Two of my aquariums are in our very busy mud/laundry room. My 75g and 10g. Yesterday I notice this horrendous STINK in the room. Nothing unusual, given my kid's nature to throw wet swim gear or clothing in unusual locations in the room. I won't even throw my 3yr/old's occasional pants-pooping into the mix.. LOL.
Anyway, the smell was bad. I started looking around for spilled fish food, etc. I noticed the shrimp in my little planted 10g seemed unusually active, with countless numbers swimming about, and the water looking cloudy. Upon further investigation, the AquaClear 30 HOB on this tank was humming, but not pumping. Uh oh.. I pop the top off the HOB only to be met with a stench that would gag a maggot. The motor housing was almost too hot to touch, basically evaporating what water was left in the HOB tank. Even though I keep a sponge over the AC30 suction, shrimp still get past, and there's always a dozen or more in the HOB. Well, they were all toast.. and MAN do those things get stinky fast.
I had to disassemble and clean the whole filter, replace both sponges and rinse the bio media thoroughly.. Pretty sure any BB I had in there is long gone. Did a 75% water change, measured water params and got everything back running. Params were 0,0,<5.
Only thing I can figure is, the day before, we had a quick power blip. Just enough to blink the lights. I know on occasion, my AC30s don't power up without an impeller "flick", even though they're as clean as a whistle. I don't usually see this with my AC70s or 110. Long story short, check your tank hardware after even a quick power blip.
Anyway, the smell was bad. I started looking around for spilled fish food, etc. I noticed the shrimp in my little planted 10g seemed unusually active, with countless numbers swimming about, and the water looking cloudy. Upon further investigation, the AquaClear 30 HOB on this tank was humming, but not pumping. Uh oh.. I pop the top off the HOB only to be met with a stench that would gag a maggot. The motor housing was almost too hot to touch, basically evaporating what water was left in the HOB tank. Even though I keep a sponge over the AC30 suction, shrimp still get past, and there's always a dozen or more in the HOB. Well, they were all toast.. and MAN do those things get stinky fast.
I had to disassemble and clean the whole filter, replace both sponges and rinse the bio media thoroughly.. Pretty sure any BB I had in there is long gone. Did a 75% water change, measured water params and got everything back running. Params were 0,0,<5.
Only thing I can figure is, the day before, we had a quick power blip. Just enough to blink the lights. I know on occasion, my AC30s don't power up without an impeller "flick", even though they're as clean as a whistle. I don't usually see this with my AC70s or 110. Long story short, check your tank hardware after even a quick power blip.
