I'm not dead, but my filter is

[FrozenTundra]

I have been gone for a few months now. I know I just upped an left there for a bit. But I still been managing to keep everything running smoothly up until last night.

Last night I noticed the AC30 in my 10 gallon the water was a bit low and the motor really warm. It was toast. In addition the top media packet was already mostly dry. It must have failed sometime earlier in the day.

So doing the only thing I could think of. I grabbed both media packets and tossed them into the 37 gallon tank along with the 2 pieces of driftwood as they still had a large amount of bacteria on them most likely. Not to mention more pond snails for my budding assassin snail population. Apparently my initial batch had both gender's. I though I lost most of them originally after finding 2 empty shells and not seeing them for like 2 months. Then followed by a pond snail population explosion after. But in the last month they have been every where.

But I also got what I thought was all my fish out of the 10 gallon and into the 37 except I seen one more lurking this morning in there but I wasn't able to catch him. It is a royal pain to get to them with all the plants in that tank now that are trying. Not to mention since I usually didn't disturb the wood when I cleaned the tank so there is a lot of loose material in the tank. And having black fish with a black background yea that isn't working to well.

But I will trying to get the last fish out over lunch today.

But question is what to do with my filter. that lasted what 8 months?

[Slaphppy7]

Who are you again?

WELCOME BACK, stranger...good to hear from you again, even if not under the best circumstances

How often have you done maintenence on the filter, and on the motor housing itself?...have you cleaned the impeller well?...do you lube the impeller shaft with Vaseline?

All parts for the AC's are avaiable to purchase, if you wanted to rebuild it

[FrozenTundra]

I haven't done much of any maintenance on the motor itself. Really never made any noise or fuss. It just always ran quiet. I made sure no debris got up in it and kept it clean otherwise. It just up and died.

But I would think it would be under warranty but I am not sure as I got it from Amazon. Not sure what I am going to do with it now. For the most part I am just letting the lights run their cycle to keep the plants going. Screw the pond snails :p

[Slaphppy7]

I would try to get it cleaned up, I'm betting it's not dead just yet...especially if you've never given the impeller well a deep clean

Pull the motor, remove the impeller, and run scalding hot water into the well...use Qtips to swab it out real well....rinse in hot water, swab, repeat...scrub the impeller itself in hot water with an old toothbrush...and lube the shaft before replacing it

Briefly plug it in before replacing to see if it spins...I'm betting it does

[FrozenTundra]

Ok, I will give that a shot. How easy is it to get the motor off. And what kind of tools am I going to need for this? make sure I got everything I need before starting.

[FrozenTundra]

I just hope I haven't completely killed my cycle in there. As half my media was bone dry. But like I said I tossed in the other tank so hopefully it repopulates fast so that I can seed it back into the little tank.

[annageckos]

AC motors are super easy to clean. Give it a shot, won't hurt anything. Two things I have found about AC that stop running. One is that with the filter plugged in and full of water give the motor a whack. Don't laugh, it works. Or again with the filter plugged in and full take off the intake tube or move it to the side so that you can see the impeller. Use something like a chopstick and give it a little push, more often then not that will get the motor going. I would say if neither of these work your filter is done for. I've had 10 year old filters that I had to do this with every time to get them going. Sadly though the newer filters don't last like the old ones did.

[FrozenTundra]

I tried to give it a good thumping.

Will also give the filter sponge a good cleaning as well into dechlorinated water tonight as well

[Slaphppy7]

The motor just twists off of the housing. Only tools you will need are Qtips and Vaseline, and an old toothbrush.

Be sure to lube the O ring where the motor meets the housing with a bit of Vaseline as well...

Before removing the motor from the housing, note how it is aligned...you will have to twist it back on to the housing in the opposite direction, so that it lines up

While you have the motor removed, may as well clean the whole housing/pickup tube in hot water...an old toothbrush works great for celaning the nooks and crannies...remove the dark plastic piece where the pickup tube end rests, it will be filthy under there...the TB works well to clean out the pickup tube, too

BE CAREFUL when you remove the impeller from the motor...it is held in there magnetically, it may be slimy and hard to grasp with your fingers...you can use tweezers to pull it out, but you DON'T want to bend the shaft...after you get it lubed, gently place the impeller back in and let it "pull" itself back into place

[gronlaura]

Welcome back, FT! I think they have a 2 year warranty.