aquaclear humming

jeninok

AC Members
Sep 3, 2008
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I have a Aquaclear 30 on my 20 gallon. Yesterday it was accidentally unplugged for maybe two minutes then I turned it back on. Ever since it has been making this awful humming noise.
I took it all apart and cleaned it and played with the impeller a little and it stopped, but once I put it back on the tank it started up again.

Any ideas?
 
clear/ clean the impeller housing.. you could have something off a bit there.
 
Yes it is level, I cleaned the impeller housing with a q-tip, and it was overall pretty clean, I also turned it over and shook it a bit to see if anything would come out, nothing did.

Is there a better/more thorough way to clean it?
 
try running the filter with water but sans the pick up tube.. how does it respond?
 
A long shot - but make sure to look CLOSELY at the rod the impeller turns on - I had the same thing going on with mine once, cleaned & cleaned it, only to eventually find that a hair (yuck, I know) was wrapped around the impeller rod. It was barely visible, but it was enough to hang up the impeller from spinning freely. String and java moss also tend to get caught in there and they're hard to spot because they work their way down into the impeller (between the rod and the impeller itself).

I had another issue where the impeller shifted and was in a slightly off position. Make sure it is resting correctly in the housing. It's easier to spot the problem if you have an outlet that allows you to run your filter at your sink (fill up a dish pan and hang it over the side), so you don't have to keep running back and forth to try it in your tank. TAKE YOUR FILTER MEDIA OUT AND LET IT SIT IN AQUARIUM WATER IF YOU DO THIS.
 
spot on advice tiki.

i do the same with all my hobs (the dishpan idea), even when purchased new, to make sure everything is in working order before i add media and put the filter on the tank. that way i can return it easily if need be.
 
your impeller may have bent when you cleaned it too. If the above ideas don't fix it, check into getting a new impeller. They are pretty cheap.
 
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