I'm having problems with my emperor 400 ever since I added new activated carbon. I just simply put more in the seperate gray holders that it came with and now my filter is making a clicking noise. everyone can tell that one of the carbon pieces is stuck somewhere. I looked at the impeller and there were no signs of any carbon ever entering it, but the sound I am 100% positive on is coming from the middle part where the impeller is. My filter shut off last night until this morning and I had to re-set it up and prime it and now it's still making the same sound. I have no idea where the piece could be but it's driving me insane I can't find it. It's only one piece stuck some where. A seperate problem I've had since I got it was that my bio wheels don't turn due to the spray bars never spraying fast enough.
Marineland emperor 400 troubles.
- Thread starter LittleBigAl3
- Start date
I had the same problem with my whisper HOB's...what I found was the impeller wasnt attached to the shaft anymore and it was basically freespinning....the filter also shutoff....i took the impeller out, epoxied it back on to the shaft, waited 24 hours to cure, threw it back in and it works like a champ..
ya when i was putting it together for the first time the impeller got stuck and it wasn't able to freely move. maybe an activated carbon piece knocked it out of place.
LittleBigAl3;2952882; said:
Its a very good possibility, pull the impeller out and see if the balde part is free, if so epoxy it, let it cure, and throw it back in
I would recommend doing a full round of maintenance on it. Take it off the tank, pour out the old water and remove filter media (and float your biowheels in tank water so they don't dry out during maintenance).
Clean out the bio-wheel spray bars with that brush that came with the filter, then set them aside. Next clean out the intake tube and intake strainer. Then move on to the impeller. Take apart anything that is removable and clean it by rinsing in warm water and lightly brushing it (previously mentioned brush works fine).
When thats done set those things aside (the parts you just cleaned). Then clean out the back of the filter (where the cartridges go and where the impeller would be). I usually do this by rinsing in warm bath water.
If you are worried about your rite-size E cartridge (or whatever you use) losing its beneficial bacteria, you could probably just put a little tank water in a bucket and leave the cartridges soaking in that until maintenance is done. I usually just rinse off the filters while I'm doing the filter maintenance though.
This is a sure-fire way to fix any problems with the Emperor 400s
Mine have been going strong for 4 and 1/2 years now.
Clean out the bio-wheel spray bars with that brush that came with the filter, then set them aside. Next clean out the intake tube and intake strainer. Then move on to the impeller. Take apart anything that is removable and clean it by rinsing in warm water and lightly brushing it (previously mentioned brush works fine).
When thats done set those things aside (the parts you just cleaned). Then clean out the back of the filter (where the cartridges go and where the impeller would be). I usually do this by rinsing in warm bath water.
If you are worried about your rite-size E cartridge (or whatever you use) losing its beneficial bacteria, you could probably just put a little tank water in a bucket and leave the cartridges soaking in that until maintenance is done. I usually just rinse off the filters while I'm doing the filter maintenance though.
This is a sure-fire way to fix any problems with the Emperor 400s
Mine have been going strong for 4 and 1/2 years now.BPags52;2953022; said:I would recommend doing a full round of maintenance on it. Take it off the tank, pour out the old water and remove filter media (and float your biowheels in tank water so they don't dry out during maintenance).
Clean out the bio-wheel spray bars with that brush that came with the filter, then set them aside. Next clean out the intake tube and intake strainer. Then move on to the impeller. Take apart anything that is removable and clean it by rinsing in warm water and lightly brushing it (previously mentioned brush works fine).
When thats done set those things aside (the parts you just cleaned). Then clean out the back of the filter (where the cartridges go and where the impeller would be). I usually do this by rinsing in warm bath water.
If you are worried about your rite-size E cartridge (or whatever you use) losing its beneficial bacteria, you could probably just put a little tank water in a bucket and leave the cartridges soaking in that until maintenance is done. I usually just rinse off the filters while I'm doing the filter maintenance though.
This is a sure-fire way to fix any problems with the Emperor 400s
wont fix a broken impeller though
stingraybob;2953035; said:
Oh...it's broken then? Haha, well if it's not broken then do what I said
If it is broken...
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+9998+3626&pcatid=3626
replacement impeller for $12.
BPags52;2953243; said:Oh...it's broken then? Haha, well if it's not broken then do what I said
If it is broken...
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+9998+3626&pcatid=3626
replacement impeller for $12.
my thoughts exactly...if it isnt broke do what he said....if it is, pick up a 4 dollar bottle of epoxy and fix it
got to only look at the impeller now. may not try anything right away, because i just got a new lima shovelnose catfish.
Ugh. Now I'm having problems with my Emperor 400s.
I've owned these 2 filters for over 4 and 1/2 years now. I did maintanence on the Emp400 on the right side of the tank last week, and its been noisy ever since...but its also moving more water than it has in awhile (and noticeably more than the Emp400 on the left side of tank that is quiet).
Over the last week I've tried re-seating the impeller a few times hoping it wasn't sitting just right and causing the noise. But that didn't seem to work. Annoyed me to the point that I'm considering buying an AC110 (or two ac70s, b/c I found a good deal on these) to replace it.
I did a water change today and after plugging my filters back in, the left filter wasn't able to get started (it wasn't pumping water hard enough to get itself to start, though it tried). So I took it off and did full maintanence on the left filter.
When I put it back on tank and started it up, it was being even noisier than the other filter on the right thats been bothering me all week. So I figure its something I'm doing wrong during maintanence, but I don't know what.
I re-seated the impeller a few times but it was still real noisy (worse than the right filter). So I took it back off the tank and cleaned the impeller box as best I could, put it back on the tank and started it up. It's going strong now, but is just as noisy as the right filter.
What am I doing wrong?
As far as I can tell the impeller box area is clean and no carbon is in there gumming up the works/causing noise. The impellers also seem to be in good condition...no damage that I can see.
Any thoughts?
edit: They are both moving alot of water, just noisily
and its a living room tank right next to my computer desk where I spend most of my time at home, so, its slowly driving me crazy.
I've owned these 2 filters for over 4 and 1/2 years now. I did maintanence on the Emp400 on the right side of the tank last week, and its been noisy ever since...but its also moving more water than it has in awhile (and noticeably more than the Emp400 on the left side of tank that is quiet).
Over the last week I've tried re-seating the impeller a few times hoping it wasn't sitting just right and causing the noise. But that didn't seem to work. Annoyed me to the point that I'm considering buying an AC110 (or two ac70s, b/c I found a good deal on these) to replace it.
I did a water change today and after plugging my filters back in, the left filter wasn't able to get started (it wasn't pumping water hard enough to get itself to start, though it tried). So I took it off and did full maintanence on the left filter.
When I put it back on tank and started it up, it was being even noisier than the other filter on the right thats been bothering me all week. So I figure its something I'm doing wrong during maintanence, but I don't know what.
I re-seated the impeller a few times but it was still real noisy (worse than the right filter). So I took it back off the tank and cleaned the impeller box as best I could, put it back on the tank and started it up. It's going strong now, but is just as noisy as the right filter.
What am I doing wrong?
As far as I can tell the impeller box area is clean and no carbon is in there gumming up the works/causing noise. The impellers also seem to be in good condition...no damage that I can see.
Any thoughts?
edit: They are both moving alot of water, just noisily
and its a living room tank right next to my computer desk where I spend most of my time at home, so, its slowly driving me crazy.