rena xp2 problem

[glarior]

My grandma has a rena XP2 that she said is not pumping like it use to. She has cleaned the filter, impeller and made sure the hose's were not clogged. However, she is still saying it is pumping slower than is use to. This pump is ~6 months old. Many years ago I had a similar problem with my xp3 but never tried to figure it out... I just went to saltwater :-)

Any suggestions on what I can tell her to try?

[Goes to 11!]

By the way, the Rena instructions for the XP series say to put the sponges first at the bottom, then the floss or biozorb, then the ceramic media rings at the top. I find this slows down the flow after a couple of weeks because the sponges are clogging up and the impeller does not have enough water flow to keep it cool. I recommend putting the ceramic media rings in the bottom basket, them the floss or biozorb, then finish off with the sponges at the top. This will also provide enough flow to eliminate any priming problems, any trapped air is quickly expelled as well

That's when you clean the sponges.

Btw, I disagree with the above.

The rationale for the arrangement specified by Rena [Or any canister manufacturer actually] is simple.

It's so that you have the Mech filtration [The sponges] BEFORE the Biological filtration [biomedia] in order to have the cleanest water possible flowing over the biomedia.

This is to prevent to pores of the ceramics [Where the BB live] from becoming clogged with detritus and artificially limiting the the medias BB capacity.

If you were to have the bio media first all of the physical particulate matter that gets picked up by the filter is simply slammed into your biomedia and immediately begins clogging its microscopic pores beyond usefulness. So um .. Don't do that you know.

This is worth repeating - You ALWAYS want the cleanest water possible flowing over your biomedia.

If it hasn't been done: One thing I would suggest that she give her sponges a solid rinsing under running warm water and then be sure to dunk/rinse them in dechlored water. I imagine they are pretty gunked up by now. Rinsing the biomedia in the dechlor water wouldn't hurt at this point either.

While you have all the media out of it.. Do test it to see if the flow improves as this will help you to determine if it's an impeller issue or due to clogged media/flow disruption elsewhere.

[dmagerl]

Also, clean the hoses, but after only 6 months I wouldnt think thats the problem.

My XP3 developed horrible flow and I couldnt believe the stuff I got out of the hoses. After a hose cleaning, all was back to normal.