# Power outage fried my filter?



## ellyabillion (Feb 20, 2010)

So apparently we had a power outage last night. (Of course this was the morning my 3 year old actually slept late instead of getting up at 6:30, but I digress).

My filter was not running when I checked the aquarium this morning. It's an Aquaclear 50, so the water drains out when the motor is not running. I didn't have time to troubleshoot it since I was running very late for work this morning. I unplugged it from the power for today (I have small fish and lots of plants, so I'm sure my fish will be fine). 

Is my filter probably fried???? I hate to have to buy a new filter, but obviously I will have to if my old one isn't working.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Possibly. Pull your filter off and drain it. The pump will come off with a 1/2 turn. You'll see an impeller. Pull that impeller out and make sure it is clean and take a bottle brush and spin it in the hole it came out of while flushing it under warm water. Replace the impeller and plug it in (make sure to not get the plug wet during this)and see if it spins again. Sometimes the AC pumps on the power filters freeze up. Mine have done it with just cycling the power strip. Sometimes they need to be replaced, sometimes this works.


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## ellyabillion (Feb 20, 2010)

Thanks for the quick reply. I was thinking that I might need to clean the impeller. I've already done that once before because it was making a rattling noise.


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## ellyabillion (Feb 20, 2010)

Well, I took my filter apart and cleaned it and it worked when I plugged it back in. Not sure what the issue was, but it seems to work now.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Good. Like I said, I've had it happen once or twice just from cycling my power strip which is about the same as a power hit (at least the on/off part).


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