Filter Emergency - help!

[adam_ottawa]

I'm right in the middle of my water change.  I was taking my canister filter apart to clean and I just broke the impeller shaft.  It's an eheim 2213 and Big Al's is closed.  What should I do?

[darkdep]

Where are you located Adam?

Do you have ANY other filters you can throw on the tank for the night?

[squeeker]

do a larger than normal water change.  Keep the lights off, don't feed the fish, and aerate the water (air pump, etc) until tomorrow when you can get another shaft.  Tomorrow, do another good water change.  You should be fine.

[adam_ottawa]

Well the shaft seemed to snap right in the middle.  When I reassembled it seemed like it might hold the impeller straight for awhile.  I'll finish my water change, fill the filter with tank water and see if it might work for a bit.

If not, I'll follow your advice squeeker.

I have an old AC filter with no media or in take tube.

I'm in the East end (Ogilvie Road).

Let's hope this shaft thing will hold for 20 hours!

[charlie]

Do you drive adam, i can lend you a power head with a quick filter attachment.
Regards

[adam_ottawa]

What about if I use an air pump with an air stone?

[adam_ottawa]

Will the bacterial culture survive in the filter overnight if there's no flow?

[adam_ottawa]

Oh silly me...when I plugged it in initially I forgot to open the valves in the airlines.  The filter seems to work.  It's just making a little bit more noise than usual.  I may just run it for a couple hours and monitor it closely.

[Laura]

If you don't trust it to run it overnight, then your airstone and airpump would do the trick (that would aerate the water as Squeeker suggested).
Someone wiser than me could probably let you know if there's any risk to your motor should the impellor stop spinning.