Z06-Hec
Valuable Member
Do any of you ever clean your return pump? if so how often? How easy?
So whenever I do water changes (35 gals at a time) I shut off my pump. I have the pump, skimmer and power heads on 1 surge protector and I hit the switch. When I am done with the water change and turn on the protector every once in a while my return does not turn back on. This has happened to me at least 3-4 times over the past year. First time it happened i was worried wondering what i was going to do with no return pump because I thought it died. I had to remove it from the sump open the case and manually moved the impeller and it started right back up. that prompted me to buy a back up. That turned out good because I used the back up as a mixer for my salt mixing. The next time it happened i just swapped them out, opened the one that stopped and got it running again and just used that one as the mixer.
Anyway I was doing a water change last night and it happened again. Its a real pain to swap since I have my ATO feeding that section of my sump and I have my Phosphate reactor in that section as well. Anyway I removed and swapped to the back up which is probably the original that went down way back when. Got the tank running and went to look at the pump that stopped. Opened did my usual and it did not start up. Took apart the pump and got access to the impeller and was manually pushing it and nothing. Finally I managed to partially lift the impeller enough to see that it had a bunch of gook lodged in there. Sprayed it down, gave it a scrubbing with a tooth brush and reassembled. Tested it out and it was working again.
Made me think, do these things need regular cleanings?
I would have re-thought or properly planned the access to this thing if I knew this thing would seize up on me when I shut it off....
So whenever I do water changes (35 gals at a time) I shut off my pump. I have the pump, skimmer and power heads on 1 surge protector and I hit the switch. When I am done with the water change and turn on the protector every once in a while my return does not turn back on. This has happened to me at least 3-4 times over the past year. First time it happened i was worried wondering what i was going to do with no return pump because I thought it died. I had to remove it from the sump open the case and manually moved the impeller and it started right back up. that prompted me to buy a back up. That turned out good because I used the back up as a mixer for my salt mixing. The next time it happened i just swapped them out, opened the one that stopped and got it running again and just used that one as the mixer.
Anyway I was doing a water change last night and it happened again. Its a real pain to swap since I have my ATO feeding that section of my sump and I have my Phosphate reactor in that section as well. Anyway I removed and swapped to the back up which is probably the original that went down way back when. Got the tank running and went to look at the pump that stopped. Opened did my usual and it did not start up. Took apart the pump and got access to the impeller and was manually pushing it and nothing. Finally I managed to partially lift the impeller enough to see that it had a bunch of gook lodged in there. Sprayed it down, gave it a scrubbing with a tooth brush and reassembled. Tested it out and it was working again.
Made me think, do these things need regular cleanings?
I would have re-thought or properly planned the access to this thing if I knew this thing would seize up on me when I shut it off....
