Filter Broke Down. What Now?

[maurizio]

After less than 2 years of problematic behaviour, it eventually broke down completely: the hose adapter is impossible to extract (old problem), and now the ON/OFF switch of my EHEIM professional 3 350 got loose, and now is swinging back and forth without really acting. The online heater is therefore also offline, now. Fortunately temps won't be a prob, for a while.
 
Now, EHEIM website doesn't even bother naming service centers in different countries. I found the one apparently covering Denmark, and e-mailed them.
 
What I did so far:
 
- emptied and cleaned the damn thing
- placed both bio&mech tray in the tank, hoping the bacteria will survive for goodness knows how long.
 
Planning to closely monitor and change the water daily, and shake the filter trays to oxygenate them when I can. Will that work? Fortunately the tank allows more water than I ever put in, so I have room for some more.
 
What else should I do? How long can I expect the bacteria and fish survive in these conditions? Never had ammonia nor nitrite problems, whereas NO3 have always been between 50 and 75 mg/l (but the fish never cared, apparently).
 
Thanks!
 
 
 

 

[DrRob]

Do you have any other means of water movement? Another filter or powerhead, an air pump? If you've got the latter you can keep media going for a while with a soda bottle and a tube.

 

[dgwebster]

Do you have an airpump, stone & airline? Could potentially use it to drive flow through your existing media old school style?

Darn dr rob in there moments before me haha

 

[maurizio]

Nope, always used the power of the filter output to move the water.
Of course, if there's no alternative, I can buy some piece of equipment... An air pump with the output in front of my media, inside the tank?

 

[dgwebster]

Its better if you can put the airstone under a tube - 1" drainpipe or hosepipe, with some waterflow slots cut into the tube above the stone. The idea is the air rushing up the tube sucks water up with it. You want to put this in the centre of a larger tube e.g. a soda bottle, and fill the inside of this larger tube, around the outside of the smaller tube, with your filter media. So now what happens is air rushes up out the small tube. This drags in water at the bottom of your soda bottle, up to the top of the small tube. That water has to come from somewhere. It is pulled in through the top of the soda bottle, through your filter media to those little slots at the bottom of your inner tube.

Search these forums or u-tub for "diy sponge filter" to get a better idea of what I am crudely describing.

 

[DrRob]

If you're going for an airpump, may as well set up a simple diy soda bottle filter, cut off the top, add tube, fill with media and drop airline down tube. Instant box filter.

 

[David J]

Not that this helps now but when I upgraded my filter I kept my old filter just in case this happens. I can then set it up quickly by putting some mature media in it until I get a more permanent solution. Once you've resolved your current issue it might be worth looking into buying a cheap spare internal for the future, just in case.

One final point, given how essential our filters are, personally, if mine started giving me major problems I'd have it replaced as soon as money allowed me to. I need to be 100% confident in my equipment and if anything is wrong, it's just not worth taking the risk. Just my tuppence worth.

Sorry I can't offer any advice to help you just now though. I hope everything turns out ok.



David

 

[maurizio]

Reading right now whatever I find!
For "media" you mean I can put in the two bio-mech pellets I have in the filter, or just the sponges?

 

[DrRob]

everything in the filter will have bacteria on it. Put it all in water movement if you can. Start with the biomedia, then the sponges if there's room, then anything chemical gets last dibs on space.

 

[maurizio]

Found this so far. Only thing missing is the soda bottle, containing the whole thing.
 
I'm still doubting, though: you need to create a vacuum for this to work, but... if the air pressure is too strong, it will actually simply blow air through the filter, and if it's too weak, there won't be suction enough. Matter of fine-tuning?

 

[DrRob]

Much simpler, don't drill holes in it, just stand it slightly off the bottom, that way water draws through all of the media and can't take a short cut through the top.
 
Oh, and it doesn't have to be a soda bottle, any aquarium safe container will do, they're just easy to find and cut the top off.

 

[maurizio]

Thank you, all.
Temporarily solved, my favourite shop gave me a good discount on an inner filter (EHEIM again!

), which costed me more or less like a good air pump. Hopefully temperature won't go too low.
Now it's a matter of contacting the EHEIM local service, and see how long it takes and how much it costs to send it there...
 
Cheers!