Aqua One H200 Filter Not Flowing Anymore

[deanimate]

Hello!
Ok firstly these fish are not mine. My house mate has gone back to china and asked me to look after them. Fine, no problem i said.
Thing is he only told me how to feed them.

other than that i have ZERO idea about fish and the assorted things to do with them.
But i went to feed them today and noticed no water is flowing from the aqua one filter.
I think is a problem and thats why im posting here to try and get some help to try and fix it.

Any ideas at all really are very much appreciated!
(have attached an image as well to show filter not flowing)

 

[fourthtimelucky]

That is DEFINITELY a problem!

No experience with that particular sort of filter (hopefully someone else will be able to come and give you a bit more help soon) but in the meantime, check the water level -- is it high enough for the impeller to pull the water up? Has your friend been away long enough for the water level to have dropped through evaporation? If you need to top up the tank, remember to use dechlorinator (it will be in a bottle with your friend's fish supplies, follow the label instructions) don't just dump plain tapwater in.

If the water level is not the problem then you can assume it is something mechanical. While you're waiting for someone else to come help, pour a couple of cups of TANK water through the filter if you can. This will stop the filter media from drying out any more and hopefully keep the good filter bacteria alive.

Have you any idea how long the filter has been stopped for? If the bacteria are now dead your friend is going to come home to some very sick / dead fish -- you may have to start doing some emergency water changes to keep them alive. Can you contact your friend and ask them for help?

And ooh yes, stop feeding the fish until you've sorted this out. They'll be fine for a while without food and this will slow the buildup of ammonia in the tank.

 

[matt28781]

bacteria wont die unless its dried out btw

 

[indigoj]

It could if it does not have a flow of water through it.

Deaniemate, do some reading of the sticky threads on the forums, ask as many questions as you need, think you've got a steep learning curve, you need to know about water chemistry, water changes, the list goes on ( at least if your mate is away for more than a couple of weeks it does). How long is your friend away for? Is it a holiday or has he gone baack permanently?

 

[deanimate]

thanks for the replies everyone!
ok, i did consider it might be evaporation and put quite a bit of tap water in and that made no difference. i did it before i posted here. also i only know where the food is.

filter has stopped for about a day as i feed them once a day and im sure it was working the other day.

my housemate is still away for just under a month so plenty of time for the fish to die i guess.

appreciate everyones help here

 

[rowdyburns21]

is there any sound coming from the filter?

 

[deanimate]

yes. it is bubbling away down there but not pushing the water around for some reason.
i can pull the bit thats immersed in water out of the water and the filter thing and on the end it has a propeller. that goes into a hole in the filter that must somehow make the propeller turn but the darn water wont go anywhere.

it doesn't seem to be blocked from what i can see either.
at a guess i would say that the filter has had its day and needs replacing.

this fish business looks like a lot of work!

 

[deanimate]

phew! well, my housemate just rang me and gave me an idea about what it might be.
on top of this filter there's a little tap type thing that needs to be air tight to allow the water to filter around. it had dried out so i poured some water over it and then put it back on and that seemed to do the trick as the water is now flowing again!
hooray!

 

[fourthtimelucky]

Okay, so hopefully you still have some bacteria surviving on there!
Ask your friend where he keeps the rest of his fish stuff so that you're prepared in case of any problems. Good luck!

 

[rowdyburns21]

good stuff mate