My Pump Won't Prime

[pandc]

I have had my Salt water tropical tank for 4 months now with no problems at all, well till today anyway. I performed a clean out of the filter unit, an Eheim Professional II 2026 model, which up to this point had been working without fault.

Now that I have put it back together the priming function doesn't seem to be working properly, i.e. it's not pulling water into the filter and the propeller is making a right racket. Like it's a bit loose. I have checked the trouble shooting part of the instruction book and done the following :

Re-assembled the filter ensuring all items were replaced correctly.
Taken out the propeller and cleaned it thoroughly.
Endured propeller was put back together properly and spinning freely
Cleaned seal on filter top with cotton bud and closely inspected for any damage, none found
Applied Vaseline to seal using a cotton bud

But this has had no effect on the unit, it still won't prime and the propeller is not circulating the water and it's rattling away to it's self. Not sure if this is due to no water circulating.

I know it's a long shot but anyone got any ideas ?

Also how long can my tank function without the filter working properly, 2/3 days till I get a new filter top if required ?

Cheers
Paul

 

[dylema]

Hi, Is that model an external one? I guess it is. The first thought that came into my head is, has the syphon broken and water is not comming into the filter from the tank? Stupid question but are the taps open again? Is there a priming hole to add water to help. My external has a little hole on top (with a screw in top) that you can pour water in to help prime. If it is not priming I open the hole and open the taps and the filter quickly fills with water and then gushes out of the hole and I know it is full and ready to go (can make a mess though).

Hope something here helps.

 

[pandc]

Yes it's an external filter but it does not have a tap to let you fill the filter body, just a priming pump. I manually filled the whole thing with water and hey presto worked straight away. I didn't need to do this on previous occasions and it does not tell you to do this in the manual but it was obviously what was wrong. Cheers for your help.

 

[ulster exile]

Yes it's an external filter but it does not have a tap to let you fill the filter body, just a priming pump. I manually filled the whole thing with water and hey presto worked straight away. I didn't need to do this on previous occasions and it does not tell you to do this in the manual but it was obviously what was wrong. Cheers for your help.

Hi, I have the same model and have the same problem every time I disconnect the pipes to clean it out.

Have found the same as you - fill the pump itself with water before trying to prime it again.