Help with canister filter

[danchristopher]

I have a crappy canister filter I got second hand with my tank. It is an Aqua One Aquis 2400, I think it's pretty old. I initially had problems with leaking water but a new O-ring mostly cleared that up. The problem I'm having now is that it doesn't seem to want to pump any water out of the outflow pipe.

I was re-arranging my tank earlier and forgot to unplug the filter. When I removed some of the driftwood the water level dropped below the surface skimmer and I think the filter stopped pumping in water? This would have lasted for maybe a minute or two before I realised. Since this happened, it hasn't worked.

I have opened it up, cleaned everything, put it all back together, re-primed it and still nothing.

It has a 'self priming' mechanism, which is why this seems weird. The intake and outflow pipes connect to a nozzle piece that then connects to the top of the filter - you fill up the inflow pipe and 'flip a switch' and it starts sucking water from the inflow pipe into the filter to fill it up. If I take this nozzle piece off and 'flip the switch' the water comes gushing out from the inflow pipe, so there is definitely water being taken in. You're supposed to connect the nozzle piece, wait till the canister is full, turn the power on and then it should start pumping water out the outflow pipe - but this isn't happening. I can hear the filter motor turn on and sometimes some water comes dribbling out of the outflow for about 30 seconds to a minute and then just stops. :/

The only thing that has changed is that the other day I broke a little part of one of the side levers used to help release the top powerhead part of the filter from the canister body. It has been working fine after this though - until now - and this hardly seems like something that would be causing the entire thing to not function (I have read on other forums that people have broken this before and they do not seem to have not experienced the problems I am having.) I am getting a replacement part for this anyway though, but am worried that it's not the issue.

Sorry if any of this doesn't make sense, please ask questions if need be. I am pretty desperate as my axies are now swimming around their unfiltered tank and I don't want the beneficial bacteria in my filter to die!

Any help would be very appreciated!

 

[danchristopher]

Hours of stress and I finally give in and post my problem and twenty minutes later I manage to fix it. Trust!
When I cleaned everything I put a small internal pipe piece in backwards so the little latch that opens to let water flow in from the intake was turned around so the water wasn't able to flow in. Doesn't really explain how the filter managed to fill up with water, nor why it stopped working before I disassembled it...but it works now so I can't complain.