Minor Technical Difficulties

[Europhyllia]

On my big reef tank it's easy to put the pumps/powerheads on a timer for feeding but the seahorse tank has a Aquaclear HOB on it and I extended the intake tube to go far down into the tank.
Obviously it sucks up food right away since the intake is now low to the substrate. I can turn it off but when the timer switches over and power comes back on it isn't successful in restarting the waterflow without me pouring a cup of water into the filter to get it started.
Is there anything that can be done to help with this?

[BSJF]

It shouldn't do that! It should restart with a power outage. Have you cleaned the pump recently? Check the tube placement too. Make sure it is all the way set where it is supposed to go. Also, if I remember they have some adjustment (lever you move left or right) to help with priming it.

[Gseclipse02]

i think its because of the long pick up tube try it with a short one

[Europhyllia]

Yeah you're probably right. The pump wasn't made for my extended tube.
Most of the stuff I need filtered will be low to the ground though.
I wonder if I can just have an Aqualifter continuously pump a little water into the filter so that it's full enough to restart?

[hobogato]

the long intake should not make a difference. if the water level in the tank is high enough, the filter should restart on its own.

[Europhyllia]

Yeah I just thought this through and came to the same conclusion. The water is as high in the tube as it is in the tank so the amount of draw it would have would be the same -long tube or short tube.
The trim is too wide and the filter doesn't sit all the way down so that's probably that 1/4" I'm missing :(

[BSJF]

You talking about the filter basket? What do you mean by trim? Remove the filter basket and see if it works. Also check that the plastic shelf looking thing above the pump is seated properly, sometimes those don't get seated right and can cause this.

[Europhyllia]

No the trim on the tank is wider than the gap of the hang on portion of the filter so it sits up a bit.

I just tried the Aqualifter menthod though and it seem to work reasonably well. I think I'll go with that for now :)

[BSJF]

Yip, that difference will cause the prob! If the trim is plastic, you can trim it down so it would work. I've done that before.

[tebstan]

Glad you got it working. This problem is why hex tanks get frustrating sometimes. You probably have the AC20? The next size Aqua Clear would solve the problem also.

[Europhyllia]

I got the Aquaclear 50. It came with the tank (what a great value, right? tank, stand, light, Aquaclear 50 and two seahorses for $150!)

The aqualifter is working well though and the seahorses started eating from their feeder this morning (see SHOWLR thread) so even if I left it on the food should stay in the bowl pretty well. :)