[jamielands]

Hi! I've been running a sun sun 303b on my 60 gallon for about 10 months now, and it's been working well so far, until today. I'm not sure what changed but I cleaned the canister yesterday, today the flow is really weak. It's hardly moving any water and I don't know what I did. I took it apart and reassembled a bunch of times, I checked and cleaned all the parts, I removed some media in case I packed it too tightly. Nothing is helping, and the flow was fine before I cleaned it. Does anyone have any ideas of something I might be missing? I messed with it all day and got upset and impulse-bought a fluval 406 online. I'm not sure what to do next, but it is for sure not enough flow as its running now.


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[WaterLife]

I'm thinking you probably still had a bunch of air trapped in the canister filter?
Use the priming button to purge air out and start a siphon. Once you plug it in and get it running, tilt the canister filter front, back and side to side to let the air pockets flow out.

 

[Immortal1]

One thing that effected my Marineland filter was the pump head to canister seal was leaking vacuum. Replacing the seal helped a lot.

 

[jamielands]

I checked for air. I primed, tilted, primed again, tilted more...ill do it some more to be sure.

I'll try to look into the seal tomorrow, see if there's anything to that.

I can't imagine what changed! I'm watching tiny bits of debris float leisurely around the intake and occasionally maybe slowly float into it. And the fish are swimming through the outflow as if it's nothing. Before cleaning yesterday it was fine.


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[thedood]

If I might make a suggestion. Try rubbing vaseline or silicon grease around the head seal and reassemble. Make sure its primed and burped well. If that helps I would order a spare seal or two.

 

[jamielands]

Ok, I'll try that tomorrow as well.

Would the fluval be better in the long run? I already bought it online, it's coming on Wednesday. I could keep the sun sun as a backup. I'm not sure if I should return the new one or just keep it and switch. I kind of bought it in a fit of rage after screwing with the sun sun all day and an hour or two of futile googling canister filters


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[Nlewis]

Did you make sure you put the motor head and trays back in the same direction? I know these are basically knock off Marineland filters. On my C-series there are arrows on all the trays and the housing.

 

[jamielands]

Did you make sure you put the motor head and trays back in the same direction? I know these are basically knock off Marineland filters. On my C-series there are arrows on all the trays and the housing.

Yes and no. I have seen previously in a video that some of them have a little circle on the bottom of the canister to show you where to align the holes on the trays. I took them all out and turned them around be other way to see if I had them wrong, no change. I still have no idea which way is right or if it matters.


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[Lonestarbandit]

I don't mean to sound insulting but I have done all of these things myself...
1. One of the baskets are positioned wrong.
2. The distribution block is on backwards.
3. Hoses are kinked somewhere.

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[WaterLife]

Do you see air pockets in the green tubes?

I've had two SunSun canister filters that both had a little pin hole in the black plastic tubing that has the adjustable leveler (ribbed/grooved) for the surface skimmer attachment, so if the water level was below that hole (or if you have a hole/air/vacuum leak anywhere for that matter), leaving that hole exposed, air would be sucked in, constantly filling the canister head with air.

As for the UV hole alignment, just as long as the canister head mounts correctly (latches on correct sides, which in turn the UV will line up with baskets properly) it's fine.


If by chance you removed the hoses from the fittings, maybe you re-attached the inlet tube to the outlet quick release side (or vice versa).

 

[jamielands]

I don't mean to sound insulting but I have done all of these things myself...
1. One of the baskets are positioned wrong.
2. The distribution block is on backwards.
3. Hoses are kinked somewhere.

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No insult, I'm going crazy trying to figure it out and for all i know it could be something obvious. I don't think any of these are the problem though, there's a big stupid light bulb that fits into the trays, so they can really only go two ways.

Do you see air pockets in the green tubes?

I've had two SunSun canister filters that both had a little pin hole in the black plastic tubing that has the adjustable leveler (ribbed/grooved) for the surface skimmer attachment, so if the water level was below that hole (or if you have a hole/air/vacuum leak anywhere for that matter), leaving that hole exposed, air would be sucked in, constantly filling the canister head with air.

As for the UV hole alignment, just as long as the canister head mounts correctly (latches on correct sides, which in turn the UV will line up with baskets properly) it's fine.


If by chance you removed the hoses from the fittings, maybe you re-attached the inlet tube to the outlet quick release side (or vice versa).

I don't see any air pockets. I'll examine the plastic pieces, I topped up the water in case that was affecting something. I removed the whole surface skimmer piece earlier to see if that helped. Didn't disconnect the hoses from the fittings.




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[Lonestarbandit]

No insult, I'm going crazy trying to figure it out and for all i know it could be something obvious. I don't think any of these are the problem though, there's a big stupid light bulb that fits into the trays, so they can really only go two ways.




I don't see any air pockets. I'll examine the plastic pieces, I topped up the water in case that was affecting something. I removed the whole surface skimmer piece earlier to see if that helped. Didn't disconnect the hoses from the fittings.




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Fair point I forgot that was a UV model.
Still leaves the valve block on backwards (been there done that took hours of trying to figure out what was wrong with flow)
Or the hoses are pinched somewhere. Usually where they pass behind the stand etc.
That one took forever to find as well.
The only other possibility is the impeller has suffered some kind of damage and or is clogged up to the point it cant spin to its full RPM though that is unlikely?

 

[Bandit1200]

I just recently had the same issue with the same model. For me it was not a clogged impeller, but the housing around it. I'm talking about the channel between the impeller and where the hose disconnect is. I took it outside and blasted it with as much water pressure as I could get from the hose. I had checked everything as was mentioned before and could not figure out what it was until I looked at the impeller. After it was removed I could see slightly into the rest of the channel and it was almost completely clogged/packed with what I'm guessing was bacterial slime. You would be amazed at how much of that stuff came out.

 

[jamielands]

I just recently had the same issue with the same model. For me it was not a clogged impeller, but the housing around it. I'm talking about the channel between the impeller and where the hose disconnect is. I took it outside and blasted it with as much water pressure as I could get from the hose. I had checked everything as was mentioned before and could not figure out what it was until I looked at the impeller. After it was removed I could see slightly into the rest of the channel and it was almost completely clogged/packed with what I'm guessing was bacterial slime. You would be amazed at how much of that stuff came out.

Hmmmmm. I did rinse that under the tap, maybe i should examine it closer and try really blasting it



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[jamielands]

Ok, I give up. I'm waving the white flag. I tried everything you guys suggested, and the flow improved slightly, but not enough. Since the fluval arrived i unboxed it and checked it out. It's a lot smaller of a canister than the sun sun, but surprisingly holds almost as much media. I was able to fit almost all the media I had in the sunsun into it, and the bit that I couldn't is made up for by the upright sponge that's in the fluval. So I figured I'd give it a shot.

Plus, my stand's cabinet isn't very tall so a canister doesn't fit inside. Since the tank is a centerpiece in my home and the filter is out in plain view I like that the fluval is slimmer, smaller and overall more visually appealing.

I set it up, I transferred as much media as possible from the old filter and got it running. The flow is MUCH better. The sunsun is almost silent, and the fluval makes a little more noise-but its brand new, so I won't judge until the new impeller has a chance to build up a little slime. I will keep the sunsun as a backup filter in case of emergency. Thanks everyone for your help! I appreciate all your suggestions, they were all good, unfortunately the damn thing just didn't cooperate. Can't hurt to have extra filters hanging around, eh?


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[Lonestarbandit]

What? You can't stop now lol.
The rest of us want to know why!
This is like canceling a hit miniseries! Inquiring minds want to know!

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[jamielands]

Bahahaha there's no answer! I tried everything! I can still fiddle with it, the hoses are still on the tank, but I'm stumped. Maybe something got damaged when I broke it down a few days ago? I can't make sense of it. But I paid probably $60 for the sunsun, so maybe you get what you pay for?

The tetras sure didn't seem to mind the low flow, they spawned all over the place yesterday, barf!


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[OVT]

Had that filter, could not get rid of it fast enough.

Anyways, with the hoses attached, remove the "quick disconnect". Position over a bucket and open the ball valves using the lever on the top. If the water rushes out then it is not the hoses (unless there is air in the filter). If you get a trickle then the valves are not opening fully or have something stuck inside. You can look inside the disconnect to check if the white valve balls are fully opened or not (pull the hoses out of the tank first).

You already said that you are not seeing airbubbles in the intake hose and the filter is quet, so, I am leaving that area out.

My approach to troubleshooting is divide and conquer. Eliminate component pieces to narrow the problem down.

(I never had so many headaches with any other filter, before or after). Good riddance.

 

[Lonestarbandit]

I've had the opposite experience and have 7 various Sunsun and never experienced such a thing.
That's why I'm so interested in what the cause is.
Good point about the valve block maybe that's what's gummed up?
I have no idea but it is perplexing.

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[Immortal1]

The valve block comment raised an eyebrow - on my AquaTop 400 filter (bet it's the same valve block as Sun Sun) the cross bar that turns the ball valves broke. It is entirely possible the OP'S valve block is shut regardless of handle position.