6045 running backward?

[mcarroll]

I've got a pair of (still unmodified) nanostream 6045's that I run on either side of my 38 gallon reef.

I run one at a time, alternating every 6 hours using heavy duty appliance timers, to sort of simulate tidal flows.

This has been great until this morning, when I woke up to find that the newest 6045* had been running backward since it last turned on - about 4 hours - blowing the entire nearby sandbed all over the tank and corals.

Can someone give me an idea as to how often I can expect this to happen? It's definitely not acceptable to me for this to happen in my tank, so some changes will have to be made unless someone can assure me this is unlikely to ever happen again.

For what it's worth, this pump is on the side glass, a few inches from the bottom, oriented to pump water toward the surface at about 45º from vertical (or horizontal!). I unplugged and re-plugged the AC cord for the pump and it is running in the correct direction after that. No further adieu.

One unhappy camper,
-Matt

* - Probably coincidence, it's only weeks old and hasn't even started to encrust with coraline, etc

P.S. It's awesome that reefcentral's forum softwater gives only a blank page for search results - both in Safari and Firefox. I hope this question isn't a duplicate.

 

[mcarroll]

Just found this thread on a similar issue with a 6065.

Let me know if I need to inspect for same/similar issues (no more time until later or I'd just look now).

Thanks!
-Matt

 

[rvitko]

The 6065 and 6045 are technically different so the causes would not be the same. What you describe could be caused by a few things on the 6045.

Low voltage- if the power dipped because lights were turning on at the same time or a major household appliance was running, the pump will run backwards. The operating limit is 102V-132V.

Foreign object in the pump- If fine sand jammed the drive unit to the shaft or some object entered the pump and caught between the shaft and drive unit it would spin backwards. I have seen threads of algae and sand be the most common culprits. Raise the pumps higher up to avoid this problem after cleaning them out.

Broken prop ends, if the prop blade is broken, this could also cause this problem.

 

[mcarroll]

For what it's worth, there's been no further instance of the problem. Both pumps are operating normally on their timers again.

Jammed/broken?
I'll remove the pump from the aquarium to see what it looks like on the inside, but I'm doubtful sand or anything else got in it. It hadn't moved a single grain of sand up to the morning I found it running backward (it was 3+ inches over the sandbed, and it's not sugar-fine sand), and it's too new to have anything (even dirt) on it. It sounds doubtful that the prop issue is it either.

Low Voltage?
Lighting on/off happens 1.5 hours away from the time the pumps change on/off state. I'm more suspicious of a utility company voltage drop honestly - power quality around here is inconsistent as all get-out. For example my APC LR1250 shows a voltage dip almost every morning around 6:30am.

Running utlity power through voltage regulators and/or UPS sytems has been how I've dealt with that for my computers' and servers' sakes. (Same for my fridge after just replacing its main board. Grr.) Should I be doing this at least for the propeller pumps on my aquarium as well?

I've been thinking of doing something like that for the whole aquarium, but goaled more toward a battery backup in case of power outage (which ain't cheap). It wouldn't be too expensive to set up something just to give the 6045's good power. Do you know if they would be happy with (cheaper) modified sine wave power, or if I would need to go whole-hog for a pure sine wave system?

Thoughts?
After all is considered, it may also be time for me to start thinking about putting the 6045's on "ebay's list" to use the proceeds for a 6055. From my limited understanding, battery backup/solar should be simpler (maybe even cheaper) to implement with (e.g.) a 6055 than any of the AC power pumps anyway.


Thank you for the feedback! Will be back in touch regarding the condition of the pump's interior.

-Matt

 

[mcarroll]

Running backward again this morning. Corrected again simply by powering off/on.

Time to bring it out for inspection. I'll also be remounting it elsewhere in the tank so I can fix up the sandbed where it is currently. I just have to find another good place where I can get the flow to where I need it.

-Matt

[...more to come]

 

[mcarroll]

Roger:

Well, you were closer in guess than I was, but even though my utility power does stink , as usual the simplest explanation is usually the correct one...

A small Cerith snail had taken up residence in the pump during one of the OFF cycles. If he were 1/16" larger around he wouldn't have fit through the front grate. I doubt there's a way to guard against something like that happening again with that configuration of on/off cycles and no "fish saver" mode.

It's been a rough couple of days for that snail, eh?!

FWIW, I did give the pump a cleaning and inspection and as expected it's still like-new all around.

So as mentioned, significant changes were required, and (for the reef's sake) I hate changes. ;-)

At the end of the day I have both 6045's in the upper front part of the left-side glass, pumping slightly off axis (one slightly down and over, the other slightly up and over), but on average straight across to the right-side glass, and importantly with both pumps powered on 24 x 7.

It's also probably a better flow pattern in general, but a few corals had to be moved and may not be too happy for a while. Ah well....gotta do what ya gotta do. At the same time there are a couple other colonies that I expect to perk up as a result of improved flow.

I'm satisfied with the results for now, but does anyone else get the feeling that needing/running two 6045's side-by-side might be an indication that another soltion would be better? I do like the ~2200 gph effect I'm getting.

Suggestions?


Thanks in advance!
-Matt

P.S. I'm not sure who could make the change, but I'd like the message icon to be switched from a frownie to a thumbs up, if that's possible.

 

[rvitko]

The 6055's would prevent a lot of these issues, I doubt fish care would have worked against the small snail though. But it can't spin backwards because it uses an electronic directional control and just wouldn't run if something was jamming it. It would also solve the voltage issue as the power supply automatically compensates for any voltage between 100 and 240V. It probably is cheaper than the battery backup system. For brief increments when the voltage is low you would be fine with a non true sine wave type UPS. You might also just look into a line conditioner that would cushion the voltage with capacitors for dips and resistors for peaks.