Unexpected Source of Noise Powerhead!

[SNPiccolo5]

OK, here I am again with my noisy powerhead!... I got a new impeller and it worked fine. But, then I got more noise, so I cleaned it out and all was good. But then the noise started up once again, and it is bad.

So what I did was clean it out, and before attaching the gravel tube reactor I turned it on. This is so I don't have to take it off if it doesn't work! It was silent.... so then I go to attach my reactor and when the black piece part of the powerhead is inserted just a little bit I get noise! When the powerhead was silent, there was nothing attached to the hole it was running through! So what's up, anyone else had this problem. If I need a new powerhead, I'll be starting a new post about "which powerhead to buy".

-Tim

[Work In Progress]

Poor Tim....
You have really had a go of noisy luck lately huh.
I hope things get better soon.

Kelly

[kor4ever]

Is it an airlock? my powerhead did that, and I got so annoyed I decided to ditch my reactor and use my HUGELY less efficient biowheel intake.

Felix

[SNPiccolo5]

Thanks for the support Kelly, I hope to find a new, better brand of powerheads. The reason is because I talked to my friend, who keeps a FOWLR (Fish only with live rock salt water tank) and he uses powerheads. Mine is a Rio 600, and he says that was reason enough, and I was like :?: . Then he said people at Reef Central are always joking about Rio powerheads and how they are horrible! So, if it is the fact that it is a Rio, you'll see my new post pretty soon!

Felix, what is an airlock? I have a basic idea, but am not really sure. I might just use the intake of my emperor 400 filter for now and remove the bio-wheels for a CO2 reactor. Next week is Spring break, so I will have plenty of time to get a new powerhead, etc...

-Tim

[kor4ever]

Lucky lucky, my spring break was the beginning of March, WashU is so wierd. Hmm...its when the CO2 congregates at the powerhead impellar, in my case I think it was because the powerhead is not designed to operate in that angle. So it gets really loud because it not pushing as much water since there is air in there. Eventually, there is so much CO2 there that the impellar doesn't push ANY water at all. very annoying. Can't help you with powerhead recommendations, I thought most places recommended Rio 600's as the powerhead. You should try out Buck's CO2 diffuser, he says it works great for him.

http://www.buckmanshome.com/reactor.html

Felix

[STAT 007]

Yeah, in our case, "airlock" isn't referring to some space-age chamber that your fish pass through when they want to leave the tank and go for a stroll around your living room. Rather, an airlock is simply when air gets sucked into a pump. If you want to hear what it sounds like, put an airstone under a power filter and turn both of them on. Then you'll hear it for sure.

Rio's are supposed to be pretty good, so I don't know what's up with all the bad rep you're hearing. As far as why a Rio on a powered reactor would airlock, well...perhaps you're using too powerful a powerhead for what you need it to do (just swirl around some water to diffuse the CO2). You could always try tilting the reactor some in the tank. <shrugs>

[chode]

I have a Rio 600 and tell me if this is the same or similar issue. Any time i stop my power head (which is used for my reactor) I need to turn the pump sideways to get it started again. Whats up with that?

[STAT 007]

Originally Posted by chode

I have a Rio 600 and tell me if this is the same or similar issue. Any time i stop my power head (which is used for my reactor) I need to turn the pump sideways to get it started again. Whats up with that?

I'm not quite sure. This almost sounds like some other kind of problem. I was looking at the Rio website (http://www.riopump.com) to see if they had some FAQs or something, but apparently they don't. Honestly though, since it sounds like it's just some internal part that's causing the problem, it'd probably cost just as much or more to try and fix the part as it would to just replace the whole powerhead ($15). So it's up to you. Maybe somebody else has had a similar experience with a powerhead...

[SNPiccolo5]

If there is air in your reactor when you turn it off, turning it sideways would allow the air to escape before starting it. Also, I don't understand how it could airlock if CO2 isn't going through it. Since I have a gravel vac reactor seen at http://www.plantedtank.net/co2reactor.html I don't see how CO2 would get into the powerhead. Either way, I think I need a new one....

-Tim