Air Pump/Hose Maintenance

[hardcopy]

Last night my air pump bit the dust after it got over heated and started to smoke. Fortunately I was home before there were any problems. It's a somewhat new air pump that I got just last year. I think what happened was a small amount of water that went through the air hose somehow got into the pump which then malfunctioned, but it's also possible that water from the aquarium spilled onto the pump (I've been having an issue with a new filter installed and sometimes it pushes out water whenever it's on a higher setting).

Besides drying out the hose from the air stone to the pump or possibly replacing the hose every now and then, what other precautions should I make so I don't have this problem again in the future?

 

[finnsfish]

Hi,

There is a thing called a check valve which will stop water going up the tubes

 

[Dovah]

If you find that the air flow is too restricted with a check valve, you can run the tubing up 6 inches or more above the water line. I've got mine about 8 inches above and never had any problems with water siphoning back into my pump.

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Fish Lore Aquarium Fish Forum mobile app

 

[hardcopy]

Thanks for all of your advice. I just got the new pump and so far it's been working decently. I do have a check valve installed but I'm still unsure what even happened to the previous pump. In the mean time I'm going to be more proactive about checking the tubes whenever I change the water in the tank.