AquaClear 110 filters keep pushing off cover

Hello, my AquaClear 110 keeps pushing up the entire sponge, carbon and rock bag so far up that it actually pushes the cover off of the right side of the filter itself. I can push it completely back down, but within a minute it has completely pushed itself all the way back up again, completely exposing the bag of rocks, the carbon bag and top odds sponge. what would cause this?

 

The sponge needs to b cleaned out in a bucket of tank water it’s dirty n clogged. We use those in a few of our tanks and that’s like a pop up indicator that it’s time to clean the filter media

 

I just rinsed the sponge very thoroughly 4 days ago which is why I'm completely stumped.

 

I just rinsed the sponge very thoroughly 4 days ago which is why I'm completely stumped.

I agree with kallililly1973. Maybe you didn't rinse it as well as you thought? They need more than just rinsing. Squeeze the sponge real good in water to get more gunk out, and repeat until not much more comes out.

 

I would rinse it really good as ProudPapa has recommended. If your foam is a really dense you may want to replace it with a courser piece so water can flow through it easier if rinsing doesn't stop the problem.

 

Okay. I will try cleaning at one more time extremely long this run. Thanks for the suggestions
And does anyone know of a slightly more course sponge for the AquaClear 110?

 

Also if it’s a well established tank like ours are you can take the carbon out and replace it with some polyfill and just cut new pieces each month. Your rock media bag put it in a bucket of tank water and we take our sponge and run it right under sink water till everything is out and water runs through clear. I don’t suggest that for a newer tank but an established one it will have little to no effect on your cycle. Also if u run other filters like a sponge that will have plenty of bacteria to keep your cycle strong.

 

My Aquaclear 70 used to do that too.

The problem is the whole filter stack. If there is not sufficient flow through the whole stack, then the pressure from the water flow will raise up the whole filter stack.

I changed my media to coarser media and less total media. Mine has run for 3 years without raising up. And I don't clean my filters.

If you have carbon in there, it may be completely clogged and reducing the flow in the filter. I would remove the carbon. It clogs fast and then is useless. Carbon is only needed when you have a chemical that you want to remove that carbon absorbs. Otherwise it is just a brick in your filter.

Replace the carbon with some coarse media like plastic pot scrubbers.

 

Thank you for the great information. It does also have the carbon bag that came with the unit when I purchased it new a year ago. I will try removing the carbon bag, but I'm really unfamiliar with what to replace everything with that people are mentioning. replace the carbon bag with? Replace the sponge media with a courser sponge?

Could someone point me in the direction for where to purchase these different mediums that are safe for the tank? One would before a slightly courser sponge medium, and the second would be a replacement for the carbon bag.

There are not many fish in the tank. That is because it has a 12 inch common pleco which has me replacing the half of the tanks water every 5 days. other than that, 12 neon tetras and one stick catfish for some companionship and movement in the tank. I rescued the pleco from our office a couple of years ago nit knowing what my life was in for.
Anyway, if someone could point me to where to purchase these mediums and what are safe. Thank you so much everyone!

 

 

Just use those in place of the carbon bag? my apologies, but this is all new to me. Just trying to make a nice healthy tank and give them a good life.

 

Just use those in place of the carbon bag? my apologies, but this is all new to me. Just trying to make a nice healthy tank and give them a good life.

For now I'd just give the sponge a good cleaning and toss the carbon. Worry about optimizing it later.

 

Poret® Foam Shop - SWISSTROPICALS

Available in various sizes and PPI. (pores per inch) Extra fine-course. For the AC I bought 1 and 1.5 inch sheets of 20 ppi. Cut to size and stack 'em up. Rinse the clogged bottom sections as required and re-stack. Easy way to preserve BB.

 

I went ghetto and duct tapped mine down.
Probably best to listen to the better advice from others above.

 

I know someone who only uses those scrubbers in all her HOBs thats it a small piece of foam and 6 of those