Broken Pump Again

The other morning while having breakfast I noticed that the tank was very quiet. On investigation I found that the pump had stopped working. Luckily I had a spare one from the last time I had to replace the pump, so was able to swap it out that night. Not sure if that is the general lifespan of a pump or just bad luck, but having to replace the pump twice in 4 years is a bit on the expensive side. On the positive side, the water in the tank is looking much clearer.

Problematic Pump

After the last clean we did, both L and I noticed that the tank was a bit murky. I just thought it was bits that had been stirred up from the clean and thought it would settle after a few days as it normally does. A week later and the water was still looking murky, so I decided I had better investigate. To my horror I discovered that the pump had stopped working, which meant no filtering was happening and none of the heated water was being circulated around the tank.

After dismantling the pump I found that some dirt had got clogged around the propeller base, preventing it from turning. Once cleaned it started working again, but not at its full capacity. The tank is up and running again. I am going to give it 2 days running to clear out the murkiness and then we will do another water change.

What I have learnt from this is that if you see something out of the ordinary in the tank, you should investigate as soon as possible to prevent any disaster. I have also realised that even though the tank is full of fish, the amount of water in the tank is enough for them to survive without a pump running, which is good to know in case there is a power failure or the pump breaks again.  

One Fixed Pump

At lunch time today I popped out quickly to my local fish shop and bought a replacement pump. I was surprised at how expensive it was. Took a quick few seconds to install it, so the filter is back up and running. In the one day that passed without the filter working, we noticed that the tank was starting to get a bit cloudy. Just goes to show how essential the filter is.