My terrible weekend.

I could do with some advice after my terrible weekend and the death of my glass fish. First my filter stopped working so I took out the sponge and cleaned it in its own water this worked fine for a hour and when I was putting the led back on the light came loose and stopped working. At this stage I was getting frustrated. I decided I go to my lfs and see if they had a new sponge for my filter, no luck there so when I was going out I spotted two nice sailfin fish I got them and headed home and decided to clean the filter again.
This time I gave it a very good clean and away it worked fine next thing I decided to take the led off and fix the light in another room. Bad idea the glass fish must have jumped out of the tank I didn't notice the fish on the floor for about 5min later at this stage there was a bit of life but it was to late I was gutted. The glass fish was coming along nice and getting to a nice size. In the end I got everything fixed and the new fish in the tank.
I am still not happy with the filter and I am going to get a new sponge, where should I buy one size 5inc by 2.5x2.5 inc. the light is built into the led and its loose any advice on how to fix without another fish jumping out the tank.

The filter is Vita Tech and I think it came as a package deal with the tank not much info on google





I will put up a photo of the light holder when I am doing the next water change its hard to describe what's wrong. A photo will tell more.

The side of the sponge has a small rip and looks worn out tbh how long should a sponge last? id say this one is 4 or 5 years old.

I will give that a try next time it stopped working
Thanks.

if you want a new sponge and your near a shop that sell's eheim filters they could get you the same one, i had an eheim with the same sponge as that in it, you also may get it online

But like john said this has nothing to do with the filter not working. try putting the motor in a basin of water giving it a few taps on the bottom of the basin and spinning the propeller with a pencil (or whatever) not ur finger cause it hurts if ye get it going, this has worked for me in the past

jeff wrote:

if you want a new sponge and your near a shop that sell's eheim filters they could get you the same one, i had an eheim with the same sponge as that in it, you also may get it online

But like john said this has nothing to do with the filter not working. try putting the motor in a basin of water giving it a few taps on the bottom of the basin and spinning the propeller with a pencil (or whatever) not ur finger cause it hurts if ye get it going, this has worked for me in the past

Just when i was leaving for work tonight i noticed a poor flow from the filter so when i get home in the morning it will be very poor. When i clean out the filter with out doing anything else it workes perfect with a strong flow. I have done what you said and i keep the filter clean from things blocking up the spinner. Thanks for the tip with the ehemi sponge i will have a look out for a new one. If i do get a new sponge can i leave it in a bucket of water from the tank and then do a straight swap after it soking for a few hours ? any advice on changing a sponge would be great thanks for the advice.

irish-zx10r wrote:

jeff wrote:

if you want a new sponge and your near a shop that sell's eheim filters they could get you the same one, i had an eheim with the same sponge as that in it, you also may get it online

But like john said this has nothing to do with the filter not working. try putting the motor in a basin of water giving it a few taps on the bottom of the basin and spinning the propeller with a pencil (or whatever) not ur finger cause it hurts if ye get it going, this has worked for me in the past

Just when i was leaving for work tonight i noticed a poor flow from the filter so when i get home in the morning it will be very poor. When i clean out the filter with out doing anything else it workes perfect with a strong flow. I have done what you said and i keep the filter clean from things blocking up the spinner. Thanks for the tip with the ehemi sponge i will have a look out for a new one. If i do get a new sponge can i leave it in a bucket of water from the tank and then do a straight swap after it soking for a few hours ? any advice on changing a sponge would be great thanks for the advice.

Best way i found when doing this is try to add both for some time and when the new one has established its self then remove the old one

Or even what i done before of there is not much room is add the new one and cut up the old one and add it in where you can

Do not just remove the old one and add new one as you are taking out your good bacteria from your filter

Sean