Help... protein skimmer trouble!

[mbd521]

Got home from work last evening and found out that the power had gone off for about 10 min and noticed that my skimmer wasnt bubbling, just making a wierd noise. Guess I should say that I have a reef octopus bh 2000 HOB skimmer on a 55 gal tank. My tank is very lightly stocked with only a percula clownfish and a couple shrimp along with minimal coral! This skimmer is less than a year old. After I realized it wasnt working properly I started unplugging and plugging it back in... after a few mins I gave up on that because it just wasnt working. .. thinking. Maybe something got stuck in the motor or something I took the whole skimmer apart (as far as I could) well I couldn't take it apart very far but didn't find anything. Put it back together, all cleaned up and had the same results. .. nothing. ... unpluged it. Plugged it back in a few more times. And now absolutely nothing. .. the motor doesn't even make a sound! Someone please help me!

 

[caldone]

Could it have in dry?
If the power went out and the skimmer lost its prime, then power comes back on and the skimmer has no water in it?
Nothing stuck in the impeller?
You could try and vinegar soak the area where the impeller is in hopes it frees up

 

[caldone]

Also try blowing in the airtue to see if you can get air coming out

 

[Saltyg]

Thats starnge, my bh 100 or whatever its called would do that, would have to take the impellar out and scrub it and the whole pump inside out and it would kick back on like a champ. Soak it in vinegar for a night and see what happens.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Intake airlines get clogged up with salt creep and will not produce bubbles when this happens. You need to clear that line once in awhile. Also, cleaning the pump on occasion wouldn't hurt any.

 

[NanaReefer]

Gotta prime it sometimes. I do with my BH-1000. Start it and then pinch the airline closed until you start seeing bubbles, then let it go. Might take a couple trys.

 

[mbd521]

Thanks guys for the advice. .. I wasnt able to figure out how to get the impeller out of the motor.I don't think it actually ran dry... there was water in it the whole time! It just wasnt bubbling. Is there a different motor that I could use to replace it... I'm pretty sure I inadvertently burnt up the motor! I tried sealing off the air intake line (while doing all the plugging and unplugging) it didn't work...

 

[mbd521]

Regarding priming it... I also did that. .. and salt creep wasnt the issue. .. I

 

[mbd521]

I made sure all the lines were clear. ... thinking something went wrong with the impeller! Gonna try to get ahold of reef octopus tomorrow... think I need a new motor. ..

 

[Reefing Madness]

You may have over run the motor. But once its cooled off completely I'd give it another shot. If you burned it up, you'll have to get another one of those to run, as those pumps are skimmer specific I believe.

 

[mbd521]

I will try dealing with it again tomorrow. Any idea where I can order a new pump? I got the skimmer from BRS

 

[mbd521]

Couldn't figure out how to actually get some customer service from reef octopus.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

 

[rako1]

this place has great service for reef ociopus CoralVue- Contact Us

 

[DSP]

I recently had the same problem with my asm skimmer pump.i thought it was the motor that burnt up but I found out it was the plastic piece on my impeller that was sticking.its kind of hard t explain but the plastic part that's on the metal part of the impeller is suposed to turn freely about half way,well the plastic part on mine got stuck and wouldn't spin and after I got it spinning again the pump works.hope you can understand this lol like I said kinda hard to explain.ill get some pics up to help explain asap

 

[mbd521]

I would love some pics!

 

[DSP]

Ok if the propeller in your pump looks similar to this then the plastic part is suposed to move freely.If it doesn't then it's probaly jammed.Just try turning it and see

 

[DSP]

That's what happened with mine anyway lol.i was close to purchasing a new pump and glad I didn't because it was an easy fix.