Oase Biomaster 350 Thermo

[Saer]

Hi all

I have a 200l tank and I am using the above external filter which is having some problems.

Every few days the flow rate drops to literally nothing. I clean out the canister, The intake and outflow parts in the tank, expel the air, start it up and a load of crap floods out of the outlet and it all works again for a couple of days. When I clean it there is barley anything in there, with the exception of the corse sponge in the first tray, it is certainly not all blocked with crud.

There does not appear to be any air in the filter.
The problem seems to be getting worse, 24 hours ago it stopped and I cleaned it again, all worked fine, this morning it had all stopped again, I cannot find anything blocking it.

I have replaced the Pre filter sponges with 20ppi home made ones which are quite thin as I thought this may be clogging up too quickly, and drilled lots more holes into the pipe the pre filter sponges are around.
Whenever I go to clean the pre filter it is not blocked, just a bit slimy in places.

Inside the canister from bottom to top I have:
Tray one - course sponge, medium sponge and nitrate removal pad
All trays above this except the top one has fluval bio max rings.

The top tray has a thin fine sponge, like fluff.

I have corys, glass catfish, cardinal tetra, bristlenose, cherry shrimp and Khulis in the tank.

I would say it is a medium planted tank, around 50% surface area with various plants.

I am by no means an expert in this stuff and filled the canister based on the pond guru videos.

I thought perhaps I had too much in the canister for a planted tank but am wary to take anything out because water parameters are good when the flow rate is normal.

If anyone has any ideas as to what might be causing the flow to stop completely, or if I have the filter set up wrong, I would be very grateful for your advice.

 

[seangee]

Have you cleaned the impeller?
Also clean out the hoses using something like a pipe cleaner / bottle brush. If loads of crud comes out at startup it must be coming from somewhere, and chances are its lining the hoses and possibly resrticting flow.
Another thing that is important in canisters is to have your hoses as short as possible and running as straight up and down as possible. Horizontal stretches or looped hoses really kill the flow.

 

[Saer]

Thank you, I had not done those, I will give them a try

 

[Wills]

Sounds like we have the same filter set up in the same way. I have flow issues too sometimes but a clean of the pre-filter usually helps. I have floss in my top basket too which I need to sort out in the next few weeks - suspicious that could be causing low flow too.

Cleaning the pipes on these I think is important too as when I turn the filter back on after a normal water change I put a net over the outlet to catch the crap it kicks out - usally like brown/white flakes that look like they are from the inside of the pipes flushed out as the water starts moving again.

I have the 350 on a 100 litre tank so wondering if it is slightly underpowered on a 200 too? I want to change mine to a 600 but trying to work out how to hide the cost from my wife...

 

[2tank]

I have a dophin canister filter and I think it might be the extra floss not sure though

 

[Saer]

Thank you for all the replies.

I have now cleaned all the pipes, they were not blocked but did have some black residue in them.

I have removed the white fine floss.

Unfortunately I could not check the impeller, all but one of the trays holding the bio media are now completely stuck, as is the heater, none of it will budge. I think when the flow stopped over night it has got hot and the heater has melted all the plastic together!

So far it all seems to be working ok, flow good and temperature fine, time will tell if flow stops again, but I am thinking now it is just a matter of time before I will have to replace it given it has all melted inside around the heater.

I love the idea of having the heater in the filter but given the problems I have had I am not sure it is worth it, I have been looking at fluval canisters, does anyone have any recommendations or perhaps I should give another Oase with built in heater a go?

 

[seangee]

Strange - I would expect the thermostat to turn off the heater long before it started melting things
If you are determined to have your heater out of sight you could use one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003ZGGH08/?tag=

 

[663]

I love the idea of having the heater in the filter but given the problems I have had I am not sure it is worth it, I have been looking at fluval canisters, does anyone have any recommendations or perhaps I should give another Oase with built in heater a go?

While I feel no joy in your Oase heater experience, I'm glad that I didn't pop for one. It seemed to be a good Idea initially as a backup to my monster Finnex heater, though.

As far as main body filter mats, and why the included media seemed on the restrictive side to me even with the pre-filter section inline: Too much of the same media in sequence just FEELS wrong. If you're interested in how I kitted my Biomaster 600 let me know. Also, considering the current quality of foam media, I won't use filter floss anymore.

My direct response to your current situation is agreement with someone else's suggestion in that it sounds like an impeller issue. Perhaps a malfunction with the pump head\impeller? Either way I hope you can resolve the problem with as little expense as possible.

 

[663]

Another thing that is important in canisters is to have your hoses as short as possible and running as straight up and down as possible. Horizontal stretches or looped hoses really kill the flow.

While what you here is true here. However It isn't always true in all cases. Simply put there are tubing varieties that are designed not to kink or fold. One of those manufacturers is Tygon, a premium brand. They produce products for critical medical and intensive industrial applications. I became aware of this grade of tubing while pursuing my second favorite hobby, computer liquid-cooling. Amazon has a brand named primoflex advanced LRT (low radius turn).

 

[Saer]

Strange - I would expect the thermostat to turn off the heater long before it started melting things

I had not thought of that, it would make sense! It was the only reason I could think of for the trays being stuck around the heater and the heater also being stuck.

As far as main body filter mats, and why the included media seemed on the restrictive side to me even with the pre-filter section inline: Too much of the same media in sequence just FEELS wrong. If you're interested in how I kitted my Biomaster 600 let me know. Also, considering the current quality of foam media, I won't use filter floss anymore.

I have thought there may be too much in there, I will try removing the course foam in the bottom tray and filter floss and see if that helps. I would love to know other peoples setups. According to the website, the direction of water flow in mine is as the pic below:

It seems to me, that you would want the water clean before it gets to the bio-media. I do not see the point in having the water go through foam, bio-media and then foam again, by the time it gets to the last pieces of foam the water would already be clean, surely it is better to take some foam out, move the remaining foam to the bottom, and add extra bio-media to house the bacteria more efficiently, and then have the bio-media as the last thing the water goes through when it has already been cleaned by the foam? , I am by no means an expert in any way on this stuff so happy to be corrected. Any advice on set up is greatly appreciated.

My direct response to your current situation is agreement with someone else's suggestion in that it sounds like an impeller issue. Perhaps a malfunction with the pump head\impeller? Either way I hope you can resolve the problem with as little expense as possible.

After I cleaned the pipes, flow returned to normal. I also checked there were no kinks and it was all vertical. Flow rate has dramatically dropped again this morning. I am going to see if I can prise apart the trays and get the heater out so I can get at the impeller and check that, I hope I don't break it!

 

[seangee]

Any chance you have a flat spot (weak spot) in a hose. I had this once when my hoses were not straight up and down. Every time I cleaned the filter the hoses went where I put them but overnight gravity caused one of them to flatten and limit the flow.

 

[663]

I hope this animated flow diagram helps you guys as much as it did me.