Help! Whooshing noise coming from brand-new canister filter

[enfiskejer]

I have a brand new Aqua One Nautilus 800 canister. It's been running for 3 days and I'm going to start cycling it once my test kit comes in the mail.
I made sure to prime it before I turned it on but I had to do it manually because the self priming button doesn't work unfortunately.
Maybe I didn't prime it the whole way?
I upped the water level to make sure the input isn't sucking any air in and the there are no kinks in the pipes at all...
Where the pipe connects to the actual input thing there is like a gap between the water if that makes sense.
I've concluded that the whooshing noise is trapped air, I've tried rocking it from side to side no change. The output is blowing bubbles so its definitely that. This is my first experience with a canister FYI
I tried to fix it but I just made it worse~ oops
Any tips?

Also, in regards to cycling is it ok for the tank to be running for a week or two because my test kit arrives on Jan 15?

Thanks!

 

[Colin_T]

Don't waste your time using priming functions on external canister filters, they are useless.

The best way to fill a filter is:
Have an empty filter sitting next to or below the tank (wherever it normally lives).
Have the intake hose in the tank.
Have an empty bucket next to the filter.
Suck on the end of the outlet hose to get water draining into the filter.
Put the end of the outlet hose into the empty bucket.
Let the filter fill up and when water flows into the bucket, gently rock the filter a couple of times.
Put your thumb over the end of the outlet hose and put it in the tank.
Dry your hands and turn the filter on.

------------------
If the filter leaks or sucks air after it is put together, smear a thin layer of Vaseline on the o-ring, then reassemble the filter.

 

[enfiskejer]

How do I empty an already full canister?

 

[Colin_T]

Turn the filter off and unplug it.
Take the hoses out of the tank and put them in a bucket.
Carry the filter outside onto the lawn or put it in a bath tub or laundry sink.
Take the top off and pour the water out.

 

[enfiskejer]

I primed it and it still makes the noise...
Won't petroleum jelly degrade the silicone o-rings?
Thanks for your previous replies by the way!

 

[Colin_T]

post a video of it and try to catch the sound too.


i thought the o-rings were rubber. no idea is vaseline will damage silicon

 

[enfiskejer]

Ok thank you, I'll try to post a video later but I'm 100% sure its air just not sure how it keeps getting in-

 

[Guyb93]

Maybe try rearranging your media and sponges inside the filter maybe there’s not enough media maybe too much

 

[Colin_T]

If there is air getting inside the filter, it could be getting in from the o-ring, where the hoses join the filter, or air is being drawn in from the tank (maybe an airstone blowing bubbles near the filter intake)

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I have also found they can sometimes be a bit louder when everything is new and it's fresh tap water. There is no biofilm on anything and the air seems to stick around longer. Fresh tapwater also seems to have more dissolved gasses then mature tank water and can take a while to equalise.

Once things have matured a bit it generally settles down.

Assuming it isn't sucking air in from anywhere I normally get it running and then give it a little shake from side to side to try and dislodge the air. If there is air getting in somewhere following the advice above will most likely solve it.

 

[enfiskejer]

Good idea! Thankyou

Maybe try rearranging your media and sponges inside the filter maybe there’s not enough media maybe too much

 

[enfiskejer]

I have also found they can sometimes be a bit louder when everything is new and it's fresh tap water. There is no biofilm on anything and the air seems to stick around longer. Fresh tapwater also seems to have more dissolved gasses then mature tank water and can take a while to equalise.

Once things have matured a bit it generally settles down.

Assuming it isn't sucking air in from anywhere I normally get it running and then give it a little shake from side to side to try and dislodge the air. If there is air getting in somewhere following the advice above will most likely solve it.

OK

 

[Natho]

I have a brand new Aqua One Nautilus 800 canister. It's been running for 3 days and I'm going to start cycling it once my test kit comes in the mail.
I made sure to prime it before I turned it on but I had to do it manually because the self priming button doesn't work unfortunately.
Maybe I didn't prime it the whole way?
I upped the water level to make sure the input isn't sucking any air in and the there are no kinks in the pipes at all...
Where the pipe connects to the actual input thing there is like a gap between the water if that makes sense.
I've concluded that the whooshing noise is trapped air, I've tried rocking it from side to side no change. The output is blowing bubbles so its definitely that. This is my first experience with a canister FYI
I tried to fix it but I just made it worse~ oops
Any tips?

Also, in regards to cycling is it ok for the tank to be running for a week or two because my test kit arrives on Jan 15?

Thanks!

I have the exact same thing happening with a nautilus 800. What ended up happening with yours? The button won’t work, primed it myself but still has water bubbles after running it for hours. It’s brand new in a new tank

 

[TwoTankAmin]

What you need to do is to run the filter and then stop it. This should hopefully fill the two hoses with water. But the inout hose is hte more important. To clean the filter you start by turning it off. The when you remove the intake assembly using the lever, it closes off the hoses leaving them filled with water.

First, and very importantly, the tank should be filled with water. The intake and the return should be in their normal position in the tank. Then, to clean my Eheim canisters which have a closing assembley that does the shut off of the hoses, I can remove the filter to a sink and do the work. I prefer typo refill the canister completely with new water as full as I can. I then reattach it to the hose connection and reclose the lever and the water in the intake hoses will self fill any air space which forces the air out the return hose.

The water filling the input hose naturally want to flow down into the canister, When it does it the pulls water out of the tank to keep the hose filled. Gravity and physics do the work. I never use the huge priming button on the filters. They are never all that good and often hard to push. Eheim includes a small tube of lubrication gel. But I usually misplace these and do what was suggested and use some vaseline instead.

The other thing I do is to clean the head gasket in plece using some damp Q-tips. This gasket is bascially the onlt part I have had to replace on my 3 cansters. I tried to replace the gasket onn the priming device on one and never got it right. But after Eheim abandoned the ProII line (they are now ooffering the Pro 3, Pro 4+ and the 5E. But my thre canisters have been running for 20+years for my first and then 15 and 10+ years for the other two, I also nabbed another on from Ebay after they were discontinued to use for spare parts.

I shut down the tank with the 20+ year ld filter this years and it is now for sale. it runs as qwll and as quietly as it did on day one. This is why as far as i am concerned there are only 3 brands of canisters I will use--> Eheim, Eheim or Eheim. I have spare head gaskets on he shelf. I have to buy them in the UK and they mail them to me in New York.

One last observation here. I chose Eheim for two reasons the first was their reputation. The second was how I intended to use it. I was setting up a high tech planted tank with pressurizzed CO2. Space constraints both inside and outside of the tank meany I did not use any form of external diffuser for the CO2, What I did was to run the bubbles from the output of the CO2 directly into the intake for the Eheim. Normally, one does not want any gas (oxygen or CO2) inside a canister. It can damage the workings. Based on the reputation for canisters at the time (2002/2003) I determined that I had to spend up for an Eheim because it was ilikely going to be able to deal with the CO2 going through it.

I was using the canister to chop up and dissolve the CO2 in the water. That filter ran great, ran silent and ran reliably until I took it down after 20+ years. I only ran the CO2 for about 10 years. After that it ran without being a CO2 diffuser for another 10+ years. I should mention that in the first year or so of the Pro II model, there was a leaking issue with the part that the hose connected to and which opens and close the lines when they are removed and reattached. Eheim was aware of this and gave people free replacements which had the issue fixed. The leaking was minimal but not acceptable to users or to Eheim. My second two were perfect out of the box.

Also, the head gasket which Eheim used initially for the Pro II were very flexible. But, when exposed to air,,they tended to become stiff and that allowed for leaking and the need to replace them. They did change that as well as the hose connector problem. Before they did I have a leak develop afyer a cleaning and it removed about 10 or more gallons of water overnight onto my wood floor. That was when I had to get an new gasket and I have not had that issue since. It cost me a very old and nasty area rug, though. I cut the rug up to remove it and give it to the garbage guy on pick-up day. Even the great Eheim can have issues. But they do work to fix them when the arise infrequently.

Over the last 24 years I have flooded every space where I have tanks. Some worse than others. But most of the tim it was becuase I left a running hose refilling or removing water from a tank. I hate sitting and waiting for the process to finish and tend to start doing something else and then I foregt I have the water running one way or the other. I have a huge pile of old bath taowels and mats whhich are great for soaking up my mistakes.

 

[Natho]

I have tried this. The filter is working but every 30 seconds or so it squirts out micro bubbles and makes a bit of a loud noise. So frustrating when the tank I bought second hand also has a two huge scratches in the centre of it which I didn’t discover until I brought it home, cleaned it and started setting it up. Such a disappointing day