Frustrated with Aqua Clear HOB Filters

[gwand]

I returned from being away for seven days. I noticed that one of my aqua clear filters was not running. Then I realized there had been a power outage; the clocks were off. My generator should have kicked in. It turns out I was out of propane. Stupid me! My neighbor told me the power outage was no more than 20 seconds. How frustrating that the aqua clear filter motor did not restart. Luckily I suffered no losses of fish. It’s strange that my three other aqua clear filters on other tanks were able to restart.

 

[GaryE]

Sometimes they do that. I had a power glitch over night last week. One aquaclear and one maxi-jet powerhead needed manual restarts - while 6 aquaclears started themselves back up.

 

[gwand]

Had the power outage occurred at the beginning of my 7 day absence this could have been a disaster. I will never leave home for any extended period without checking my propane reserves. My bad.

 

[MaloK]

Habitually, they have more difficulty restarting when they have the time to cool off...

You might want to give it a good cleanup and lubrication.

 

[Fishmanic]

You might want to add an air powered sponge filter should the aquaclear not start up after a power failure.

 

[gwand]

You might want to add an air powered sponge filter should the aquaclear not start up after a power failure.

I have an air powered sponge in the tank. It probably saved me from catastrophe!

 

[Fishmanic]

Also you can transfer the sponge filter to a quarantine/hospital tank should need arise.

 

[Magnum Man]

I have 2 AC -70's in reserve, I no longer use them... I've made the switch to Tidal's, if nothing else, because of how I do water changes... I have had one Tidal not restart, ( it was full of fine sand that got sucked into the longer / deeper draw tube ) but otherwise they have always restarted... but it was getting to be every week during water changes for the Aqua Clear filters...

 

[gwand]

I’m going to replace the defective filter with a Tidal.