UPS stabilizes skimmer

[Humu Humu]

I've been having a terrible time getting my SRO 3000 Reef Octopus (3 years old) skimmer to behave lately. Foaming up like a monster one minute, and dropping the foam head down the next. The pump was acting up and making noise like I couldn't believe. For the life of me, I couldn't figure it out. Took it apart, cleaned it, put it back, no change.

Then I put the skimmer on a UPS (Uninteruptable Power Supply). The pump noise decreased substantially (I can still hear the hum, but much quieter) and the foam head is constant and consistant.

My voltage supply is pretty constant, at 121 V from the wall, but I wonder, would the UPS make such a difference? It's like I have a completely different skimmer. It's night and day different.

Just thought I'd share

 

[scuzy]

Is your sro using a bubble blaster 3000? Mine is making a weird sound as well then i power it off and back on the noise disappears. I cant figure it out.

 

[Humu Humu]

Scuzy,

Yes, I have the bubble blaster 3000. I had to replace the impeller this past summer, as the seals on the old one self destructed. It was still under warranty, and they covered it just fine. I'm just stumped on why it runs so much better when using a UPS. My house voltage barely fluctuates. Maybe they are really sensitive to very subtle variations in voltage and current.

 

[dread240]

rms voltage really has nothing to do with the waveform at all... it's just a percentage of the overall wave.

A good UPS gives you a super clean beautiful sine wave, at the expanse of wrecking the incoming power with it's large capacitive load.

unfortunately without a very expensive power quality meter, you can't see the different with just a regular multimeter