How often do you/should you clean your Tunze's?

[cwegescheide]

I just sent one of my Tunze's in to Roger to get fixed so I got another one as a "spair" and put it in my tank less than a month ago and my alarm went off today (clogged).. I opened it up and was shocked to see it was clogged with Calcium deposits!!! Its only been a month

My Ca is about 430 - 450 and alk runs 3.5 - 4.0 meq/L. I do top off with Kalkwasser 24/7 along with my Ca reactor. I have a bunch of sps.

My question is how often should you or DO YOU clean your pumps to ensure no damage occurs to your Tunze's? I am thinking now I am going to clean them every couple weeks just to make sure I have no problems. The reason being is I am away from home a lot during the week and if the alarm goes off I cannot respond to it for possibly a few days.

OH Yeah!!! While I was cleaning the pumps a little while ago I wasn't paying attention and had a magnet in each hand. You guessed it!!! CLAP!!!!! Luckily I got my pinky stuck between the thin plastic portion between the magnets but it still was a little painfull. BE CAREFULL with those things!!!

Thanks,
Chris

 

[rvitko]

In general no more than every 3 months should be necessary. A few things I have observed. First off, the reefs only have about 380ppm Ca, while some insist that more is better, I am not convinced of this, I think the critical thing is stability and I target 400ppm. Your Alkalinity sounds correct but I am most familiar with the dKH scale, my target is 10-12, again, the reefs are 8 but KH is critical to pH stability which is more complicated in a small box of water so I go higher than natural. I suspect that your high values, combined with the pH probably going high on occasion is making this problem worse, you might review your additions, if you have a pH meter it will help because you can see if you get an occasional spike. With my methods, I can go 6 months between cleaning easy. My pH is stable at 8.02 in the morning to 8.15 in the evening. I use kallk and a calcium reactor. FWIW, I have never read any books which find a pH in the reefs in nature much higher than 8.2 and never reaching 8.3, most indicate that they run between 8.1 and 8.2, I suspect 8.3 is based on the natural pH of a carbonate solution and not the real ocean. The only other thing i have to add is that the pump service life is greater with no off cycles, it is important to clean thoroughly as calcium crystals will just grow more calcium crystals and they impede the flow through the pump further increasing the warmth and vacuum which causes it to precipitate in the first place.

 

[Mimbler1]

It may be my imagination, but in my experience new tunzes (or old ones with new impellers/bushings) seem to need to be cleaned a little more frequently until they break in in a couple of months or so. Then it is very predictable depending on which tank I have them in (like Roger says, it depends on ca/alk/ph).
Mike

 

[JVHam]

I clean my intake screens and propeller every week when I do a water change. I have a black background so it blends in more when it is clean. I soak in vinegar for 6 hours and scrub it down every 3 months.

 

[cwegescheide]

Thanks everybody. Yeah my PH might be a little on the high side but not much. 8.2 in the evening, sometimes a little bit higher.

I might try and run a little lower Ca and see what happens. I'm just afraid another one of my Tunze's will crap out when I'm not around and I will have to beg Roger to fix another one!!! :lol:

I guess its not that big of an ordeal to clean them every couple weeks really. I just soak them in CLR for about 15 minutes. Come out clean as a whistle.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[rvitko]

I would just use vinegar, a stronger acid can cause the plastic to swell, it happens on a microscopic scale but it can be enough to make a problem in the long term.