the same design and most of the same materials as penguin filters. They just don't put on the biowheels and sell them for a bit lower price.

TBH, I'm not sure which brand to switch to given I'm in the UK. Fluval are one of our best medium budget brands and certainly the most widely available. Dont know if anyone can suggest anything?

The snails are staying, I don't believe in using snail killer, I think it does more damage to the tanks ecology than it's worth. Between the fishies, they keep the population under control.

I'm still not 100% it is snails. There are definitely no snails in the tank with the 2+ or in the tank with the 1+ which is starting to make funny noises.

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

You've obviously been keeping tanks for some years now, so if you've taken into consideration everything everybody has said on here & still can't find the problem, I would suggest one last thing. Since no one on here can physically see your tanks or filters, I would suggest finding another fish person to come into your house & look over your filters & tanks. They say, "Two minds are better than one." This other person may find something that you are just overlooking.

It is odd though that after all theses years you start having filter problems. Just retrace your steps mentally & see what you are doing different from the time you started having filter problems.

Have you been having any power surges, brown outs or complete losses of power to your house? I had a power surge and a brown out kill filters before.

Now I put everything on a surge protector strip.

- Meow -

Everything's on a surgie. At my last house, we had lightening strike the substation and anything not on a surge protector was badly damaged. Lesson learnt!!

FishPatty - you might be on to something. I've had these tanks five years + now, using these filters. Maybe they all reached the end of their natural lives at the same time? After all, they'd be just out of warranty now

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

That's not exactly what I meant by my last post tiny, but it sounds like you might have come up with what the problem is. Your filters are just old!

It didn't even occur to me to think about how old your filters might be!

But I'm glad you did finally! You may have just solved your own problem! /:'

If you're still looking for decent filters, I've only ever heard good things about the eheim range, and theyre not too badly priced.
I hope all this talk about fluvals breaking doesnt give my 4+ and 204 any bad ideas...

Tiny
It's about time you bit the bullet and got an Eheim pro 2 secondhand off ebay,like i did i now run 3 eheims and they have never let me down plus they are a doddle to clean not that you have to do it that often.

Gibson SG you know you want one!!

The Eheim's a cannister though, isnt it?

The filters have to be internal, cos I live in a block of flats, I can't risk the external syphoning the tank off and pumping it into our below neighbour's flat.

Do you know anything about the Eheim internals? Are they any good?

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I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions