AC110 - Troubleshooting ideas

[fishmamma]

I orginally used this filter on my 40B, which houses about 20 cory's, a rope fish, and 3 geos. The goe's are still little, the male being the largest at about 3 1/2 inches or so. Substate is Caribsea Tahitian Moon sand, I had this unit on the 40 from 2/9/11 to 3/27/11 with no troubles at all.

On 3/27/11 I added the AC110 to my 125 for extra filteration (along with another HOB), in mean time while my FX5 arrived. Stock for this tank is:

2x BP's 6-8in
2x Blue Acara 4in
1x Comm Plec 12in
1x Black spotted eel 13in
1x Syno cat 7in
5x Brochis 3-4in

Substate is Pool filter sand, medium grain I'd say.. it's not fine for sure.

The past few days I wake up to a non-working AC110 filter !! When I clear it out, seems that sand has jammed it.. this morning again it wasn't working, so I cleared it.. I check it 20 min later and again it wasn't working..

I've notice someone is digging holes near the intake of the AC110, I think it's the Blue Acara which could cause sand to jam the impeller.. If I were to add some type of cover for the intake, wouldn't that defeat it's true purpose? I am frusterated as heck with this thing.. I need some ideas from preventing it from happening so frequently..

Side note: my FX5 has not arrived yet, should be getting it this week.. I was planning on keeping the AC110 on the 125 just for additonal mechanical filteration..

Forgive me if I left something out .. I should be working

 

[importracer]

I too own a 125g......The basic 6 foot length, the best 125 footprint.......For mechanical filtration, the tank uses two Ac101's........I too have had problems with sand in the past......The best thing, wrap a sponge around the intake.........Then secure it with a rubber band.........Or, switch to gravel......The best, most clean substrate, bare bottom.........My 125 has no substrate, looks and IS clean.........

 

[lipadj46]

Cut the intake tube short so it is not so close to the sand and if that does not do it put a sponge over the intake strainer.

 

[fishmamma]

I too own a 125g......The basic 6 foot length, the best 125 footprint.......For mechanical filtration, the tank uses two Ac101's........I too have had problems with sand in the past......The best thing, wrap a sponge around the intake.........Then secure it with a rubber band.........Or, switch to gravel......The best, most clean substrate, bare bottom.........My 125 has no substrate, looks and IS clean.........

This will keep it from sucking up all the poop and food floating around.. is it something I'll just have to deal with??

Cut the intake tube short so it is not so close to the sand and if that does not do it put a sponge over the intake strainer.

Just shortend it this morning, and it still got jammed!!

 

[bbortko]

I have a 125 with pfs and my ac110 never has issues. I only use one intake tube since I'm also running 2 fluval 405s and the only purpose of the ac110 is mechanical and polishing with filter floss this ways I can access the floss without opening the canisters.

 

[Michiba54]

It only takes sand getting to the motor/impeller once for the damage to be semi-permanent.

I've had alittle luck putting vaseline in the motor where the impeller sits. Filter makes a grinding sound every now an then, but other then that its fine.

And as for the sponge over the intake keeping poo/food out the answer is not really... inless your feeding too much. Just have to ring the sponge out once every week or two. I use AC sponge, the yellow one people wash cars with will fall apart.

 

[fishmamma]

It only takes sand getting to the motor/impeller once for the damage to be semi-permanent.

I've had alittle luck putting vaseline in the motor where the impeller sits. Filter makes a grinding sound every now an then, but other then that its fine.

And as for the sponge over the intake keeping poo/food out the answer is not really... inless your feeding too much. Just have to ring the sponge out once every week or two. I use AC sponge, the yellow one people wash cars with will fall apart.

The real problem is the pleco poop, OMG I never noticed how much there was up until I got a light substrate...

 

[Piscine]

Depending on how old it is, see if you can exchange it. lol I had a filter that jammed a couple times.....Its now sitting outside my window.

 

[FishFlake]

I run an AC 70 on my 29g tank with 2 BN plecos, 2 Rainbow cichlids and a dozen tetras. I use pfs, but have never had it get into the filter. I did however install a prefilter on the intake, but it would completely clog within a week. The motor would keep running, but it couldn't pull any water through the prefilter. So if you go that route, be sure to cleaning very regularly. I removed the prefilter and added a small in-tank filter as backup and extra filtration instead.

And yes, plecos are poop machines I vac the sand once a week, but could do it daily. I set up the water movement so it all ends up behind their rock pile out of site.

 

[fishmamma]

I ended cutting a piece off of a pair of pantyhoes I have, but it seemed to be too thick.. the flow coming out of the filter slowed dramatically... so then I cut a peice of filter pad off of a filter pad.. lol ... and the flow is still slow, although faster than it was with the pantyhoes... My question is, is the filter pad straining the filter too much .. and will it burn out on me... also is it as effecient... ? slower flow to me, is less gph... but don't really know for sure...