Greetings everyone,
Well, where do I start? I guess itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s probably best if I start off by reiterating something that I have tried from time to time to pass on to old and new hobbyists alike. A little something that more times than not has served me well in nearly two decades of this hobby. However, with that said and much to my own embarrassment, one needs to actually take their own medicine for it to truly be effective because like nearly all humans of the species I am susceptible to periods of complacency that has proven that it will indeed come back around and bite me in the butt.
So friends and fellow hobbyists listen to me when I say:
ââ"šÂ¬Ã…"œMr. Murphy does not phone ahead to schedule an appointment for a visit.ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚Â
My ordeal all started with my grandmother (whom raised me and was living with me) passing away August 10th after 2 very long and grueling weeks in the intensive care unit of our local hospital. She had been ill or some time and we all knew the end was near, but nonetheless; it was a very emotionally and physically draining period ending with a phone call in the middle of the night and a drive to the hospital for one final good bye. However, I do get to count my blessings that I was able to be there with her those last few hours and that she passed as peacefully and comfortably as possible.
Fast forward a week to this past Tuesday, the very night my mother, my girlfriend and myself were sharing a dinner in my grandmotherââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s honor, I come home to find a very ugly, and untimely noise coming from the EcoWheel air pump and a pair of tanks that had little if no flow. Luckily for those around me I was just too emotionally drained to do much more than shift into damage control and start trying to correct the problem.
I think I had previously mentioned that I was planning some maintenance on the tanks over my August vacation, but that had been put on permanent hold given my current family situation. Enter Mr. Murphy who with one little wave of his hand managed to turn everything on itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s ear and put me right back into the aquarium game whether I was prepared for it or not.
So, after disassembling the pump I discovered that one diaphragm was completely ruptured and I was running solely off the other diaphragm. This was just enough to inject a bit of air and move a small amount of water, but not nearly enough to create any real flow, let alone turn the wheel.
To make matters worse, and for reasons not readily apparent, after reassembling the pump I was further dismayed to find that I now had absolutely no air coming out of the pump whatsoever. So, too tired to tear it down again, I shifted gears and grabbed some powerheads. A half hour or so later I had restored water movement, and everything looked to be holding itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s own. At this point there was little more that I could do except head to bed and try to get some sleep. (OK. Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢ll confess to giving the wheel a couple of spins in an attempt to keep the algae wet when I awoke for a middle of the night bathroom break.)
The following morning (Wednesday) I phoned Aquatic Engineers and was promptly greeted by a pleasant female voice on a recorded message prompting me to enter my partyââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s extension or leave a generic message and someone would get back to me as soon as possible. I did as instructed along with a follow-up email explaining my predicament. I crossed my fingers and prayed this would be the one time Chris would be in the office and checking his messages.
I then phoned Inland Aquatics looking for Morgan Lidster who had mentioned some time previous that he had a couple pumps he had picked up from a university that had torn down their EcoWheel tanks after a relatively short period. Morgan said he would have to look around and get back to me but if he had one he would part with it for around $400.00. Not exactly a home run by any stretch of the imagination, but at least I was speaking to a live person who was attempting to help a fellow reefer out.
At this point, knowing that I had some pending maintenance on the EcoWheel I decided to make the best of things and pass the time draining, disassembling and removing the filter box. I then placed the wheel itself in a Rubbermaid trashcan filled with water from the tank. Around 4pm Wednesday evening Morgan called back to advise he could not locate any spare pumps. However, he did mention that he had rebuild kits on order and they should be there in a week or two.
First thing Thursday Morning I got on the Internet and checked out Aquatic Eco-Systems looking for any kind of pump that might work. I hit pay dirt as they carry the Sweetwater line of linear diaphragm pumps that appear to be mechanically similar to the one supplied by Aquatic Engineers.
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/21789/cid/3844
After looking at the output numbers I selected model
# SL170 and had it FedExââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢d next day air. Cost was $626.00 with an additional $90.00-something for overnight delivery. I crossed my fingers and went back to working on the tank. The major project of the hour consisted of cutting Ã"šÃ‚¾Ã¢â"šÂ¬Ã‚ off the bottom of the filter riser box to try and compensate for my reef tank settling somewhat lower than the rest of the system. An hour or so later mission accomplished and the filter box was set back in place sans the wheel which was still soaking in the trashcan. Later that evening I also performed a 10% H20 change and surprisingly everything still looked OK
Friday around noon there was a knock on my door and much to my surprise I was greeted by a FedEx driver asking me to sign for a delivery. Amazingly, a mere 24.5 hours after I hung up with Aquatic Eco-Systems I had the new pump in hand. Unfortunately, I was nowhere near ready to reassemble the filter.
Itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s at this point that I need to mention that one of the nagging problems I had been dealing with recently was a systematic leaking of numerous bulkheads. Definitely not something I was planning to let go. So, while everything was apart I pretty much began implementing plan ââ"šÂ¬Ã…"œBââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ which was the sealing of all Influent and Effluent boxes with 2-part liquid epoxy. (I had a bunch of the stuff left over from the pier piling fabrication) I literally mixed and then poured liquid epoxy resin into the bottom of all the boxes until the stuff was even with the top of the bulkheads. It was a relatively simple procedure that appears to have solved my problem quite nicely. Unfortunately, the draining, scraping/scrubbing and drying of the boxes prior to was anything but a simple procedure and accounted for about 90% of the necessary time and labor. (Something like 2 hours total per box)
As the last of the epoxy was hardening I began reassembling the EcoWheel, re-connecting the plumbing, and re-filling everything with new water. Somewhere around 9pm Friday evening I flicked the switch and literally held my breath as I listened to the pump come to life. Miraculously, the system fired up and began moving water. Even more amazing, the wheel not only began rotating, but also started moving at double the speed that it did before the crash. (2 rpm vs. 1 rpm)
However, even though everything is once again running smoothly, and as of this writing everything appears to have made it safely through the crisis, I need to mention a few crucial points of interest; the least of which being that I lost several established SPS colonies just prior to the pump failure. And up to this point I had no idea what the cause of my problem was. All I knew was that every two or three weeks another colony would begin a slow bleaching that would last anywhere from a few days to several weeks. The first to go were the extremely small or tightly branched Acroââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s followed by my plating montiporas. Surprisingly, the more robust or open branched Acroââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s, along with my Hydnophora, Pavonas, and cherished purple-tipped Acroââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s were all unaffected. Looking back now, Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m starting to think that given the current pump failure I was probably experiencing a reduction in pump performance prior to the failure, but didnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t notice it because it was occurring over an extended period of time.
So, as much as it pains me to say this, I just ordered a pair or Tunze Turbelle 6000ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s, the matching electronic controller, the photocell module, and a pair of mounting magnets. Hopefully, if all goes well they will be installed sometime next week. Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m doing this not because I have lost hope in the merits of the EcoWheel, itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s just that I think it comes up a bit short on water movement if you have a somewhat larger tank and intend to stock heavy on the SPS end of the animal spectrum. Also, given that this system was originally designed in the mid 90ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s the thinking at that time towards water movement was somewhat different than it is today. I still have no doubt that if you intend to keep softies or LPS it will serve you well for many years and meet your needs day in and day out. Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m just choosing to hedge my bet with some accessory water movement given the likely hood of another pump failure.
So whatââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s the morale to the story sports fans?
1. Have a back up plan and be prepared for the absolute worst-case scenario. This means stocking a spare pump or pump rebuild kit, spare light bulbs, multiple gallons of makeup water, spare powerheads, etc.
2. Donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t allow yourself to become complacent in your hobby.
3. My experience (and that of several others) has shown that youââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢re not going to be able to count on Aquatic Engineers to get back to you in what I would consider a timely manner, so be prepared to go it on your own. (Note: Chris did call me back and leave a message Friday morning apologizing for the delay in getting back to me and letting me know if I hadnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t already found an alternative solution to give him a call. I canââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t remember what his reason was for the delay because at that point it no longer mattered to me. I just canââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t help but wonder if he can now be reached at extension #4 on their handy dandy automated phone system who is at extensions #1-#3 and why couldnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t they call me back?)
4. With regard to item #3 above donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t sweat it because with the exception of the pump, light bulb and or lighting unit itself there is very little you would need A.E.ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s help with. The filter assembly is built like a tank and in my experience there is little or nothing that would need to be replaced. (I did notice I had a bit of scoring on the bearing shafts, which I am guessing, came from my use of sugar sized sand, but I was able to polish them out with some abrasive pads and a Dremel motor tool. Otherwise everything is still in tip-top shape.
5. The life span of the EcoWheel pump appears to be in the neighborhood of 2 years, give or take.
6. There may be a question of decreased performance and subsequently, decreased water flow, as the pump nears the end of itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s lifespan.
7. The Sweetwater II #SL170 appears to be a suitable replacement pump. Although, about 25% larger, it seems to put out about the same amount of performance at a decibel level equivalent to itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s predecessor and carries a rating of approximately 3 years of service. Rebuild kits are also available.
8. Inland Aquatics should have EcoWheel air pump rebuild kits available very shortly.
9. You may need to investigate the use of accessory powerheads depending on the type of animals you wish to keep.
10. Keep at least one spare standard size plastic trash can on hand at all times because the algae wheel will fit nicely in one allowing you to keep everything wet for however long you may have the system apart.
11. Leaky bulkheads are not the end of the world if you can find some 2-part resin and are willing to spend an afternoon doing a bit of work.
12. Aquatic Eco-Systems are very cool people to do business with.
13. And lastly, spend as much time with your loved ones while you can.
Happy reefing
.ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦Brett
