Hi I bought some used equiptment to start a tank for my girlfriend and included was a marineland emporer 400b filter.

The filter just wont run right. It at first seemed to never catch prime, until finally it did but pumped real real small amounts of water. I've had the filter apart and there's no clogs nothing looks out of the ordinary, it just doest seem to want to work.

It took pouring cup after cup of water into it to catch prime but it indeed did. It just moves an extremely small amount of water. The spraybars spray water and the biowheels spin but nothing else happens. I tried adjusting the little flow valve but it made no difference.

Does this sound like I need a new impeller? It looks decent.. not coated with anything.. spins good and free. I've already bought new filters and biowheels so I'm kinda commit ed to it now lol

Any advice would be appreciated and sorry if I posted this in the wrong forum I didn't realty see a good place to put it

I am not super sure about the biowheel filters, but i do know that if it gets old it gets old, before I got into the hobby my parents had this happen once, and I remember my dad saying, just buy a new filter.

If the filter is old then you just may have to replace it, but I am sure you can get a filter that is the same. (so you don't have to buy all new filters and biowheels) I would also recommend if your good bacteria is already established in that filter to just use the cartridges that are in the old one, so you won't have to worry about spikes, in ammonia nitrites or nitrates.

Hope that helped a little bit.

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New to the hobby, Got lots of ambition !

25-gallon Community Ta\nk
3 Zebra Danios
2 Long Finned Leopard Danios
2 Silver Tipped Tetras
2 Nerite Snails

5-gallon Betta Tank Planted:
1 Betta

Wisteria
Java Moss

10-gallon
still deciding.

Make sure you're making a good seal on your intake spout where it mates up inside. Take the impeller out and scrub the area it sits in - could have algae all up in it. Make sure there isn't a pin hole in your intake spout somewhere.

surprising, small amount of algae build up in the impeller hole will hinder/stop impelling. q-tips work well for me.

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100 Dirt + Stuff. To be Angel baby tank.
37 Planted. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f45/pla...nal-20774.html
29 Tall community tank. 5+ Years up and running.
15 Soon to be RCS tank.

The impeller housing and impeller itself look clean. The impelller spins good on its shaft by hand quite easily. Last night I expanded the tube to make a tighter fit seal on the intake tube to impeller and it didn't change anything. The impeller dousnt sound like its getting any air, it sounds "healthy" and generally like its working well.

These power filters are such a pita. It sucks because I already installed the new filter pads and biowheels I bought for it so I can't return them. Otherwise ide just say forget it and buy a whole new filter.

I seen on marineland's site they sell replacment parts. I'm just wondering if I should try buying a new impeller or is it the coil (ide assume its just a coil that makes the impeller spin).

Worste case scenario I will buy a new intake tube, intake manifold, impeller and coil assembly. It just feels like I'm wasting my money. I really hate power filters. And I'm on a very strict budget so if that's the case it'll set the tank back a month or so before it gets running, which sucks, because it was a gift for my gf (tank stand lights and filter)

The filter was previously used on a saltwater setup if you think that may make a difference

Ok so I installed an o-ring so the suction part would have a perfect seal and it fits good and snug. Cleaned the impeller and housing, again.

The thing will sit there and run with water in it just pumping through the spray bars for the biowheels but not anything else. if I adjust the spray bars to spray out of the filter into the tank, it just runs out of water.

I felt the suction tube and there is no suction whatsoever but if after it pumps for a bit I remove the suction tube, water spills out like its full.

This is really confusing me...

Its deffinitly not sucking air, its almost like the impeller is spinning to slow or something I don't understand.

Anyone got any ideas?

Is it a problem with the motor? Maybe it's not running as strong as it should and you need a new one?

This may sound stupid, but is the water level high enough? (I was cleaning filters once while doing a water change and couldn't figure out why the filter wouldn't catch the prime. The intake was well into the water, so it didn't make sense, and then realized it was just because the water level was a bit too low. When I filled the tank back up, the filter worked fine.)

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36g Bow Front Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981

I am not quit sure how the system works but I'm pretty sure its a coil that converts ac power to magnetism to spin the impeller. I suppose the coil could be going bad.

Does anyone happen to have a marineland emporer 400b filter, and a ohm meter? I can easily measure the coil ohms but with nothing to compare it too.. I'm stuck. (Just measure accross the plug terminal ends)

The filter is pretty deep in the water.. I will add more water to the tank, that's a good thought. I doubt its the problem because I use to run my others way lower, but I'm pretty desperate to get this thing working asap without any money outlay.

Thanks for the feedback! And ill feel like quite a dummy if that's it lol!

Well I actually got the thing to work.

I filled her tank up all the way, I mean ALL the way, and it worked. The output seemed reeeaally bad.. like half of what I expected. I'm assuming it needs a new impeller or coil/motor deal.

After all this effort and money spend on filters (ugh like $40 for new biowheels and filters.. silly me for not testing it FULLY, only gave it a "test spin" and heard it try to catch prime and called it good) I'm just ganna slap one of my old filters on it and call it a day.

Eventually I'm just ganna mod my working filter to accept the biowheels and luckily the filters I bought fit so its not a total loss. I intended on building a filter for it eventually anyways.

Anyone wanna buy a marineland emporer 400b? Lol

The emperors have a two stage impeller with two separate paddle wheels. One is for the spray bars, which seems to be working on yours, the other is for the main part of the filter with the pads. Make sure both paddle wheels are intact on yours. The emperor 280 and 400 have different impellers--it's a long shot but perhaps you've the wrong one.
Before buying parts check out prices online. Don't know about the 400 but the 280 can be had for $25 on amazon sometimes.