Maxspect Gyre 200 Series -- First Impressions

[reef tank 2.0]

I as well bought (2) of the GYRE 250's
I will be plugging them in this weekend. These are hopefully going to replace my Hydor 1500's that are current;y in the tank.

Is there any reason to mount these Gyre's at different elevations in the tank to give it better coverage? Or can they both be mounted at the surface, at the same height, with no worries?

 

[PhreeBYrd]

I as well bought (2) of the GYRE 250's...

...Is there any reason to mount these Gyre's at different elevations in the tank to give it better coverage? Or can they both be mounted at the surface, at the same height, with no worries?

Unless you want a more laminar, directional, circular flow, I think you'll see better and more random mixing of the water if the Gyre's are directed towards each other (mounted at the same height). But actually I'm greatly oversimplifying, because the Gyres are flexible enough that through setup and programming, you can pretty much achieve any kind of flow pattern you want regardless of the pumps' positioning in the tank.

My preference, though, would be to set the two Gyres up aimed towards each other so the flow from each pump meets somewhere near the middle, then let the pumps randomize the results through pulsing, etc. I think that's the most direct route.

 

[mjc0760]

Update on crashed controller

Update on crashed controller

After a few days of running my XF230 and XF130 with the new controller in OGC mode, I woke up yesterday to find a dead controller! No blinking lights, no nothing! I tried all kinds of troubleshooting steps, but nothing worked. The only light was the green one on the power supply and it would flash whenever I connected it to the controller... Solid green when I disconnected it from the controller. CoralVue tech support suggested that the power supply may be bad. We ended up deciding to try my old power supply with the new controller - - same problem / same flashing green light. The good news is they are shipping me a replacement controller and I still have my old Ice Cap Apex interface controller, so I have it running one pump until the new controller arrives. Is anything ever easy in the hobby??? :headwally:

Got the new controller (and after reliving the frustration due to the lame-oh Owners Manual) I am back up and running as of yesterday afternoon. CoralVue customer service came through with pretty quick replacement for me! Loving the flow I get in OGC mode with the two pumps mounted at the top of the (48" / 90 gal) tank on opposite sides.

 

[PhreeBYrd]

Time for an update

Time for an update

Just a little update. I didn't realize it had been so long!

As I posted previously in the thread, Coralvue sent me a replacement motor block at no charge. The part number was GP-DRVR-150. That's the good news. The less good news is that the replacement motor is identical to the original, and like the original, cannot be disassembled.

In my back-and-forth with Carlos at Coralvue, he seemed completely unaware of this issue, and pretty much disinterested, although he was very quick to have the replacement sent to me. He did agree, based upon the photos I sent him of the original motor, that it could not be disassembled like the earlier motors, and per all of the Coralvue videos and instructions.

I don't think this is a complete deal breaker, but it does bug me. I'm doing my second cleaning on the Gyre now. I'm probably a month overdue for this, since the flow has fallen off considerably... but that means in my tank, a cleaning is due about every 4-5 months. For this cleaning, I disassembled everything, soaked it all in vinegar & water, and let the motor run in the solution in hopes that this would clean the motor internals. I'm about to reassemble and put it back into the tank, so I'll see how well this worked shortly...

 

[PhreeBYrd]

Next Update

Next Update

So, since I had an extra new motor on hand, I decided to try once more to disassemble the original motor block, and either get it apart or destroy it in trying.

The Coralvue instructions say that the left end of the motor is the side that can be removed. Hold the motor so you can read the word 'Maxspect' (the logo will be to the left of the name). Then the end to the left is supposed to be removable. Out came the needle nose pliers, and after about 5 minutes of pulling like hell on each one of the little plastic ribs, the retainer piece finally came out. This was no small feat, and by the time I got it apart, the ribs were all chewed up from the pliers. So yeah, it can be taken apart, but I all but destroyed the soft plastic retainer, and I doubt that I'll be able to remove it again without making it completely unusable. I guess I'll order a replacement retainer for next time.

The interior of the motor was pretty clean, as were the magnet and ceramic shafts (all one piece). I run a calcium level of 450-500 ppm so I expected some liming on the shafts, but there really wasn't any after soaking the whole assembled motor overnight in vinegar and water. I removed the plastic shaft bushings for the heck of it, but there was nothing there to clean.

Reassembly was just a matter of inserting the magnet/shaft back into the motor and then pushing the plastic retainer back into place, which required a fair amount of force to get it to seat fully.

Photos to follow...

 

[PhreeBYrd]

Finally disassembled


Reassembled. You can see how chewed up the retainer is now. I don't expect it to survive another disassembly. But at least I know it is possible.

This motor assembly is definitely not like the motors I saw on Coralvue's web site. It appears though, that this is the current design. It definitely is a bit of a chore to disassemble, but obviously it's possible, at least for now.