Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fishtank Filtration and Cycling => Topic started by: fishcake76 on March 11, 2014, 02:59:00 PM
-
Hi Folks,
I've managed to get my Ammonia levels down to 0 - or at least below 0.25!!!! (bit hard to read the cardy thing! :-\) I am cautiously optimistic!!! ;)
Whilst doing my water change this afternoon I noticed my filter was making a gushing noise, almost as though it is suddenly letting a lot more water through. It did this a couple of weeks back and I took it apart and the impeller was all gunked up so I cleaned it and it has been fine until today. Looked in the impeller again but it was still clean so not sure what this noise is??!! Any ideas??
FC
-
Is the filter an internal, and if so did you leave it running during the water change?
-
With my own filter, I've found that the usual cause for any noise is air in the system. Try and run through the procedure for priming your filter as stated in the documentation... assuming you have any documentation that is!
-
Since fishcake's tank is 30 litres, I'm assuming the filter is an internal, which won't need priming. But it could still be air.
The bit that worried me was Whilst doing my water change this afternoon I noticed my filter was making a gushing noise
which made me wonder if the filter was left on. That would certainly suck air in, and possibly damage the filter if it runs with no water inside the impeller well.
-
I have been switching it off to do changes but forgot to today until it started making horrible grinding noises at which point I swore and turned it off quick!!!
Could this be the cause???
Is any damage done un-do-able??
It's gushing every 30 seconds or so at the moment but flow rate is normal.
FC
-
Is it still making the noise? Have you tried tilting the filter gently to free any air tarpped in the impeller well.? Mine sometimes spurt bits of air out after a water change and I find tilting the filter helps to free the trapped air. The air gets in when the water level drops lower than the impeller well, then when the tank is filled up again, the air gets trapped in there.
Hopefully, just a short time won't have done much harm. But make a note to yourself to turn it, and the heater, off in future.
My problem is remembering to turn it back on again, but it's usually the heater that gets forgotten.........
-
I've given it a little jiggle and it did a massive spurt and then stopped gushing for a bit. Now it's started again!! I'll keep an eye on it and next time I'm near the LFS I'll buy a new impeller just in case. They are only a couple of quid so no big deal!!
Thanks Sue.
:fishy1:
-
The motor can also get damaged when running dry.
Keep tilting the filter till all the air has gone. There are times when I switch it off, unstick the whole thing from the glass, turn it upside down under water then switch back on for a few seconds. Then switch back off and carefully manoeuvre it back into position while keeping it submerged, and switch back on. It's a fiddle but with some filters it's the only way to get rid of all the air. Or do all that with just the motor if you can get it on and off under water.