Bio Wheel Filter problem

Question
I bought the Marineland Emperor 280. It was
working great until I cleaned it today (first time)...now it doesn't work!
What did I do?  The situation...

The intake tube is not sucking up water.  What's strange is if I POUR
water directly into the flow manifold everything appears to work
fine...the water is sucked down by the propeller, water squirts out of the
spray bars, and so forth but once I hook up the intake tube no water is
sucked up to keep the system going.  Yes, I've filled the filter box 1/2
full of water before I plug it in to prime it. What am I doing
wrong?  Everything looks fine except no water is being sucked up the intake
tube...that is (yes) properly seated. Everything looks fine and is
fitting snug, I don't get it.  

HELP!  Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  

I've done all the trouble shooting in the manual to no avail...I don't
understand why its not working.  

Aron Belveal


Answer
Hi Aron;

I apologize for not answering your question sooner. The AllExperts system has been down periodically for several weeks. Thanks for your patience.

You probably should take your filter to the fish store and see if they can get it working on one of their tanks. Sometimes a minor adjustment to the placement of the intake tube into the filter box is all that is needed. It has to seal at that point to work properly.

Be sure the water level in the tank is high enough for the filter to easily pump water into the box. If it is already high the impeller magnet may be weak and need replacing. The the local fish store should be able to order them for you.

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

Come on over and join us on the freshwater fish forum at About.com to get even more information too;
http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/questionsanswers/a/naavigateforum.htm