Weird flow rate on Eden 501 canister filter

[illumnae]

I have an eden 501 that's acting funny. when i connect everything normally, there is barely any flow at all. however, when i open the cap used to fill the filter with water, the flow becomes normal (strong) for awhile until air enters the filter and airlocks. when the filter is filled full and locked tight, there is barely any flow again. anyone know what's the problem?

[oblivion]

is it new or used?
i sort of encountered this problem before
except that instead of "barely" flow, i get zero flow
the damn thing doesnt even start running

i solved it by taking out the magnetic impeller and cleaning it
after that it worked fine
you can try it although im not sure it will work for your case

[illumnae]

ok i'll try that now. thanks!

edit: nope didn't work =( it's still the same leaky faucet flow. what i find really weird is that when i open the cap a little and air is let in, the flow goes to full for awhile before stopping. why would that happen?

[oblivion]

its indeed a weird case
i've never encountered this before!

a wild guess --> it might be some problem with the air purge function thats why it airlocks?
you may want to look again at the autopriming chamber and the tubing part that purges excess air

i cant guarantee it will help but at this point in time i suppose anythings worth a try

[illumnae]

i don't even know which is the autopriming chamber and the tubing that purges excess air

edit: found it, and adjusted it to look exactly the same as my other eden 501 (L shaped white tube pointing up and slightly to the side), but while the other one works perfect, this one is still not working.

it's really so weird because the filter IS capable of going at full speed, it just doesn't do it unless the cap is open for a short while before it airlocks

[oblivion]

the filter pump unit that fits on top... if you take it out you should see a short length of airline tubing on the underside?
its affixed to that black plastic piece which you have to take out before you can reach the impeller

you can check if anything's missing or clogged etc
you can just cut a length of airline tubing and replace the existing one
i change it all the time whenever i open up the filter

check the impeller chamber also, take out the impeller and clean the inside of the shaft that holds the impeller

other than that i can't think of anything else at present

[illumnae]

the airline tubing seems fine as i can run water through it...tried running water through the outlet too and there's no restriction. i've also already cleaned the impeller and the housing, though honestly with the filter working normally when i open the cap, it shouldn't be an impeller problem. i'll try again tomorrow. thanks for your help!

[Wackytpt]

One thing about eden filter is that you need to do regular cleaning and maintainence.

I do notice that after I washed the filter, the flow is strong and as days goes by, the flow get weaker.

[illumnae]

i've tried running the filter with no media at all and after cleaning the impeller and it's still the same. full flow when the cap is open for awhile followed by no flow when the water drains out; and very slow flow when the cap's closed as it's supposed to be

[jacian]

Could it be your inlet is clogged? Try with the inlet out of water and see if you got the full flow same as with the cap opened?

[illumnae]

ok i'll try that when i get home tonight. thanks!

[bossteck]

Not a user of Eden 501, but could it be that your return tubing is too long? The excess tubing would mean that the impeller has to work harder. Just a speculation.

Cheers

[Ah_ZhaN]

I am using Eden 501. I inject co2 into the cannister and use it as a form of reactor.

I do get flow blockage when I do maintanence after re-attaching the cannister cover back. I overcome this by lifting the cannister high, then switch on the power to generate smooth water flow.

[illumnae]

thanks for all your suggestions! here's an update:

1. i tried lifting the filter high before switching it on - the flow increased very slightly when lifted but when put down trickled again

2. the hoses have been cut to exact length and are not too long

2. when i removed the inlet hose from the inlet plastic housing thing, the flow was full and identical to when i removed the cap and just like when i remove the cap, the flow stopped after awhile. however, when i inserted just the hose into the water, the flow was slow again.

it seems that when there's air being sucked in, the flow is full for awhile until the water level in the filter drops too low. however, when it's water being sucked in, the flow is slow. i'm very puzzled =(

[illumnae]

i think i may have found the problem. took the impeller out again to clean and noticed there was a small chip in the metal ring around the plastic impeller is slightly chipped. would that cause the flow to slow alot?

i don't understand why the flow would increase when air is let in though

[wks]

Yixiang, check the rubber ring around the the filter head is properly fitted into the filter body. You must be able to lock the filter, otherwise air will be sucked in during operation, creating an airlock.
Before you start the filter, pour water to the brim of the filter's opening, the filter will be able to purge out the remaining air when in operation.

[jacian]

i think i may have found the problem. took the impeller out again to clean and noticed there was a small chip in the metal ring around the plastic impeller is slightly chipped. would that cause the flow to slow alot?

i don't understand why the flow would increase when air is let in though

For every volume of the water to flow out of the filter, equal volume of water need to be sucked into the filter. Of course, less pressure is required to pull in the air compared to the water, thus you will experience higher outflow when the inlet is pulling in air instead of water. In your case, it is pretty much confirmed that the impeller is not working at it's capacity.

[mok]

I have an eden 501 that's acting funny. when i connect everything normally, there is barely any flow at all. however, when i open the cap used to fill the filter with water, the flow becomes normal (strong) for awhile until air enters the filter and airlocks. when the filter is filled full and locked tight, there is barely any flow again. anyone know what's the problem?

Try placing the 501 at a level lower than your tank. When there is a higher than normal outflow rate without media, the filter will be experiencing negative pressure thus sucking in air from all seals/gaps. This will cause the flowrate to reduce to a point where the pressure equalizes or airlock occurs. Lowering the filter will give it some water head to balance the outflow pressure. This is the reason why most high flowrate canister filter can only be operated at a certain level below the tank water surface.

You can also try running the whole filter submersed in water to test if the fault is with the impeller.

[illumnae]

After many days of being spoilt and over 2 days of trying to fix it, i gave up and left the filter running overnight and while i was at work (some flow is better than no flow after all). went to get a new filter after work (another eden 501 haha, decided to go with reliability...maybe mine was just an odd one out) and came home. was about to install the new filter with the old media when....lo and behold! the spoilt filter was working again no idea what happened to it (i left it alone for longer than 24 hours before) but it decided to get itself working again...so here i am with an extra eden 501...

[jacian]

Isn't it great that the filter is working again. Now you have a backup filter or you got an excuse to setup another tank.