What's the deal with my canister?

S

sillytonto

AC Members
Sep 19, 2006
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The company claims this filter pumps 265gph. It is a Cascade 1000 by Penn Plax. I was skeptical from the start, though, when is saw the weak stream of water coming out of it. Now, 6 months later, it seems to be moving even less water. I have no way to really measure it but it it is definately creating less flow than it used to.

There are no kinks in the hose that could be causing it. Are these things supposed to degrade in performance so quickly? Is there some maintenance on the motor I should be doing that I don't know about? I got the thing on Ebay(new) but I don't think sending it back is an option.

Should have got a trusty Hang-on -the Back!
 
How often do you clean it? The rating given is generally the max output of the motor, before it goes through all the filter media.
 
I had the cascade 1000 and it pushed like crazy.....methinks it's not setup right or filter media is Clog
 
TKOS said:
How often do you clean it? The rating given is generally the max output of the motor, before it goes through all the filter media.
Click to expand...

I rinse out the filters once a month or so. I guess I should try replacing them. I'm worried about losing any good bacteria because I have such crappy water turnover.
 
Measure how much flow you have. Yes, you can. I measure the flow of the filters here as I want to know the REAL flow, not some imaginary rated flow, so that I know how many times the tank is REALLY turned over in an hour. I find that a REAL turnover of 3 times er hour works fine.

You will also find that various canisters only REALLY filter 50% of that rated flow. Some may do more, some even less. Some Chinese filters I have are rated at 1500l/h and only pump 500l/h. That's fine as long as you know the REAL flow and allow for it.

So measure the flow, it's not hard.
 
Clean your filter media more often. Be careful that you arent putting to much in (ex:packing in floss).

IME with my magnum 350, if I dont clean it at least every 2 weeks, the flow goes down to nothing, but if i clean the media at least that often, the flow stays good.

(Going to move this to the fw products and diy forum)

Blue
 
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