Swamp Filter!

I hate to say it, hate to, because I am a grown woman, but OMG is all that comes to mind.

I have a Rena Filstar XP4 that I have had for almost 10 years, and has served me very well. A most excellent filter. It was running on my 55-gallon tank when I transferred the contents of it to the 150-gallon, so I used the XP4 on my 150 initially (along with the brand new Fluval XF5 monster) to seed the new filter and jump-start the cycle on the new tank. I never noticed a cycle, since all of the objects, plants and fish in the 150 came straight from the 55, with nothing new, so with gradual additions I slowly built my biocolonies and never had a spike of any ammonia or nitrite. Over time, the new filter was seeded and I did not really need the old XP4, which seemed miniature in comparison, so I kept it running but figured I'd use it for very specific media, like peat, polishing, etc.

At some point not too long after I had the new tank up and running, I noticed the XP4 was getting loud. It was obvious that with the new substrate of play sand that tends to get into the water column initially, some grit had gotten into the impeller and was making more noise than I cared to put up with on a continuous basis. I shut it down and took it completely apart, removed the impeller, flushed everything out, greased the gaskets and started over. No dice. Still a loud, grinding noise when the filter was running. I was in a hurry, or something, shut it down, and left it where it was. Bad idea.

I got inspired last night to take the filter down again and clean it out a second time, giving things another chance. I disconnected everything, managed not to siphon the contents of the 150 out onto the floor in the process (don't ask) and hauled it to the sink. Everything stank to high heaven with that swampy, anaerobic sulfur smell you get when you dig into stinky black sand at the beach, and indeed, everything was covered in a fine black film. It reeked. The entire house reeked, and the kids were holding their noses for hours, even after I bleached everything and took all offending components outside, including emptying the trash with the floss. I also dumped baking soda and dish soap down both sides of the sink drain.

It took me a while to resolve that issue, late into the night, and even so, I still have the ceramic "noodle" filter media that has a black haze on it, and I am loath to soak that in bleach, since I fear bleach will get into the pores and be difficult to dechlorinate. I will rinse them and leave them out in the sun and see if good old UV and O2 will handle that problem. I am in no rush to set up the filter again, though I would like to do so at some point.

I hooked the filter, sans media, up to a large cooler I had on the deck, and ran it to be sure it was running properly and to flush out any residual soap or bleach that might be contained within, and at some point the pump seized. I bailed on the project, as it was after 11:00 p.m. and I was too tired to fool with it any more. I left the pump assembly out in the sun today and then packed everything up and put it away for another time, when I shall again take it apart and flush it out and see if I can get it running, or find a replacement pump housing. I don't need an entirely new filter, but only the very top part that holds the actual pump.

This weekend, hopefully (busy social schedule) I will try to get into the Fluval filter and see if it is indeed obstructed or if it is moving water like it should. I had a dream that there was a clog in one of the intake pipes and I might take that stuff off the tank and flush it out as well, though I can't imagine what could clog such large diameter hoses. They are like vacuum cleaner hoses, so it would have to be quite a bit of debris!