Trouble starting Tetratec EX700 after cleaning

[drooke]

Hi all,

I did a water change last night and cleaned out my filter as normal and reassembled the filter. Normally I use the manual pumping mechanism on the filter to check it's flowing okay and then plug it in.

Last night, I couldn't get the manual pumping working properly as in it wasn't taking in water and outputting it. I've tried reseating all of the media baskets and resealing the filter, draining the in/outlet pipes and reattaching pipes to the filter head assembly. It seems like there is air in the inlet pipe that just won't shift, however this must have been the case before and hasn't been a problem.

Has anyone any experience of this and how to sort it out - with this or another external filter?

At the moment, I just have a circulation pump and heater keeping the tank going. Any ideas greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan

 

[flygja]

Usually what I do when it fails to prime automatically is to use a powerhead connected to the inlet tubing and fill the entire system with water. Did you by any chance checked if the ball valves are completely open? I have a Tetra EX90 (basically the EX700 before they changed their naming schemes) and one of the ball valves broke, thankfully in the open position without leaks.

 

[drooke]

I tried the technique you suggested when I got home with the Juwel powerhead that came with my tank. It worked a treat both filling the filter and both the inlet and outlet tubes.

Hopefully I won't have lost all the bacteria from the filter media - it was off for about 21 hours in the end. I didn't leave it dry though, but obviously the water was cold when I got back tonight.

Thanks again, I would never have thought of that!

Dan

 

[flygja]

21 hours without water flow (and O2 supply) may have killed the bacterial colony. Don't worry, building it up again is not that difficult, especially when the water in your tank isn't new. Glad to have helped!