shaggss
Active member
And yeah, in the case of SE bulbs, the glass is just a splash guard.
Cool. Learn something everyday. I thought all MH required the glass cover.
Thanks Dennis :beer:
*d2mini's new 200g Reeftastic Build*
- Thread starter d2mini
- Start date
Cool. Learn something everyday. I thought all MH required the glass cover.
Thanks Dennis :beer:
dcmartinpc
Member
DE need glass covers as a UV shield. SE bulbs have the UV shield built in.
Don
Don
d2mini
Premium Member
So apparently it's ok to run your tank with no return pump for several days. :angryfire:
Saturday morning (Happy Valentines Day to me) I decided to install my new Hammerhead impeller in my Reeflo Barracuda Gold return pump. Easy, right? Apparently not so much. The impeller was seized. Grabbed the can of PB Blaster Anti Seize spray which I've had for minimum 10 years and it's half full but ain't spraying. Switched to WD-40. Tons of it. Nothing is working. Next step in the Reeflo instructions in this case is to break off the old impeller so you can get a vice-grip on it. Broke off enough so it was down to just the main hub with the bolt inside and nothing still. At this point I have no pump. So now I break out the dremel tool and shave off the rest of the plastic to expose the main bolt underneath and I can now get a socket wrench on it. And on the other end, i removed the fan blades and now have a pipe wrench on that end of the main shaft. Tons of torque and NOTHING! This sucker is apparently welded on after 2.5 years of use. Now I switch to a big pipe wrench on the bolt, too. Two pipe wrenches, lots of muscle. Tried heating it a couple times. Tried banging the wrench with a rubber mallet. More WD-40. Anything to break it free. I'm getting no where. Then with more swearing and straining, I finally sense some movement with the pipe wrench. Or did it just slip? Tried it again and definitely movement. It's not moving easy, but it's moving. Turn, turn, turn... uh-oh. What the.... is it bent? It looks bent! Turn... turn.... SNAP!!! The bolt wasn't moving at all. Instead, the shaft sheared right off at the bolt. :headwalls:
Well shoot. Now it's Saturday morning and I have no return pump. Luckily my display has the Gyre and Tunze 6105 so plenty of flow there. Was able to add a small pump in the Mangrove tank. The Frag tank is already running and MP40, but no heater, just the MH and T5 lights. The fuge I'm not real worried about. Started making calls but had to spend the day with the wife and then other family later on. Nothing I could do till Sunday.
Sunday I head straight to my LFS who happened to have a spare Hammerhead laying around. Drove the 35 miles there and 35 miles back. Being basically the same pump it hooks right up to my plumbing. Tighten the unions, open the valves, and water starts gushing out the seal around that main shaft! This pump is worthless. GAH!
Well, time to overnight a new pump. Luckily The Drs had the Hammerhead Gold in stock and overnight shipping was *only* $48, at least half of other places. If the pump from my LFS would have worked, I could have went with standard shipping. Oh well. Ordered. Would ship monday, arrive Tuesday.
Meanwhile I was able to pass my heater and temp probe through the wall and into the display tank. At least that would be stable. And then I had another small heater from my QT that I put in the mangrove tank. Been running like this ever since. I've been sumpless and skimmerless. And I'm sure my Alk has been dropping steadily without the CaRx.
Woke up this morning and UPS tracking showed weather delays. 6am still in Kentucky. GAH! :headwallblue:
But luckily by 9am it somehow made it to Houston and is out for delivery.
So here we are. Another stressful tank weekend.
Pump should be back on tonite and hopefully that's that.
Meanwhile I'll send the old one back to Reeflo, hoping it can be repaired for not too much more damage to my wallet. A $35 upgrade has now cost me over $600.
Not mention more points lost with the Mrs with whom I'm already on thin ice.
And before you say it, yes I know... you should always have backup equipment. But when we are dealing with a pump of this magnitude, something else always seems to come first. And a smaller/different pump would require a change in plumbing. A dupe pump is the easiest to swap out, which I will now have.
So there you go... more drama in the d2mini tank. :wavehand:
Saturday morning (Happy Valentines Day to me) I decided to install my new Hammerhead impeller in my Reeflo Barracuda Gold return pump. Easy, right? Apparently not so much. The impeller was seized. Grabbed the can of PB Blaster Anti Seize spray which I've had for minimum 10 years and it's half full but ain't spraying. Switched to WD-40. Tons of it. Nothing is working. Next step in the Reeflo instructions in this case is to break off the old impeller so you can get a vice-grip on it. Broke off enough so it was down to just the main hub with the bolt inside and nothing still. At this point I have no pump. So now I break out the dremel tool and shave off the rest of the plastic to expose the main bolt underneath and I can now get a socket wrench on it. And on the other end, i removed the fan blades and now have a pipe wrench on that end of the main shaft. Tons of torque and NOTHING! This sucker is apparently welded on after 2.5 years of use. Now I switch to a big pipe wrench on the bolt, too. Two pipe wrenches, lots of muscle. Tried heating it a couple times. Tried banging the wrench with a rubber mallet. More WD-40. Anything to break it free. I'm getting no where. Then with more swearing and straining, I finally sense some movement with the pipe wrench. Or did it just slip? Tried it again and definitely movement. It's not moving easy, but it's moving. Turn, turn, turn... uh-oh. What the.... is it bent? It looks bent! Turn... turn.... SNAP!!! The bolt wasn't moving at all. Instead, the shaft sheared right off at the bolt. :headwalls:
Well shoot. Now it's Saturday morning and I have no return pump. Luckily my display has the Gyre and Tunze 6105 so plenty of flow there. Was able to add a small pump in the Mangrove tank. The Frag tank is already running and MP40, but no heater, just the MH and T5 lights. The fuge I'm not real worried about. Started making calls but had to spend the day with the wife and then other family later on. Nothing I could do till Sunday.
Sunday I head straight to my LFS who happened to have a spare Hammerhead laying around. Drove the 35 miles there and 35 miles back. Being basically the same pump it hooks right up to my plumbing. Tighten the unions, open the valves, and water starts gushing out the seal around that main shaft! This pump is worthless. GAH!
Well, time to overnight a new pump. Luckily The Drs had the Hammerhead Gold in stock and overnight shipping was *only* $48, at least half of other places. If the pump from my LFS would have worked, I could have went with standard shipping. Oh well. Ordered. Would ship monday, arrive Tuesday.
Meanwhile I was able to pass my heater and temp probe through the wall and into the display tank. At least that would be stable. And then I had another small heater from my QT that I put in the mangrove tank. Been running like this ever since. I've been sumpless and skimmerless. And I'm sure my Alk has been dropping steadily without the CaRx.
Woke up this morning and UPS tracking showed weather delays. 6am still in Kentucky. GAH! :headwallblue:
But luckily by 9am it somehow made it to Houston and is out for delivery.
So here we are. Another stressful tank weekend.
Pump should be back on tonite and hopefully that's that.
Meanwhile I'll send the old one back to Reeflo, hoping it can be repaired for not too much more damage to my wallet. A $35 upgrade has now cost me over $600.
Not mention more points lost with the Mrs with whom I'm already on thin ice.
And before you say it, yes I know... you should always have backup equipment. But when we are dealing with a pump of this magnitude, something else always seems to come first. And a smaller/different pump would require a change in plumbing. A dupe pump is the easiest to swap out, which I will now have.
So there you go... more drama in the d2mini tank. :wavehand:
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
Wow...I need to get a spare reeflo for one of the tanks I take care of. I'm worried that it will throw a seal at some point, at which it would just be easier to swap it out.
Indiana Reefin
Garrett
Wow dude tough luck.
Grab a torch and heat that sucker out of there
Grab a torch and heat that sucker out of there
msderganc
New member
The beast has arrived.
Rated at 6,000 gph at 0 head, and over 5,000 gph at 6'.
Yo-Yo for scale.
Wow, so awesome. Let me know how loud it is.
Have you considered running two return pumps? For my next tank I will definitely be doing that.
reeftanknewbie
New member
wow sorry to hear about your stressful weekend. Can't believe that the spare from your LFS turned out to be a bust and waste of time and energy. thanks for sharing this however as I am planning on getting a spare pump for my tank as a back up.
PS. That's one serious looking pump you got as a replacement. can't wait to hear what kind of flow you get from it.
PS. That's one serious looking pump you got as a replacement. can't wait to hear what kind of flow you get from it.
d2mini
Premium Member
Probably!
Thanks, glad it could help.
I thought about two when i first started this build a few years ago but ended up with one out of simplicity.
lol, sorry.
Ya, i liked my Barracuda Gold, just wanted to upgrade to the Hammerhead... but not the hard way!
Thanks.
And ya, these Reeflo's are some good pumps. After head height and all the other plumbing restrictions my Barracuda was giving me somewhere around 1500 gph. This should have the ability to tack on quite a bit more!
AND..... we're back in business!
The new pump hooked right up and its running like a champ.
The Barracuda was running wide open but I've got this one valved back a bit until I can play with the flow, and I'm still getting more than before. Had to open up my drains a little.
maroun.c
New member
I learned it the hard way as well !!! a backup pump with same fittings is always a good thing.
In my case I live across the globe and ordering ain't nearly as fast as in your case even when I ordered from Reeflo directly. in my case my Manta Ray lost its bearings at the 7 months mark. Not a big deal took it for a local repair as I wasn't going to order online. Easy 1 days fix to have "high quality heavy Duty" beaings installed. Well they only lasted for a week and then the pump came to a complete stop again. Took it for a second replacement and it turned out that it broke some parts in it as well as the bearings were messed up. I also had noticed that the seals were leaking a tiny bit after the fix. I have 2 old Iwaki pumps that I had to install and run through a hose up to the tank as I didn't want to messup my plumbing. waited a couple of weeks for replacement parts: Seal kit and bearings, and during that time my tank had reduced flow as the Iwakis were not enough. To make it worse the whole country or region here does not have a pressure rated aquarium pump:headwallblue:
Couple of days before getting the parts an LFS owner remembered that he had an old Hayward (Pool pump laying around) which works for tanks :headwalls:
Got that and plumbed it to fit on my old plumbing so after my pump was fixed I have two pumps that go in or out only needing to disconnect/connect a couple of unions!!!
Still my next project is to install a backup pump to the system so in case my pump fails while I'm away all that the wife has to do is to just turn the backup on.
Definitely not fun.
In my case I live across the globe and ordering ain't nearly as fast as in your case even when I ordered from Reeflo directly. in my case my Manta Ray lost its bearings at the 7 months mark. Not a big deal took it for a local repair as I wasn't going to order online. Easy 1 days fix to have "high quality heavy Duty" beaings installed. Well they only lasted for a week and then the pump came to a complete stop again. Took it for a second replacement and it turned out that it broke some parts in it as well as the bearings were messed up. I also had noticed that the seals were leaking a tiny bit after the fix. I have 2 old Iwaki pumps that I had to install and run through a hose up to the tank as I didn't want to messup my plumbing. waited a couple of weeks for replacement parts: Seal kit and bearings, and during that time my tank had reduced flow as the Iwakis were not enough. To make it worse the whole country or region here does not have a pressure rated aquarium pump:headwallblue:
Couple of days before getting the parts an LFS owner remembered that he had an old Hayward (Pool pump laying around) which works for tanks :headwalls:
Got that and plumbed it to fit on my old plumbing so after my pump was fixed I have two pumps that go in or out only needing to disconnect/connect a couple of unions!!!
Still my next project is to install a backup pump to the system so in case my pump fails while I'm away all that the wife has to do is to just turn the backup on.
Definitely not fun.
ClownsRCoo
New member
The beast has arrived.
Rated at 6,000 gph at 0 head, and over 5,000 gph at 6'.
Yo-Yo for scale.
I can't believe I'll be the first to say what everyone is thinking but that's a pretty sweet yo-yo! I'd like some feedback on that bad boy when you get a chance
d2mini
Premium Member
Anim8me2
Member
Solid wood, baby!
That's what she... never mind.
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