Troubleshoot Simplicity 100 DC pump

[lumberjacks215]

I went out of town for a 3 days while the wife was checking on the 2 week old tank that is just cycling at this stage, no fish just been doing ghost feeding. She calls this am while I’m heading home to say the tank “has lots of bubbles”. I came home and my ato was empty and now my pump makes this high pitched hum or whining that is intermittent and the goes back to its normal quite sounding operation and then it keeps coming back. What happened? Any suggestions on troubleshooting this issue? Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[ggNoRe]

How is the water level?

 

[outhouse]

Pull the pump a part and inspect it.

 

[lumberjacks215]

How is the water level?

Water level is normal. It’s working fine but the motor just revs and then goes back to normal speed

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

Can you post a picture of the set up?

 

[lumberjacks215]

Can you post a picture of the set up?

 

[ggNoRe]

Hard to tell from the picture but the water looks pretty low where the return pump is. It needs at least a couple inches over the top of the pump.

 

[outhouse]

DC pumps hate being restricted with such a small diameter return hose . I have 2 built in returns and I run 1 1/4 pvc to a T to each 1" run, which goes to 3/4" through the bottom of the tank. Im able to run 40% on my pump. You never said how fast you have yours set at? but its cavitating

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

Was the return pump making the noise or was it the ATO pump?