A pair of EcoWheel tanks in the making

[Putawaywet]

Matt,

I know you have already gone thru this, but for the sake of others... the wheel should be mounted inside it's own PVC frame. Dissassembly is pretty straight forward: You remove the wheel and frame assembly from the filter housing as one unit. You should then be able to see 8 nylon screws going into the side plates, 4 on each side - they thread in thru the square side plates and then into the connecting rods. After you remove the screws you will probably need to seperate the side plates from the rods with a hammer as the rods are counter sunk about 1/8" into the side plates. (Built like a tank the thing is!) After you have the side plates off you can then access the bearing bosses - one on each side. That should be all there is: 2 side plates, 4 rods, 2 bearings, 4 screws and the wheel.

As for the bioballs they do tumble around pretty good. As the wheel comes over the top you can here them shifting around inside.

I suspect you are now good to go as 2rpm is is about the max you want.

Sit back and enjoy a beer as you are now a certified EcoWheel technician !

Happy reefing

Brett

 

[matt & pam]

I thought I was crazy, not being able to see the nylon screws. Then I checked the aquatic engineers web site. My eco-wheel must be a different version than yours. It does not have a PVC frame holding onto the axle of the wheel. My wheel has a center axle that fits into grooves mounted directly onto the acrylic chamber. The net result is the same, I bearings are clean again.

 

[Putawaywet]

Very interesting.

Wonder if there is any reason behind the differences or if it's just a matter of they figured out they really didn't need the frame anymore?

Brett

 

[piercho]

IME/IMO the MEDO linear piston pump Cavean recommends is an excellent one for air applications of this type. I have AC-series MEDO pumps which are noisier and a little less efficient than the LA-series Cavean linked, but the AC are also very good pumps and sometimes available at discounted prices (check eBay). If the pump was going in the same room as the tank I do think that I'd choose the LA due to the lower noise level.

The linear piston rides a cushion of air in the compression cylinder and this is what makes mechanical wear on linear piston pumps so low. Just like a car piston, even small solid particles that makes it into the cylinder will wear the piston. The AC-series have a doughnut filter on the input that is integral to the pump to catch this particulate, but the net surface area of the filter is fairly low so it won't last that long. I have found it useful to prefilter the air input with a 3M Filtrete Ultra Allergen furnace filter. This makes the integral Medo filter redundant, and allowed me to run the pumps for years with no required maintenance. As an added bonus, I have used KW diffusors (box-construction basswood diffusors for large air-powered skimmers) for over 12 months which is about 3 times longer than most people report. I attribute this to the reduction in fine particulate clogging the basswood pores.