HOB Filter won’t Turn On

[FishRBeautiful]

My kitten was playing under my fish tank (where all the cords are). I just noticed the HOB filter is off. She had unplugged the extension cord from the wall so I fixed that. It doesn’t appear to be chewed though I can’t see the whole extension cord. I filled the water back up in the filter. I unplugged and replugged it back in. Did a water change a week or two ago (and cleaned the HOB pretty good also), a filter change 3 or 4 days later. Haven’t stirred up the sand or anything since the water change. Any ideas on how to get it working again? Thankfully my sponge filter is still running in there. It’s just an extra filter I run for times like this when the HOB shuts down. 

Never mind. I lifted the intake piece and put it back down and now it’s running. No idea how a kitten could have messed that up!😬

[lefty o]

some times just stopping can cause them to be troublesome, and you found the cure.

[FishRBeautiful]

True. It happened again so I’m wondering if the motor can go out after a while. Are other types of filters better that I should get something else, maybe an internal filter or gravel filter? I don’t want a canister. Too complicated!

[TOtrees]

All filters are a bit finicky. They run great 98% of the time, but the other 2%, it's a different problem and solution for each type. So what type (brand) do you have? 

[FishRBeautiful]

It’s a TopFin Silenstream. My first time keeping fish so I got it on Black Friday a year ago without researching anything. I’ve kept tons of fish alive with it though so it works well when it works.

[Lonkley]

99% chance you just need to take out the impellor and clean it.

 

[FishRBeautiful]

Did that when I cleaned the filter a couple weeks ago. Never done it before that. Can it clog up that quickly when I haven’t disturbed the substrate since then?

What would do that? I don’t have any baby fish or live plants at the moment. 

[Galabar]

On a side note, for future HOB filters, consider one with a pump inside the tank.  The pump outside the tank may lead to issues with priming (I'm not sure if that is what you are seeing here).

[FishRBeautiful]

That may help in the future. I think my impeller also gets jammed because of all the algae and maybe sand at times. I plan to move my tank to another location out of the sun when I’m recovered from an injury I’ve had for 5 months now. When I scrape algae off the glass, it goes everywhere in the water column

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/31/2024 at 9:23 AM, FishRBeautiful said:

My kitten was playing under my fish tank (where all the cords are). I just noticed the HOB filter is off. She had unplugged the extension cord from the wall so I fixed that. It doesn’t appear to be chewed though I can’t see the whole extension cord. I filled the water back up in the filter. I unplugged and replugged it back in. Did a water change a week or two ago (and cleaned the HOB pretty good also), a filter change 3 or 4 days later. Haven’t stirred up the sand or anything since the water change. Any ideas on how to get it working again? Thankfully my sponge filter is still running in there. It’s just an extra filter I run for times like this when the HOB shuts down. 

Never mind. I lifted the intake piece and put it back down and now it’s running. No idea how a kitten could have messed that up!😬

aquaclear?

On 1/31/2024 at 10:14 AM, FishRBeautiful said:

It’s a TopFin Silenstream. My first time keeping fish so I got it on Black Friday a year ago without researching anything. I’ve kept tons of fish alive with it though so it works well when it works.

hm, interesting.  Let me check something...

 

Very similar in setup to an AC which has a similar issue at times.  Sometimes the plastic misaligns and it's pressing down on the impeller stopping it from spinning.  You can hear the motor running, but the impeller doesn't move until you start it manually.  Other times, the tube itself is too far from the impeller to allow the flow to move.  Hopefully that helps in future.

Edited February 1 by nabokovfan87

[FishRBeautiful]

On 2/1/2024 at 4:16 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Very similar in setup to an AC which has a similar issue at times.  Sometimes the plastic misaligns and it's pressing down on the impeller stopping it from spinning.  You can hear the motor running, but the impeller doesn't move until you start it manually.  Other times, the tube itself is too far from the impeller to allow the flow to move.  Hopefully that helps in future.

Thanks! That looks exactly like mine and sounds like the issues I deal with. 
 

Yours looks clean. Mine is filled with algae and gunk. Vinegar soak  doesn’t even get it that clean.