Four filters stopped working

[tamara]

I am editing this post for brevity since most of the information I originally put in turned out to be irrelevant.

In a brief span of time, four of our filters did not work when plugged in: a new Penguin biowheel, an old biowheel, and two old Fluval submersibles. This generally happened when attempting to start them up after a water change.

When this has happened, there was no noise, no sparks, no nothing. Also, we ruled out water dripping down to the outlet.

We blamed everything from defective power strips to cheap Chinese manufacturing. However, you will see in the next post how simple it turned out to be.

[tamara]

OK, now I feel really dumb. Last night I did an internet search for "aquarium filter stopped working" and found, first of all, this happens a lot. Second, it seems the most common solution for our symptoms is: take it apart and clean the impeller.

I now have a vague memory of this happening with our old canister filter that hasn't been hooked up for years. It just never happened with our biowheel and fluval filters before.

So anyway, armed with this knowledge, Kevin has already gotten one of them working again, with a possibility of fixing another. (One has already been thrown out and the one that didn't work at all when it was new from the box was taken back to the store.)

Ah, well, at least we can console ourselves with the thought that apparently this same issue has stumped many other aquarists!

[Carl]

It looks like you solved your problem before anyone else could answer it.

The Aquarium Filtration article has troubleshooting tips in most sections including canister and HOB filters.
And yes, the impeller "sticking" for a variety of reasons is the most common cause of not re-starting and often it happens after power is shut off (including power filters)
For this reason, cleaning impeller wells is/has been part of my aquarium maintenance regimen for quite some time.

From the HOB Filter Section of this article:
"Make sure to clean the impeller regularly, also clean the area the impeller “nests” (impeller well) to prevent debris from stopping the impeller. If the impeller stops, check for carbon caught in this area and make sure impeller itself is not broken. The design of HOB (power Filters) tends to allow carbon, or other grit such as rock, gravel, even particles of volcanic rock or other media to get caught in the impeller well between the impeller magnet and well wall. A “buzzing” noise is a tell tale sign of this problem. All filter media, cartridges, carbon, volcanic rock, etc should always be rinsed to prevent this. Removal of this debris, is generally quite simple, often a back flush with water while turning the filter upside down will clear out the problem debris; if not removal of the motor unit with the impeller and physically removing the impeller and cleaning out the debris will remedy the problem (please note, the Penguin motor is built in, so you have to remove the impeller from the top to service this filter).

The impeller should be to turn 359 degrees before locking, if the impeller spins freely or not at all, it is broken.
Clean filter intakes with a foxtail brush to prevent build up that will slow the filter (a sponge pre-filter helps prevent this)."

Carl

[tamara]

Thanks, Carl.

Yes, it turns out the information we needed was readily available. We just weren't looking in the right places for it.