The aquarium I bought (used) came with two aquaclear 110 filters. The guy told me that he had sucked up some sand and that they were a little noisy now. They are more than a little noisy. My question is how loud, if at all, are these things when they are running well? I took the impeller out and cleaned it out in there as best I could. I don't see any loose sand anywhere but they sound awful. Does anyone have any experience taking these apart? Has anyone ever bought and used the aftermarket replacement parts?

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I have used AC's and they were the quietest hob filter I have used. The sand probably caused problems with the impeller or should I say the magnet so I would try replacing one of them and see if that fixes it.

I have one ordered that I picked up from ebay for $65. I guess I can use the spare one to test on to see if I can't get it apart and find the problem.

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You could have bought the impeller, the spinning thingy, separately to see if that was what was wrong.

If you are using sand as your substrate, you should put a sponge over the intake to prevent more sand to get caught into the filter, which will destroy it.

I had thought about buying the parts, but I don't see anything wrong with the impeller that is currently in there. I think I will just take more care to turn the filters off anytime I am going to stir up the sand.

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I bought a brand new one for a 75 gallon tank and it is basically silent. I then bought 2 brand new ones for my 120g tank and they are quite a bit louder. It's not like they are noisy but I can hear them running when sitting anywhere near the tank. The one on the 75 gallon can't be heard unless the water is low. I think it might just be luck of the draw on some of these.
There are a great filter however.

Mine sound a little bit like someone is idling a lawn mower.

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Take the impeller out & look at the metal "pole" in the motor itself - it should be perfectly smooth. If you can see any gouges in it this is your problem.

You can try contacting Hagen to get a replacement motor under warranty (not sure if they'll do it) or you can buy a replacement for about $35.00.

Mine has a slight hum, more like a hummingbird then a lawn mower.

Thanks for the tip shocktrp. Any idea about how to go about taking the motor off? I would think that its glued on to make it water tight.

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The motor twists off from the bottom - turn it 90* & pull it down.

Make sure the rubber tips are on the shaft too or it will wobble and hit the sides of the motor windings.
If you remove the motor, make sure the O-Ring is clean when you reinstall it. A very small dab of vaseline or silicone grease rubbed on the O-Ring helps it go on easier and seal it up too.