I just bought a 30 gallon tank with the eclipse hood that has a built in light and filter off craigslist. When I plug the filter in, the impeller spins, but no water is coming out the output. It doesn't feel like it is giving much suction either if I put my hand near the intake. What should I do?
Need help with eclipse 30!
- Thread starter gt1009
- Start date
try pouring in water to your filter first before turning it on, there might be some air in the filter mechanism.
Can you return it? I personally don't like the filter system ( I have a 6 gallon one) and the flow is getting slower the older the unit gets. I was thinking (for mine) that when the motor craps out I can take the entire thing out and modify the back of the top with a dremel to make space for a hang-on-back filter. I don't know of any other reasonable $$$ fix. A new hood unit is very expensive.
You may try to take it apart as best you can and get to the impeller. There may be some gunked up plant material wrapped around it. I hope it is not the motor. The little covering part on the underside (of the filtration part) doesn't look like it comes apart--but it does. Just pry it open and it will give you access to the impeller so you can clean it. The motor should be sealed with epoxy so don't worry about getting into that.
I got it working thanks to you guys! In the process I caused a new problem though. I was trying to unwind some plant gunk from the impeller and managed to break one of the blades off. Do you guys think it is a big problem? Will I lose much flow or should I try to superglue the blade back on?
Superglue gel is aquarium safe. I don't really know if the regular super glue is toxic--but I know it is not good to use in an aquarium. I would think you could give it a shot though. You should be able to get an impeller on-line or even try Petsmart/LFS. Fortunately--those don't cost much!
My first tank was an Eclipse 20 gallon - you can buy parts for the filter including the impeller.
