Always be PREPARED

S

Servo

Premium Member
So Iif I influence one person who reads this, I will have succeeded in my intention to post this. Yesterday I was doing a waterchange. I had plans to do a quick waterchange, workout and go out to dinner with friend. When I went to turn my pump back on, it looks like the motor seized. After I had a seal go bad, I purchased a spare pump for these emergencies. My stupid ball valves were frozen open due to the calcification and it took me about 30 minutes to open 3 of them. I'm glad I spent the extra money on the high quality ball valves from Savco plumming! Once I could get to the pump, I have the spare pumps plumbed and ready to go. I still wasn't able to do what I intended. I started at 4:45 and finished at 10 [smilie=whew.gif] .

If you intend on running a tank for more than a year and a half, you will need redundancy.

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Great point and is the reason why I have an extra Dart pump. You also order and keep on hand some spare seals for the Dart.
 
+1 on savko ball valves and unions. They ease to turn the valve off with no hassle is so worth it when you need to close a valve in a hurry and not mess with it being stuck. Every water change I exercise my valves but I only have two of them on my setup


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Glad you had the parts necessary on hand Ryan. Moving those valves from time to time is really the best method to keep them adjustable.
 
Well if figured out what happened. I thought that the motor was failing, but after plugging it in, it started up. I tried again and it wouldn't go, so I decided to take it apart.....

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True Old Tank Syndrome.
 
That is a lot of build up, how long was the motor running before it stopped working? We clean ours every nine months or so.
 
regardless of valve manufacturer it's a good idea to open & close all your valves a few times every couple months to break loose calcium deposit and other growth build up. I also found out the hard way and ended up making it part of my routine to open/close the valves for no other reason then to keep them opperable.

I also have a spare return pump for that emergency as it's not a mater of if it will fail but when it fails.

Great post
 
@Servo wrote:
Around a year or so. [smilie=shake.gif] said:
i ran my dart for about a year before i took it off for cleaning, and i didnt have any of that thick build up... i had some slime and stuff, but no calcium.
Do you dose? and if so, do you dose in the return area of your sump? maybe the heat from your pump caused the buildup?? just curious
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I have a 550 gallon system with loaded SPS in both the display and "frag" tank. I run a Deltec Ca reactor that can't keep up with the demand of the tank. I do dose from time to time and do dose into the sump. I separate my Ca and Alk by 10 minutes to prevent saturation.
 
I think his kalkwasser is the biggest culprit. Ryan and I have talked about the white dust throughout his rockwork - it's epic. I'm actually shocked at the stuff you pulled out of your sump and now out of that pump. I bet your plumbing is full of crap obstructing the flow. My sump that was 6 years old wasn't remotely close to that dirty. It just had coralline algae on the walls of the refugium, between the baffles and in the frag section.

My pumps and plumbing only have brown slime in them usually.
 
@Marc wrote:
I think his kalkwasser is the biggest culprit. Ryan and I have talked about the white dust throughout his rockwork - it's epic. I'm actually shocked at the stuff you pulled out of your sump and now out of that pump. I bet your plumbing is full of crap obstructing the flow. My sump that was 6 years old wasn't remotely close to that dirty. It just had coralline algae on the walls of the refugium said:
So lets replumb my system [smilie=devil.gif]
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One thing I learned over the years about tank plumbing is to keep it simple. You are much better off in the long run.
 
@Servo wrote:
[I]@Marc wrote:[/I][quote="I think his kalkwasser is the biggest culprit. Ryan and I have talked about the white dust throughout his rockwork - it's epic. I'm actually shocked at the stuff you pulled out of your sump and now out of that pump. I bet your plumbing is full of crap obstructing the flow. My sump that was 6 years old wasn't remotely close to that dirty. It just had coralline algae on the walls of the refugium said:
So lets replumb my system [smilie=devil.gif]"]

Would a acid bath clean that scale? Didn't marc pull his plumbing off and acid bath it to clean? Is your plumbing held together with unions or able to be taken apart? Just curious
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@Servo wrote:
[I]@Marc wrote:[/I][quote="I think his kalkwasser is the biggest culprit. Ryan and I have talked about the white dust throughout his rockwork - it's epic. I'm actually shocked at the stuff you pulled out of your sump and now out of that pump. I bet your plumbing is full of crap obstructing the flow. My sump that was 6 years old wasn't remotely close to that dirty. It just had coralline algae on the walls of the refugium said:
So lets replumb my system [smilie=devil.gif]"]

At some point, I think we should.
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