HELP! Pump issue - really concerned

[dgilbert2]

i am really worried! For some unknown reason tonight the main circulation pump in my Red Sea Max C130 just stopped. I checked there was no electrical
problem and that the pump had not become blocked, but no problems were found. After about 4 minutes it suddenly started to work again, its as if these pumps
have a thermal trip inside of it which opened and then closed after a few minutes?? I pulled the pump out the water and the pump body was cool, so no evidence of
true overheating.

As you can imagine I am extremely worried now that this will happen again and cause a major problem, (The skimmer cup quickly overflowed quite badly with
water dripping off the hood base back into the tank).

I have emailed Red Sea but has anyone else had this?

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

sometime a small piece of trash get in the impeller area & turning them on & off - works, other times I have had to take them apart (very simple to do) and when put back together they worked - I have had to do this maybe once a year on one of the various pumps -they are sicce pumps & pretty good quality - hope this helps - you can ask our red sea rep too, Kev, in the ask red sea thread

 

[DaveK]

It might be worth investing in a spare pump. You can't go wrong having a backup pump.

 

[dgilbert2]

Thanks for the replies.

There was no evidence of anything mechanical that caused this and the pump chamber comes after the media rack containing a fine mechanical filter.

In all my years of fish keeping I have never known a pump do this, you normally get mechanical noise or reduced flow when problems start to occur.

It's the mess the skimmer makes and the resulting damage that I am worried about, should the same thing happen,

 

[RedSeaKev]

Hi David, This does sound like a fault with the pump, I have seen your email and arranged for a replacement to be sent asap.

The skimmer cup has by design an overflow so that in the event of the cup overflowing it falls back to the aquarium, if a return pump should unfortunately fail or get inadvertently switch off you will see a rise in the skimmer cup level, this is due to the increase in water level in the rear chamber and increasing the head pressure which in turn increases the water to air ratio placed upon the skimmer pump.

 

[Roy Page]

Hi David, This does sound like a fault with the pump, I have seen your email and arranged for a replacement to be sent asap.

The skimmer cup has by design an overflow so that in the event of the cup overflowing it falls back to the aquarium, if a return pump should unfortunately fail or get inadvertently switch off you will see a rise in the skimmer cup level, this is due to the increase in water level in the rear chamber and increasing the head pressure which in turn increases the water to air ratio placed upon the skimmer pump.

Great service by RedSea again!

Kevin,

I have a confession to make!

A few months ago RedSea shipped me a replacement pump for the C-250 Skimmer.
Well, this last couple of weeks the replacement Skimmer pump stopped making bubbles and I got it working each time by switching the pump on and off a few times.

But finally it stopped making bubbles altogether so last night I pulled the pump out and took it apart and proceeded to clean the various parts.

The pinwheel was very dirty with white deposits so that part was cleaned and I thought the problem was solved. No, not solved, still not producing bubbles.
I looked carefully inside the air entry nozzle and saw white deposits, it was partially blocked at the very bottom.
Now this part rotates in its housing and I could not see how to remove it from its housing!
Eventually found that with some force the air entry nozzle piece can be pulled off the mating part.
Cleaned it out and and skimmer pump making bubbles again.

Why do I have to confess? Because I got out the old 'failed' pump and found the same problem.
Buried deep in the air entry nozzle was a small amount of white deposit, preventing the air entering the pin wheel.

Maybe I missed reading an instruction about 'How to dis-assemble and clean the skimmer pump' ?

 

[dgilbert2]

Hi David, This does sound like a fault with the pump, I have seen your email and arranged for a replacement to be sent asap.

The skimmer cup has by design an overflow so that in the event of the cup overflowing it falls back to the aquarium, if a return pump should unfortunately fail or get inadvertently switch off you will see a rise in the skimmer cup level, this is due to the increase in water level in the rear chamber and increasing the head pressure which in turn increases the water to air ratio placed upon the skimmer pump.

Many thanks for your email and post above Kevin. Will keep an eye on things over the weekend and then fit the new pump on Monday .

 

[DaveK]

...
In all my years of fish keeping I have never known ...

It is truly amazing how many times in this hobby that I have seen things that I have never known to have happened to myself or anyone else. This is after keeping SW tanks for close to 50 years. This goes for equipment, fish and other livestock. You just never know.

 

[dgilbert2]

Hi David, This does sound like a fault with the pump, I have seen your email and arranged for a replacement to be sent asap.

The skimmer cup has by design an overflow so that in the event of the cup overflowing it falls back to the aquarium, if a return pump should unfortunately fail or get inadvertently switch off you will see a rise in the skimmer cup level, this is due to the increase in water level in the rear chamber and increasing the head pressure which in turn increases the water to air ratio placed upon the skimmer pump.

Thanks Kev, the replacement pump arrived today. (Was actually on Monday but we missed the delivery driver ).

First class customer support, thank you.

 

[dgilbert2]

What am I doing wrong!? The replacement circulation pump I was sent has now also started to switch itself off and then on again after a couple of minutes just like the old one, even if I do not touch anything at all. Its happened three times today, as though it's overheating and then switches back on when cooled down?

I just don't understand what I need to do, my only observation is that the pump sits quite tight in the chamber and the inlet is up against the side of the glass. This is the only way it can go in there though? Also, how is the pump supposed to sit in relation to the black foam stuck to the side glass at the bottom of the pump chamber?

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

@RedSeaKev

I would see what Kev thinks... it is quite odd & unusual

 

[Danreef]

What am I doing wrong!? The replacement circulation pump I was sent has now also started to switch itself off and then on again after a couple of minutes just like the old one, even if I do not touch anything at all. Its happened three times today, as though it's overheating and then switches back on when cooled down?

I just don't understand what I need to do, my only observation is that the pump sits quite tight in the chamber and the inlet is up against the side of the glass. This is the only way it can go in there though? Also, how is the pump supposed to sit in relation to the black foam stuck to the side glass at the bottom of the pump chamber?

Do you have the pump plugged to a controller ?

Strange question..... but if by mistake I plug my pump to my controller using the same plug that controls the heater, then the pump will go on and off based on tank temp.

Just a crazy idea...but ....

 

[dgilbert2]

Do you have the pump plugged to a controller ?

Strange question..... but if by mistake I plug my pump to my controller using the same plug that controls the heater, then the pump will go on and off based on tank temp.

Just a crazy idea...but ....

Thanks for the idea, I have double checked and my pump connects direct into the second socket of the Red Sea power centre, no controller involved. When the pump stops I connect another pump into the socket outlet and it works fine, so definitely seems to point towards the pump itself.

Today I have tried shortening the green hose by about an inch so the pump sits on top of the black foam and not sandwiched by it, to see if that helps the cooling of it?

 

[Danreef]

Thanks for the idea, I have double checked and my pump connects direct into the second socket of the Red Sea power centre, no controller involved. When the pump stops I connect another pump into the socket outlet and it works fine, so definitely seems to point towards the pump itself.

Today I have tried shortening the green hose by about an inch so the pump sits on top of the black foam and not sandwiched by it, to see if that helps the cooling of it?

I do not believe it is anything related with heat/cooling. Mine has been working non-stop for ~ 1.5 years by now. I have a replacement, just in case.

When you open the pump, do you see something abnormal in the propeller ?

 

[dgilbert2]

The pump inside and out still looks brand new as this particular pump is only a week old. Its just not making any sense.

 

[Danreef]

The pump inside and out still looks brand new as this particular pump is only a week old. Its just not making any sense.

Sorry I wrote propeller instead of impeler.

The impeler in your old pump, when you take it out, it's shape is good ? You do not see any issue.

I had one cracked in the past. Water rusted the magnet and the impeler diameter increased. It makes the pump stop. Red Sea sent me a replacement pump asap.

But you are correct about the new pump. Sorry I can't help more.

 

[dgilbert2]

Thanks for your time to post suggestions. Even my old pump only had about a month of use and that also still looks brand new when examining the impeller assembly.

 

[dgilbert2]

Received a further replacement pump today, thanks RS Kev

The suspected problem is around the internal thermal trip so hoping todays pump will be OK.

 

[dgilbert2]

Sadly my third pump tripped out as well. So I looked at what could possibly be different with my set-up. I checked the way the pump was fixed and was happy that no back pressure could be loading the pump due to the inlet position against the pump chamber and that the outlet piping was not blocked in any way. All found to be good.

I believe that I may have now found the problem. I must state before going on that this problem is possibly quite rare, possibly even unique.

The incoming mains voltage to our house is at the top end of the UK tolerance band ie 250V (!) or 30V above the pumps nominal 220V rating.

I therefore installed one of these;

http://www.vigortronix.com/IsolationTransformers-Step-upStep-down250-1000VA.aspx

It does two things for me, isolates the pumps from the mains to give me a level of safety and also allows me to feed the pumps from 220V.

Since fitting this < TOUCH WOOD > I have had no further trips. The other sign that the pumps are not producing so much heat, which I believe was leading to the thermal trips, is that the tanks cooling fans are now on significantly less (Controlled by STC-1000).

Another bonus towards the battle against heat