Old filters : good & bad

[fishorama]

I have a 20g long & have 2 filters on it; a Whisper 3 & AC 50...yeah, overkill! But I moved/gave away the fish, hiders & fry grown too big. It was just plants so when the AC clogged & I didn't have time to clean it, I unplugged it. Then a quite while later we had a brief power outage & the Whisper quit & wouldn't restart after a quick cleaning. Meanwhile the AC was growing algae &/or mold, yuck! OK, it doesn't really need a filter...

Jen sent me cool crypts, they seemed ok, as did some other plants. I changed water once in a while, removed java moss & unhappy or too happy stems. A holding pattern.

Back to filters, I just knew the AC would work again & it did! Encouraged, I cleaned the Whisper again...& it's working too!

This morning I noticed the water level was down. Eeek! The Whisper was leaking! Now I'm tearing down the tank so I can move it & the stand to dry out the carpet. Maybe I can get rid of the duckweed & moss, thinking positive!

I may try replacing the o-ring to see if that fixes it. These filters are more than 20 years old & I've never done that.

 

[myswtsins]

Ah, leaks are the worst. At least it's only a 20L for moving purposes. I'd just do a test run and try to pinpoint the leak before replacing anything. But with filters that old I wouldn't put too much effort into fixing it either.

I was just thinking about our plants yesterday. I have had some C. Usteriana floating for a month now and it doesn't even seem to notice lol. It's bulletproof!

 

[fishorama]

It was coming from where the motor attaches. I'm willing to spend $0.50 up to a few dollars for an O-ring or package of them. This may possibly be my last surviving Whisper but there might be another 1 or 2 in my garage

I'm hoping the carpet & pad are drying out with a fan going. It feels dry but it's on a slab so the padding is very thick.

I may move the tank, it gets a bit of sun for a short while at certain times of year. But the thought of rearranging my living room is daunting since I'm still sore

 

[smitty]

save the little bit of money and time and replace that Whisper with an Aquaclear 110 filter.

 

[tanker]

You can try using a hair-dryer to help dry the carpet.

 

[fishorama]

smitty, It's a 20g long, an AC110 is serious overkill, lol. I also had an AC 50 on it that seems to be working, but it's very old too.

Jessica, a great idea! but it would take me hours, if not days, to find a hair dryer, lol. & really, I could not feel any dampness at all, or see it standing on a paper towel (& I'm not a small person). I think any water is down deep but I will not put the stand back where it was for several more days. A small area of the "stand" edge (more like a small buffet) was wet so we put it up on 2 x 4s to dry out as well.

Really, this tank had been set up for ~6 years, so it's not a terrible thing to reset it.

Oh, & I saw a brownish "mutt" shrimp survivor that will be toast in the cleaning. I last had cherry shrimp multicolor mutts 4+ years ago with never ever a sign of shrimplets. My husband swears he saw a "giant shrimp" with a 1 inch tail when he was washing the Eco today, I'm skeptical (you should hear his bird descriptions )

 

[OrionGirl]

I suspect we could find an old whisper lying around if you wanted to cannibalize it for parts...But the orings might be toast since they've not been used in years and years.

 

[dougall]

I suspect we could find an old whisper lying around if you wanted to cannibalize it for parts...But the orings might be toast since they've not been used in years and years.

We likely have one.

But I call shenanigans on any ability to find it all all.

 

[myswtsins]

Men's descriptions lol

Shenanigans lol

*Looks over at the complete chaos of fish stuff*........ Yeah I have a couple somewhere too......

 

[OrionGirl]

That is almost a challenge...