Marineland PENGUIN 200 power filter

More info needed.

My guesses:

1. You have sand in your tank which is being ingested by your filter causing the impeller magnet to be grooved, causing imbalance.
2. You have sand in your tank which is being ingested by your filter causing grinding and stopping.
3. You have snails in your tank which are being ingested by your filter causing grinding and stopping.
4. The impeller is not properly seated in the motor housing.
5. Water levels are kept to low for proper function of the filter.
6. You have a break in the uptake tube causing air to enter the motor chamber.
7. After an initial grooved or improperly seated impeller rotates off its axis, the motor chamber itself becomes oblong or grooved, and can no longer properly house even a new impeller.

If you could give more info, I could more easily guess as to your filters problem.

Definitely sounds like something is getting sucked up into the filter and damaging the impeller assembly. I have 3 power filters of different brands and all have been running for years without issues. My Penguin 400 has pretty much been running non stop for the past 3 years. All my tanks have pool filter sand.

HumanBean said:

Thanks.

Yes I do have sand, very fine sand. I do have 5 rabbit snails as well and that's it. This in a 29 gallon tank housing only 5 snails. First theory makes perfect sense that sand getting sucked into the impeller although the intake tube is not very close to sand surface.

Is there a way to repair this or stopped this ?

My first power filter was running smooth for over a year. Same thing happened and impeller started making noise , bought this new one and within 4 months gone bad.

Impeller $31.00
Brand new filter $30:banghead:

Now I have two filter housings but no impeller.

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Fine sand dust may be getting in during the current caused by water changes, or when you pour water in to replace evaporated water.

You'll know its sand if the impeller magnet is gouged and/or the magnet housing is gouged - a quick sign of the is when the housing is no longer a perfect circle.

Repair? No. Stop it, yes. Place a fine sponge over the intake. You can do this by purchasing a AquaClear sponge block for example, pick the one sized properly to your intake pipe. Remove the intake pipe from your filter. carefully cut a small grove in the top of the sponge block. Then carefully wiggle the intake pipe halfway down into the sponge (the sponge should divide somewhat easily allowing the intake tube end to slot in.)

This should keep the sand and snails out.

Remember though, you'll need to rinse the sponge off every now and then as it effectively becomes a pre-filter. If the AquaClear Sponge is not fine enough, I think Rena and Fluval sell a finer black sponge.

Another option you may want to try is shortening the intake tube to move it father away from the bottom of the tank/substrate.

xraycer said:

Another option you may want to try is shortening the intake tube to move it father away from the bottom of the tank/substrate.

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An excellent point, but the OP said it wasn't close anyway. I'm guessing the fine sand gets kicked up during water changes and evaporation top off.

I've had powder fine sand before, if you pour water onto it it can cloud up really quick. Come to think of it, my somewhat coarse sand gets kicked up if I'm not careful during water changes - and i've had HOBs come to screeching halt when they suck it up.

HumanBean said:

Thanks for all the help. I stopped my filter for now. Just wondering how can I keep the bacteria alive on bio wheel…its been one year old ?
What if I run the filter once in 24 hour for couple if minutes so wheel can get dipped in aquarium water ? Will that be sufficient or its too late and bio wheel is gone for now ?

Sent from my A0001 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

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It needs to stay wet. If anything, keep it in the tank....preferably under an airstone