Urgent Tank Prob-please Help!

[Pob]

Hi, It's christmas eve-no shops are open and i've just done a 40% wc on my Hagen tropiquarium 88 which is running a biolife wet/dry filter.Upon restoring power the filter is not pumping and appears to be just pushing very very low output air from the outlet-not even enough to move the water.

Has anybody any experience with these filters?

The manual is not very helpful and it does not dismantle the way depicted in the instructions provided.I cannot seem to be able to even remove the pump to check the impeller.Do these filters need priming sometimes??

If so,how??

Please help if you can.

Pob

 

[ICEEGRL]

I have no idea, but I will see if I can find you someone. I don't know who is on right now.

 

[Pob]

I have no idea, but I will see if I can find you someone. I don't know who is on right now.

Thanks,the hagen website is not much help either.

 

[k.o.d]

You will have to excuse me I have not dismantled a biolife for quite a number of years, but,

1. First thing to check is the impellor is not seized in the housing ( by muck and grot, if there is grot in there it will not overcome the inertia to turn ) The powerhead lifts out of the top of the filter housing if I remember correctly and then can be carefully dismantled to uncover the impellor

The biolife is a fairly straightforward filter and grot in the impellor housing is usually the reasons they wont run

A stupid question I know, but is the water level at the right place ( there is a mark on the filter where the minimum level should be )

Steve

 

[Pob]

Problem solved!!!

I can only assume it needed priming even though its meant to be automatic.

I resolved it by giving the whole unit a damn good shake in the tank whilst switched on.The occupants are not best pleased at the moment but the panic is over!!

Thanks Ice for trying

KOD,the level is within the markings-I could not for the life of me get the powerhead/pump out of its housing.There is no obvious way to remove it and I tried using a knife at the sides also-its stuck.I hope I never need to remove it soon.

 

[k.o.d]

Must be stuck as the powerhead just slots into a bracket

Thats not good

 

[Pob]

Whats the best way to unstick/remove it?

My problem is that its all hardwired into the hood-filter and heater to one socket so I cannot actually totally remove the filter away from the tank.I can only raise it out and sit it in a bucket by the side of the tank due to wire length.I have the full instruction manual for the filter which amounts to 3 pages in french/english.It is not very comprehensive and assumes that everything just dismantles with great ease.

My other problem is that the tank was bought second hand so I did not initially ''install'' the filter so I do not really know what part I can pull/prise/yank etc.