rut roh

[skybird]

So i came downstairs from doing laundry to find a butt load of black stuff floating in my tank.... after about 30 seconds i relaize the pump is making a funky noise.... I take it apart and find that it has eatn the impeller and while it was chowing down on it the impeller was still able to send the remains of it into the system....

What should I do? i have two clownfish in the system... do drain the water and hold them in the old water until i can get 29 gallons of fresh water made? will i need to re-cycle the tank fi i do this? or do i sit there with a fish net and spend all day fishing this thing out?

 

[gnashty]

Are they trying to eat it? I think its ok, just fish out all the bits. I personally do not think a full tank transfer and cleanout is necessary....of course I cant see it so dont rule it out til others chime in.

 

[skybird]

no they arent trying to eat it. ITs just unsightly, I moved the fish to a water change bucket and filtered the big stuff out with a filter sponge and a siphon... but still quite a bit in there.

 

[jennm]

If it's just bits of plastic, the fish should be OK, just manual removal of the bits as you can get them.

Bummer

Did you get the pump fixed?

Jenn

 

[coolsurf]

Nothing is wrong with a water change. Keep picking out the pieces manually but reallistically, you should be ok IMO.

 

[sharkbait]

They might pick at it but I doubt the will actually try to eat the pieces. Like previously stated manually remove as much of it out as you possible can. You can do a water change but it isn't completely necessary.

 

[skybird]

ok, i added a couple of sponges in the filter section of the biocube, and put the stock pump back on, hopefully the added filter media will pick up the peices that i cant get to manually...

Thanks for everyone help!

 

[rbredding]

I couldn't follow your post... too many vague pronoun references..


what exactly happened?

 

[sharkbait]

Rbredding;615733 wrote: I couldn't follow your post... too many vague pronoun references..


what exactly happened?

Basically his pump ate the impeller and tossed all of it up into the display tank. He was worried his fish would eat it and as well if he needed to do anything else.

 

[rbredding]

yeah... that's what I don't understand..

how can a pump eat an impeller... ?

 

[sharkbait]

Rbredding;616014 wrote: yeah... that's what I don't understand..

how can a pump eat an impeller... ?

I don't know. I have heard of it happening before. Just never happened to me.

 

[merkywater]

Rbredding;616014 wrote: yeah... that's what I don't understand..

how can a pump eat an impeller... ?

That's what I dont quite understand either.

 

[rjrgroup]

If a bearing goes out it will allow the impellar to spin but with a lot of bouncing around. It begins rubbing around the outer and iner walls till it heats, weakens and then begins to break apart.

 

[rbredding]

oh...

I guess that would be a design flaw..

none of my pumps could fail like that.. (they could fail in other ways, of course)

 

[lilrobb]

Just picked up a Little Giant that failed like that.
Ceramic washer disintegrated and the impeller ate the pump housing...

 

[rjrgroup]

Rbredding;616054 wrote: oh...

I guess that would be a design flaw..

none of my pumps could fail like that.. (they could fail in other ways, of course)

Design flaw = old technology or just plain cheaper assemblies. Not cleaning the pump periodically, abrasive material in water(sand), etc. Any pump ,that I know of, can be subject to degradation. I think that is truly the best reason to run "bubbler panels" before the pump/ after the fuge.
If you do a WC, the plastic bits should be much lighter than the sand and should get sucked up first.