palmaquariums
New Member
I recently started working on a new customer's tank, and I'm in the process of refurbishing and rehabbing the tank after it crashed during the brutal ice storms this winter (no generator + 4 days without power = no more livestock). I broke down all the sump equipment today for cleaning and maintenance, and I found that the pump on the protein skimmer wasn't functioning. I opened up the pump and found that the impeller had been severely damaged, as shown below:
This came off of a Sicce PSK 600 pump attached to a Reef Octopus skimmer. This is the first impeller I've seen with damage this bad. I was wondering if anyone else has seek this kind of issue before, and if so, what was the suspected cause? My first thought was that the pump had been run dry, but due to the location in the sump, that was unlikely. I'm now thinking that this may have been caused during the extended power outage. If the pump was inactive for several days then the impeller may have corroded or gotten stuck to the side of the pump wall, causing that split? The strange thing is, two other pumps have similar damage, and all three of them are different makes and models. Also, the tank is only a little over a year old, so I don't think normal wear would have caused this. Fortunately this is the only one that is crucial to the operation of the tank at this time, but I'm trying to figure out the cause to prevent it in the future. Has anyone else seen this before? And if so, is my assumption correct, that the power outage may have led to this?
My other question is, do you think the pump itself would still work if only the impeller was damaged? I examined the inside of the impeller casing and I didn't see any noticable damage in there, but I'm wondering if it will still work if I simply replace the impeller assembly, or if I should just buy a whole new pump. I'm leaning toward a whole new pump, just to play it safe.
This came off of a Sicce PSK 600 pump attached to a Reef Octopus skimmer. This is the first impeller I've seen with damage this bad. I was wondering if anyone else has seek this kind of issue before, and if so, what was the suspected cause? My first thought was that the pump had been run dry, but due to the location in the sump, that was unlikely. I'm now thinking that this may have been caused during the extended power outage. If the pump was inactive for several days then the impeller may have corroded or gotten stuck to the side of the pump wall, causing that split? The strange thing is, two other pumps have similar damage, and all three of them are different makes and models. Also, the tank is only a little over a year old, so I don't think normal wear would have caused this. Fortunately this is the only one that is crucial to the operation of the tank at this time, but I'm trying to figure out the cause to prevent it in the future. Has anyone else seen this before? And if so, is my assumption correct, that the power outage may have led to this?
My other question is, do you think the pump itself would still work if only the impeller was damaged? I examined the inside of the impeller casing and I didn't see any noticable damage in there, but I'm wondering if it will still work if I simply replace the impeller assembly, or if I should just buy a whole new pump. I'm leaning toward a whole new pump, just to play it safe.
