Stupid Pump Tricks

[Anna Piranha]

A very bad thing happened last night. I bought a great pump and a 32 gallon rubbermaid and potable water hoses and the whole recommended works. I was all excited about trying out my new setup - first time without the bucket brigade. I diligently read the directions for the pump and did just what they said: 1) Pour 1 tbsp of cooking oil in the inlet to prime the pump, 2) attach the hoses, 3) make sure each end of hose is submerged in water, 4) turn the pump on.

Well, can you guess what happened? 1 tbsp of cooking oil in my beloved fish tank :'( I don't know why I didn't interpret that step as "except in the cases of fish tanks." I could have died
:shocked:
Four hours and a huge water change later, the tank was about as good as I could get it. The filter tubes and plants still had a slightly greasy feel and there was major clouding, but I was all out of physical and mental resources. I went to sleep and dreamt that my beautiful discus just up and left my tank and started swimming around the living room, because it was less contaminated :-[

When I woke up, I braced myself for the worst, turned the tank light on and they all scrambled behind a plant - they hate me now. I brought out the bloodworms, dropped them in and hid behind a chair - yes, I did that! Well, happily, they were all alive and hungry as ever. There is a slight film on the top of the water, which I will change today, but there were no casualties. If fact, I think they are pooping better than ever now :)

[Jeff]

Sounds like you avoided a big problem. Good Luck.

[DarkDiscus]

Anna,

Yikes. That could not have been much fun. I'm glad your fish seem to be okay, though. Unless you're planning a fish fry, oil and fish don't mix!

;)

John

[Anna Piranha]

So, am I the only lemming who blindly follows those pump directions? Does anyone else's pumps come with recommendations for cooking oil? I was almost too embarrassed to post this, but geez, maybe I'll save someone else the trouble. Of course, maybe everyone else applied a little intelligence to the process :P

[DarkDiscus]

Anna,

I'm getting my first pump this week, so thanks for the heads up, btw.

;)

John

[Lynn]

Hi Anna,

You did the right thing for your pump. Not the right thing for the fish though! Glad to hear they are ok! Most pumps need to be lubricated in some fashion. My pump has place to add lubricant, so I dont have to add it to the inlet. Before you use it again, try it on some buckets of water and see if you still get oil in the water. Next time you add oil, use the buckets to flush the excess out.
Hope this was of some help to you!
;DLynn

[allan_mark76]

Anna.... Let me guess... did you buy this pump from Home Depot...if so the cooking oil is just to service the pump every so often to make sure all the moving parts are oiled up and optimized. What I usually do is after three or so uses of the pump I run the cooking oil through the pump THEN vigorously try to clean all the cooking oil before I use it in my tanks. Make sure to do a blank run with warm water to flush out the oil out of your pumps.
If you run into more problems just PM me and I'll help you out.

A-

When I was in the market for a pump I avoided those that required oil to prime. I am now using a Campbell Hausfeld that is self priming.. As long as you keep the reservoir filled with water, you are good to go. :thumbsup:

Anna,
Glad to hear you caught it in time. I am still laughing over feed and "Hide behind the chair" episode. I have to do that at times too. These guys are so temperamental, but yet very forgiving.....

Thanks for posting!

Julz :)

[Anna Piranha]

Thanks everyone! I sure did buy the pump at Home Depot. You guys have been great. allan_mark76, thanks for your generous offer to help me out. :)

[cgrim10]

you are very lucky. i almost had a similar experience recently. i have used a vortex filter to polish the water for years. they are great for aiding in serious cleaning. i recently bought a new "remay" bag, the "bag" inside. and in the instructions, it plainly said to soak in a solution of chlorine bleach and water. i have wornout several of these bags, and replaced them, but i had never done that! i called the company, and they said "oh no, don't do that to a new bag!! thats just when you need another mile out of the old dirty bag"
a vortex with carbon, is a great tool. very fast action. i wish i had owned one of them when my nieces came over, and fed my community tank about half a big bottle of vasoline intensive care. it was disgusting. years ago, and i still remember a tank of a gazillion little blobs of grease.
cg

[limige]

wow,i guess i'm just a normal guy....directions what directions, i know how to use a pump

[Don_Lee]

At the risk of sounding silly, again..... I have been using a pump that the instructions recommended to prime with vegetable oil for some time. I had not given it a secong thought till now...is it ok to prime it with water? Would the vegetable oil, less than a teaspoon, damage water conditions significantly?

Don ;D