My Maxspect Gyre Experience

TitansFan · Jan 28, 2015

I have had a MAXSPECT XF150 GYRE for a month now. Wow! This thing puts out some current! The flow seems to be all over the tank even with my wall of rock. The controller is straight forward and fairly simple to use. I just ordered an Apex though and wish it could control it maybe later... Anything over 60% does seem to put out a bit of a hum. Running it though higher than 60% on my 150 gallon 5 foot tank is abit overkill though.

Now to the bad... Snails, Snail Snails... I had my first experience with a snail vs the gyre. The snail won unfortunately. Now we shall see how hard it is to find a replacement part. I wish I wasn't having to deal with this after a month of ownership on a not so cheap pump. Just as I was headed to bed last night I heard a loud "clunking" sound from the gyre. I inspected it and found a snail had crawled inside. The blades on the pump don't put up much of a fight...

I prefer to save up and buy more expensive equipment because over the years of this hobby I find it gives more of an install and always working as intended experience. I hate to think snails... something most all of us with a reef tank have may make this pump unreliable. I went from Tunze to this and never had an issue with Tunze pumps and snails.

thejoshdavis · Jan 28, 2015

Very interesting to hear that a snail could ruin the pump. Have you had luck finding the replacement part?

roadrashpaul · Jan 28, 2015

Interesting. According to a video I just watched it comes with spare impellers. Your didn't?

ptreef · Jan 28, 2015

I have been hearing this snail carnage a few times now.
Seems to destroy impellers when they meet a snail...

Suck too as I really want to get 1-2 of these for my setups
Guess you have to stick with the Large snails so as not to get into the pump

TitansFan · Jan 28, 2015

roadrashpaul said:
Interesting. According to a video I just watched it comes with spare impellers. Your didn't?

It comes with a spare Type a and Type b. The different types change if the water is pushed or pulled. I prefer the default setup (type a). Now I'm out of type a backups.

TitansFan · Jan 28, 2015

thejoshdavis said:
Very interesting to hear that a snail could ruin the pump. Have you had luck finding the replacement part?

CoralVue | Maxspect Gyre Parts - Pump Parts - REPLACEMENT PARTS

Looks like the propellers are $20 a piece. Should this be a cost I'm responsible for or the manufacture's warranty?

roadrashpaul · Jan 28, 2015

Not sure how they could warranty an animal crawling into the pump. I really like this pump though. Hopefully they will do something to fix this issue.

ibbennyb · Jan 28, 2015

doesnt it say right on the box it has a safety in case it gets blocked and resets after 20 seconds once cleared? i havent tried it. i have enough flow with everything in my tank plus no matter what i see you will have dead spots with the gyre. IMO the ONLY thing that makes ZERO dead spots a tank is the tunze wavebox's because its actually water displacement rather than flow..