Over the weekend when I was doing a water change I noticed that something was not quite right with my tank. I thought about what it might be until I realized that there wasn't the quiet splash of water that usual accompanied my filter. I looked at it closely and sure enough a layer of calcium deposits covered the output slot, but no water. I went to the power bar and disconnected the cord and then felt motor, It was hot to the touch but not wet. So it had not short circuited which was good. But my tank had no filtration which was bad. Luckily in my still vacant down stairs tank there was a small sponge filter that I brought up and quickly installed on my main tank. All seems well enough now but at the time that I discovered it I was a bit worried, So here's what to do if your filter fails.
1. Unplug it
If your filter failed it might be that some water leaked into the motor, although this might blow the breaker. Even if there is no water in it if the motor is still working but jammed it is not good for it to be under power but not moving as this causes more resistance which causes more heat.
2. Save your Bacteria
Without an incoming supply of water your bacteria will soon begin to starve. So place your sponge or other bacteria carrying media into your tank water. This way they will at least be able to survive while you sort out the filter. Note you want to put the sponge in, not the floss, you don't want to put all that garbage back in your tank, especially with no filtration.
3. Restore Filtration
With no filtration ammonia levels may begin to rise quite quickly. If your tank is planted the plants will give you a bit of a buffer against this compared to a bare tank but its still important to restore filtration quickly. Take a filter from a vacant tank if you have one, borrow one from a friend but especially if you have a bare tank restoring filtration is critical. At the ery least put in an air stone to keep oxygen levels up and to keep up water circulation.
4. Water Change
This step could arguably come before the previous one but it honestly depends. If its a matter of going into your basement to pull out a filter then you should get the new filter running first. If you need to go across town then you should do a water change first. This will reduce the amount of Ammonia in the water and buy you some more time before things get nasty. Also once you do get a filter in place I would do another water change just to be on the safe side.
5. Fix your Filter
There is a whole range of things that could be wrong with your filter but I will try to cover as much as I can. Also the specifics I will be giving are for HOB filters but some of the basic guidelines I give apply to all filters.
5.1 Determining the Cause of Failure
Before we can go off tinkering and poking around in our filters we have to know what caused the failure. This could be anything including. Short circuiting, jamming, burn out, impeller breakage, valve or tube blockage, bad connections and gremlins. Most of these can be fixed, except the gremlins, if you get those your out of luck.
5.2 Short circuiting
A short circuit is when a path opens up between the positive and negative leads in the motor and bypasses the motor. This may cause the breaker to flip or it may not. The motor may feel hot to the touch. The only real way to test is with a Multi Meter. If the seals on your filter crack and let in water it will short circuit the motor. You could try draining he motor and replacing the seals but other then that if its a crossed wire your just going to have to go in there and have a look for yourself.
5.2 Jamming
The causes for jamming are very numerous ranging from bent impeller shafts to broken impeller blades. But the most common of them is junk. You leave your filter and it chugs away doing its job and after a few months it plugs up with junk. Junk at least is fairly easy to fix. Remove the motor from the bottom and for starters try to remove the impeller. If you can give it a good leaning and scrub the housing with a tooth brush. If not its a bit trickier. You could try using some WD 40 to loosen things up but you will have to do some degreasing afterwards. Firstly give it a shot of oil and work it in by turning the impeller by hand, After it seems to have loosened some try to start the impeller. If it works great, if not it may need a flick to get itself going. Once you have it working you will have to run your filter with all filter media removed for a good half hour outside of your tank running through soap and clean water to remove the grease. If its not junk that has your impeller jammed look for anything else including blades and fibers that are clogging it and remove them.
5.3 Burn Out
IF your motor appears to be fine, turns freely by hand and is not hot to the touch it may just be burned out. There is no easy way to fix this other then replacing the motor.
5.4 Impeller Breakage
If you see little bits of plastic floating around but no impeller, some how your impeller shattered. There is nothing to do except to replace the impeller.
5.5 Blockage
If your impeller is spinning but is not sucking any water through then there is a chance that your intake is blocked. Wash it out and scrub the inside with a brush and see if that fixes the problem
5.6 Bad Connections
If the connections are bad the motor will not be running or will be starting and stopping. You'll have to go and look inside and see if the leads are securely connected.
These are the most likely problems that could come up with a filter but if you are still having trouble or have some other problem leave me a comment or hit the forums and see what you can find out.
Note: This is my Cascade Filter that failed but I still believe it is a good filter. It was my own negligience and a lack of cleaning that resulted in it jamming.
1. Unplug it
If your filter failed it might be that some water leaked into the motor, although this might blow the breaker. Even if there is no water in it if the motor is still working but jammed it is not good for it to be under power but not moving as this causes more resistance which causes more heat.
2. Save your Bacteria
Without an incoming supply of water your bacteria will soon begin to starve. So place your sponge or other bacteria carrying media into your tank water. This way they will at least be able to survive while you sort out the filter. Note you want to put the sponge in, not the floss, you don't want to put all that garbage back in your tank, especially with no filtration.
3. Restore Filtration
With no filtration ammonia levels may begin to rise quite quickly. If your tank is planted the plants will give you a bit of a buffer against this compared to a bare tank but its still important to restore filtration quickly. Take a filter from a vacant tank if you have one, borrow one from a friend but especially if you have a bare tank restoring filtration is critical. At the ery least put in an air stone to keep oxygen levels up and to keep up water circulation.
4. Water Change
This step could arguably come before the previous one but it honestly depends. If its a matter of going into your basement to pull out a filter then you should get the new filter running first. If you need to go across town then you should do a water change first. This will reduce the amount of Ammonia in the water and buy you some more time before things get nasty. Also once you do get a filter in place I would do another water change just to be on the safe side.
5. Fix your Filter
There is a whole range of things that could be wrong with your filter but I will try to cover as much as I can. Also the specifics I will be giving are for HOB filters but some of the basic guidelines I give apply to all filters.
5.1 Determining the Cause of Failure
Before we can go off tinkering and poking around in our filters we have to know what caused the failure. This could be anything including. Short circuiting, jamming, burn out, impeller breakage, valve or tube blockage, bad connections and gremlins. Most of these can be fixed, except the gremlins, if you get those your out of luck.
5.2 Short circuiting
A short circuit is when a path opens up between the positive and negative leads in the motor and bypasses the motor. This may cause the breaker to flip or it may not. The motor may feel hot to the touch. The only real way to test is with a Multi Meter. If the seals on your filter crack and let in water it will short circuit the motor. You could try draining he motor and replacing the seals but other then that if its a crossed wire your just going to have to go in there and have a look for yourself.
5.2 Jamming
The causes for jamming are very numerous ranging from bent impeller shafts to broken impeller blades. But the most common of them is junk. You leave your filter and it chugs away doing its job and after a few months it plugs up with junk. Junk at least is fairly easy to fix. Remove the motor from the bottom and for starters try to remove the impeller. If you can give it a good leaning and scrub the housing with a tooth brush. If not its a bit trickier. You could try using some WD 40 to loosen things up but you will have to do some degreasing afterwards. Firstly give it a shot of oil and work it in by turning the impeller by hand, After it seems to have loosened some try to start the impeller. If it works great, if not it may need a flick to get itself going. Once you have it working you will have to run your filter with all filter media removed for a good half hour outside of your tank running through soap and clean water to remove the grease. If its not junk that has your impeller jammed look for anything else including blades and fibers that are clogging it and remove them.
5.3 Burn Out
IF your motor appears to be fine, turns freely by hand and is not hot to the touch it may just be burned out. There is no easy way to fix this other then replacing the motor.
5.4 Impeller Breakage
If you see little bits of plastic floating around but no impeller, some how your impeller shattered. There is nothing to do except to replace the impeller.
5.5 Blockage
If your impeller is spinning but is not sucking any water through then there is a chance that your intake is blocked. Wash it out and scrub the inside with a brush and see if that fixes the problem
5.6 Bad Connections
If the connections are bad the motor will not be running or will be starting and stopping. You'll have to go and look inside and see if the leads are securely connected.
These are the most likely problems that could come up with a filter but if you are still having trouble or have some other problem leave me a comment or hit the forums and see what you can find out.
Note: This is my Cascade Filter that failed but I still believe it is a good filter. It was my own negligience and a lack of cleaning that resulted in it jamming.
