AC 500 filter may be smoked

jpsracing

jpsracing

AC Members
Jun 21, 2001
44
0
6
Well Christmas morning at 2 a.m. I hear a grinding noise in the living room and it isn't Santa Clause -- it's the motor in my Aqua Clear 500 grinding away. Ah hell . . . unplug it and go back to bed. :wall:

So now today with all the running around we had to do I haven't had a chance to inspect the filter yet but I gotta think it is smoked at this point. It was grinding away for how long before I heard it and woke up (the bedroom is a good ways down the hall) and it's been running non-stop since about 2001. So maybe it is done. I'll have a look and see if I can sort anything out.

Anyway -- the filter is for a 30 gallon with 4 red eye tetras, 1 tiny, tiny pl*co, and 7 little minnows. I plan on swapping out some water tomorrow so things don't get funky but I have a couple questions.

1 -- Since the water in the filter is still, I assume my good bacteria is probably history -- yes or no? If no, can I expect to move the filter media and charcoal insert over to a new filter with no problems?

2 -- How long can the tank stand with no filtration before water issues develop? The tank has been established for years (since about 2001 as I mentioned) and it's never seen ich or any other fish disease in that time. The bio load is *I believe* pretty low, so a day or two shouldn't be too stressful for the fish, I hope.

Thanks,
JPS
 
If it's grinding away it's not smoked, it most likely has something jammed in the impeller, worse case you'll need to buy a replacement impeller/shaft.

1, yes the bacteria are toast by now, the media will be fine, it'll just need a good rinsing out.
2 you've probably got a few days, don't feed the fish untill you get a filter going again, I'd try to get an airstone going in there at least. There will still be some bacteria in the tank it's self on the walls, gravel ect so it's not a total loss.
 
If it's for a day or two, it will be fine..don't worry. Get an airstone in there and test the water for ammo, nitrites, and nitrates, and do water changes as needed. Get a new filter asap and use the same media from your old filter i'll be fine, as long as it hasn't been to long, it may have a trace of bacteria left. The tank can be filterless for quite awhile if your on top of your water chemistry ie w/c's and monitoring. Get a filter in ther ASAP! good luck!
 
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