Grrr Marineland Emperor Bio-Wheel 400

[f8fan]

We are having thunderstorms and we lost our power sometime today. I got home and spent 20 minutes priming this filter to get goin' again . It's so hit or miss.
Then, since I have noticed lately that the flow rate has been ho-hum, moderate trickling, I decided to take it off and apart, scrub out the impeller, brush out the gunk from the intake, run hot water through everything, etc. I put it all back together, with another 10-15 minuted of hit or miss priming, and the freakin' thing still isn't flowing any faster.

I'm about ready to ditch it and get a canister filter for this tank! Does anyone else have similar problem with this particular filter? It usually works pretty good and I have always been happy with Penguin biowheel filters. I have other models on my other two tanks and they readily primed themselves during the power outage and restarted without a hitch.

 

[f8fan]

ok, yet another "what canister should I buy" type question....I have read through a few threads and it seems that eheim is a really good filter that is highly recommended. It's for my 55 gallon freshwater tank. What model should I get? I want to search Ebay and Big Als for a price. I'm sorry for the noob type question, but I just have no experience with canisters at all. Should I leave the trickling Marineland Emperor 400 on it as well? Or can I just go all-canister and put the biowheel on my 25 gallon Brackish? I would really like a canister that can just do it all and not have to have two filters on the tank .
Thanks.

 

[fishtrap]

There is a chance that lightning hit a power line and sent a voltage spike through the filter motor. This may have partially blown out the windings in the motor. The impeller may still turn, but not with as much chutzpa. The result is reduced water flow. If this is the case, get a new filter and save this one for a small tank. It still has tons of bio filter area.

As far as canisters... I have the Eheim 2217 on my 37g and would buy it all over again in a heartbeat if lightning blew it out

 

[Igor The Cat]

*cough* i know ive told you that ACs arebetter! *cough* lol

i would go with a fluval 405, absolutly fabulous filters IMHO, now i know christina is now gonna come along and tell me that all Ehiems are better but whatever lol.

cheers

-"Sonny Boy"

 

[f8fan]

that fluval 405 sounds dandy except for the $150.00 price tag at big als! I'd like to only have to spend about 75 bucks. Plus the fluval 405 says for tanks up to 100 gallons? I only have a moderately stocked (I'd even go so far as to say stocked on the light side) 55 gallon. Although, I am also of the "you can't overfilter" thought process....hmm...

I'm just mad that I spent 80 bucks on this filter I currently have less than a year ago and already it's just filtering a strong trickle. I can't take it apart any more than I did, for cleaning, as it's all sealed into one unit.

 

[Panther28]

I think you should go for the rena Filstar XP3. It seems to be pretty good and now i think they are on sale at Big Al's for $89.99.

 

[Igor The Cat]

if you can go for the 404, or even a 304/5, i use a 204 on my 29gal and it works the charm. but f you can go for a 404/5.

cheers

-Java

 

[bala_aquarium]

priming my emperor was a pain but once it was going i thought it did a good job

 

[f8fan]

bala_aquarium, were you able to get right into the impeller chamber to clean out gunk? I know with my biowheel 170 on my 25 gallon, the whole motor twists right out and I can take the impeller out to clean it. On the emperor 400, I can only take the impeller out, everything else is all one piece. I'm sure there is a ton of gunk in there...somewhere...because when I first bought it, it had a really nice strong flow and pumped out two nice waterfalls. Now it's dribbling out. I ran hot water through the chamber where the impeller sits but it didn't make a difference. I even took all the media out just to see if I had it stuffed too full, and even with an empty filter the flow is dribbling.

 

[TheMainer]

If you switch to a canister, I have only used the XP3 and haven't had any problem with it yet.

As for the Emperor 400. I have had my fun times with it as well. For the priming this is my suggestion:

1. Unplug filter.
2. Get a glass, cup, anything of decent size to scoop water out of the tank.
3. Take top off of filter.
4. There is a "speed" adjuster (the plastic gray thing you pull up or push down to effect the flow rate). Set that on the highest or second to highest flow rate.
5. Fill glass, cup, whatever you chose and fill it with water.
6. Plug in filter.
7. Dump water down middle section of the filter (section between the two big areas where your filter media goes and the impellor is found). Keep scooping water from the tank and dumping it down there.


I have found this to be the fastest way to get it primed and happy. Usually takes mine about 5-10 secs before the loudish noises stop. Hope this helps!

 

[Brack-Man]

Kelly, I'm gonna have to suggest the Rena xP3 as well.... thats what I use on my 55 gal brackish tank and it does a wonderful job with keeping my tank clean (its the only filter on the tank), and I have messy fish *crazysmil

 

[f8fan]

Welp, Rena xP3 it is! *SUNSMILE* After a couple more paychecks... I can "get by" with what I have right now as I'm pretty lightly stocked.

Thanks, Mainer, I did that too, with a half gallon jug so there was plenty of water and it still took about 25-30 times doing this before the filter kicked in and started doing it's 'thang. What a horrible noise it makes, eh? And there is nothing like standing right over it, getting more frustrated by the minute for about 15 minutes in fruitless efforts to get it going with that sound blaring at you. ha ha.

But I'm still on a mission to find that gunk and/or determine why my flow rate is so piddly on my current Emperor. I would blame it on the power outage, but it was doing it long before that. And it's not sand damage, as I had a different filter on there for the first few months while the tank was new and the sand particles were an issue.

 

[TheMainer]

Hmmm, I wish I could help. I can't imagine what would make it take so long. The impellor looks okay huh? Oh, another thing I do when pouring the water is have both the "spray bars" point straight down into the filter buckets instead of pointing at the wheels. This also as much water to stay in the actual filter and help prime it. The more air in it the longer it will take. The longer you will have to listen to that horrible noise.