Pond warmth
I did a partial water change on the pond today. The WH has been dying and I did the change in an attempt to save it.
It went quickly and easy and the fish took it okay. They got really excited while I was draining out the water, though, and the biggest one was swimming so fast that it ran right into the side of the tank with a loud "thunk." Fucking hilarious!
Here's what was weird: I did the water change and then I noticed that the thermofilter was not pumping. It had power, it was not clogged, and it was heating, but no water was flowing through. I pulled it out and messed with it a bit but could not get any flow. So I decided to open it up to see if anything was wrong with the impeller. I popped the top off, and pulled the impeller out. The impeller was shaking in my hand and pulling back toward the thermofilter so i knew the other magnet was active. As soon as i popped it back in, it started spinning and water started to flow. Isn't that weird?
I tried replacing the flow capacity switch while the impeller was running, but it seemed to be causing some flow trouble, so in the end i just left the switch off; I want the thing to flow at full capacity in any case. (The switch is just a baffle on a wheel; turning the wheel adjusts the baffle, so taking it off entirely leaves the flow wide open.) I checked it later today and it was flowing just fine. Maybe now it will start actually heating the freaking pond.
I don't know why it wasn't flowing- I couldn't find any obstruction. I'm just glad it's working now. If it doesn't start keeping the pond warm, though, I will have to find a way to get a secondary pond heater.
It went quickly and easy and the fish took it okay. They got really excited while I was draining out the water, though, and the biggest one was swimming so fast that it ran right into the side of the tank with a loud "thunk." Fucking hilarious!
Here's what was weird: I did the water change and then I noticed that the thermofilter was not pumping. It had power, it was not clogged, and it was heating, but no water was flowing through. I pulled it out and messed with it a bit but could not get any flow. So I decided to open it up to see if anything was wrong with the impeller. I popped the top off, and pulled the impeller out. The impeller was shaking in my hand and pulling back toward the thermofilter so i knew the other magnet was active. As soon as i popped it back in, it started spinning and water started to flow. Isn't that weird?
I tried replacing the flow capacity switch while the impeller was running, but it seemed to be causing some flow trouble, so in the end i just left the switch off; I want the thing to flow at full capacity in any case. (The switch is just a baffle on a wheel; turning the wheel adjusts the baffle, so taking it off entirely leaves the flow wide open.) I checked it later today and it was flowing just fine. Maybe now it will start actually heating the freaking pond.
I don't know why it wasn't flowing- I couldn't find any obstruction. I'm just glad it's working now. If it doesn't start keeping the pond warm, though, I will have to find a way to get a secondary pond heater.