Aqua clear help

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Hello my aqua clear 70 was running fine but I just switched out some new media I wanted to put in there and now it’s just humming and not pushing in water please help ( only 3 months old)
Check the impeller, sometimes they just need to be wiggled a little
 
Beside cleaning the impeller thoroughly with a brush, the impeller shaft also needs to be brushed and rinsed out (regularly).
As said above, just one tiny grain of sand, a tiny snail, or just about anything on the impeller, in the volute (impeller shaft) on the axel, can easily stop them, and or make then run loud.
When I had them, I gave a serious cleaning minimum once per week And if that grain of something isn't removed, it can score the impeller trashing the unit, and making it unusable very quickly.
 
Pre-filter AC intakes in tanks with sand. I pre-filter all of mine regardless of substrate type or absences there-of. Also, keep the intake a decent amount of space above the sand.

The reason for keeping the impeller and well clean is not because you can easily restart it if it stops as deatiled above. It is because if there is a power blink or outage when one is away from home, you will not know about it and it may not get corrected in time to prevent problems if it is the lone filter on a tank. I try top divide filtration beyween an AC and an air driven filter. Air pumps tend to restart more reliably rhan hang-ons with impellers.

At my peak I had about 30+ ACs running, I still have the first one I got in 2001. I am now down to only 19 and that still includes at least one of every size.

The easiest way to know you need to clean the impeller etc. is by turnng the filter off (unplugging) for 30 seconds and then turning it back on. if it doesn;'t start, it is time to clean.
 
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