i have used and still use the same type and make of filters, follw jaysee's advice. the q tip method works wonders along with puolling the impeller out and cleaning i do this once a month and yet have a marineland filter take a crap on me.
Well, as much as I didn't want to, I took apart the whole filter and rinsed everything but my cycled media(sponges and ceramics. I saw SOME sand in the pockets where the medias go into. Didn't do any scrubbing, just rinsing. After all that, it made LOUDER grinding! I had to blare my TV to hear my shows.
Frustrated, I did some googling, I found most people saying the rubber inserts wear out and the impeller will move deeper into the motor, creating that grinding noise. Some people have luck lifting the intake up a bit. But on the bigger filters, the magnetic component is too strong and pulls the intake right back down.
It worked for me, but like I read; the magnet pulled it right back down. I hope I didn't kill the cycle I had! And turns out I maybe making a bigger canister filter than I thought I would be. If the grinding keeps up, I'll be chucking that darned thing.
mine will start to make a grind or buzz when crud gets trapped around the steel shaft. and everytime and yes i mean EVERYTIME i take the filter apart there is stringy crud around the impeller that has to be cut away. afterwords my flow and quietness of the filter improves. p.s for even more quiet operation remove the bio wheels.
I don't care about minor noise. But grinding just drives me up the walls. The same way silverware scratching against plates and nails on a chalk board.
I'm glad I went canister, so quiet. That's on a 75 gallon, I think, so a canister certainly isn't overkill.
It sounds almost as if the impeller is riding loose... is there a pin in the bottom that holds it centered... or was there? Cheaper to buy a new impeller, if you can get parts, than replacing the filter even if a canister would be nice it's still costs more.
Well, I'm making my canister filter. To build, the cost is going to be around $15. The only spendy parts will be the pump and some more ceramic media. Hubby's not very keen with something else that houses water going onto the carpet. But nothing an old kitty litter bucket can't fix
Today, the filter is very quiet. But that doesn't mean I have reconsidered ditching it. I'm not going through that grinding again
Make sure you post some pics of the filter when you are done... I love some of the DIY inventiveness.
You know, you probably don't need the ceramics. A sponge will supply as much surface area as the ceramic will. The apparent advantage of the ceramic media is that it is able to house more benficial bacteria... which it may do, I certainly won't argue that point. The issue is that with the fine pores, the water needs to be under pressure to pass through the media to enable it to pass all these organisms... it can't do that in any typical aquarium filter. All the water does is pass around the tubes, rings or chips and contacts only the surface areas of the pieces, not the internal surface areas of the fine pores. The exception would be a ceramic piece that has larger pores to allow water to flow at much reduced pressures that the filter may provide.... which is about the same as a fine pored sponge or floss material.
With plants, even if this sort of media did what everyone seems to think it might, it is redundant anyway as there are tons of surfaces colonized without needing to worry about adding more.
Hey sorry I don't know how my post got posted on here - total accident.
That's what I get for having 15+ tabs open at once.
Sorry guys!
Just ignore this!
Well, I was gonna do this method: HOW TO: DIY Canister Filter - YouTube
It would be 2 ft tall. So if I did it all sponge, it maybe difficult to access those at the bottom to rinse when needed.
But if I CAN do all sponge, it would reduce costs quite a bit. My tank is also not completely stocked. I do expect to get atleast 2-3 other species, each needing a school of their own. 3 upside down cats for hubby, atleast 6 cory cats, still searching for those striped kuhlis since my lone striped guy won't bond with the brown kuhlis i got. And lastly, possibly a school of tetras or barbs to add some striking color to a mostly black/white crowd of fish.
Sponges are largely comprised of open space, which bacteria cannot live on. That's one of the characteristics of a sponge. The denser the sponge, the better.
I just bought the marineland hof today, I have sand substrates and did not shut off my filter when cleaning my tank, needless to say the top fin hof died, I tried everything to clean out the sand, anyway, do you like the marineland? I have the 350, I love the idea of the bio-wheel. :lol:
its been great, until the grinding that it started up on.
I believe your top fin filter is supposed to have a lifetime warranty. You could just traded it in for another top fin.
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