Afrikan Posted May 29, 2007 Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 Screwed one of my external filters :evil: We had a power cut last night and I noticed since the power cut one of my external filters running on our discus tank was making one hell of a nasty noise... We have checked everything... impellor is fine, everything is fine, so what he heck is going on.. goodness only knows :-? :roll: Just can't seem to get it running as strong as it was and without noise... The Eheim Pro II running on the tank also wasn't effected thank god. Question: Can power surges damage external filters? On a happier note... My new discus arrived today to from Origin Aquatics! Beaaauuutiifulll But they had a noisey filter to arrive to... We have now packed a spare fluval with all the bio media from the damaged external and have got that up and running, phew! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snookie Posted May 29, 2007 Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 has sand been sucked in? a great trick a hammer usually works Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afrikan Posted May 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 No snookie it hasn't... I wish it was something like tho! :lol: It has been thoroughly looked at it and impellor cleaned and reset in.. and she's not happy when turned on, it's almost like she's struggling to keep going.. and flow rate more or less zilch... happened after the power cut/surge... maybe the motor was fried? Not sure? :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.PROPHECY Posted May 29, 2007 Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 I had a HOB filter that got screwed after a power cut , it might have got a power surge or something and burned it out lol Need one of those surge protector things on your switch board, something like that anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afrikan Posted May 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 In our old place I had our wall oven and washing machine die because of darn power surge, luckily I had it covered on my insurance, otherwise I would have been couting my pennys :lol: Oh well thankfully it was only one external Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayci Posted May 29, 2007 Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 Is it possible that the magnet on the impellor got de-magetised. If you got two of the same external filter try swapping the impellors around and see if the fault follows the impellor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afrikan Posted May 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 Hiya jayci We did an impellor swap as we had a spare impellor from same make/model filter and had the same problem, but that was a good suggestion to pass on tho incase I hadn't ventured there Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew_W Posted May 29, 2007 Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 power surges can stuff anything... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted May 29, 2007 Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 Take it outside to give it a good hose down on the drive and accidentally drop it. Claim insurance. Dum-Dee-dooooo. :evil: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim r Posted May 29, 2007 Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 Is it a Fluval? I had the same problem on Sunday night and I also changed the impeller without success. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted May 29, 2007 Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 I've had this happen before but didn't associate it with a power cut. It's possible there was a power cut that caused it but I was out... If there is a surge it can be to quite a high voltage. It's possible the windings in the motor get damaged (usually called first turn failure) as most of the voltage spike appears across the first few turns of wire in the windings. This can cause the insulation material to break down so you have a shorted turn. This creates oppositing magnetic fields in the motor making it rattle and run with much less power or flow. It should also get hotter than in used to and in some cases it might smell. The filter I had do this only lasted a few days longer before it stopped all together with the windings going open curcuit. This may be the problem but it's only a guess... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted May 29, 2007 Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 In other words Warren, all the blue smoke that keeps them going had escaped?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted May 29, 2007 Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 Yes, all electrical devices actually don't work on electricity, they work on smoke. I know this because when the smoke leaks out they stop working... More effecient devices leak less smoke and less efficient device leak more. You should see how much smoke I can get out of some of the electic motors and other electronic devices at work. Needless to say, these ones are quickly removed from our list of suitable devices for the job. R&D is great fun!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afrikan Posted May 29, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 Is it a Fluval? I had the same problem on Sunday night and I also changed the impeller without success. Hi jim It isn't a fluval, it's a spare Jebo we had sitting around ages ago that we decided to throw on the tank to cycle and left it running on the tank along with an Eheim down the other end. I would have been more upset if it had of been any of my other externals tho, I am lucky it wasn't. Did you have a surge in Taupo to have caused your Fluval to pack up? Take it outside to give it a good hose down on the drive and accidentally drop it. Claim insurance. Dum-Dee-dooooo. :evil: :lol: :lol: Warren you are bang on with what you said.. the filter when running was very warm and when I opened the cabinet it was warmer in there than usual and there was a almost faint smell of "burning"... just slight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim r Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 No power surge that I know of and the noise seems to have gone now,I am wondering if the pump was cavitating due to plants blocking the intake pipe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr pleco Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 just a little note not to complicate but if the water flow is lessened the unit will heat up and possible produce a burning smell is a water cooled unit much the same as a radiator try slowing the flow on that and see what noises and smells come out of yr car without correct flow there is no cool fluid continiously flowing between the impellor and the housing hence increased heat (friction ) and eventually a burning smell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acara Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 Be careful using any surge protectors with aquariums,if a surge hits it,it will cut power to everything,and won't come back on until somebody notices and turns it back on.Many folk caught out by this and lost a lot of good tanks full of fish. I think there may be models on the market that can reset themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 If you can afford it, a dual conversion UPS works great to stop power dips and spikes killing your gear. It has to be dual conversion to get full protection though as off-line types still pass the power straight through and only cut in after the mains has failed. Off-line types do have some degree of spike protection in them but it's about the same as the power-board style protectors. As they don't need to be reset there's no worry about them turning off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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