Yet another reason to clean your pumps

[Webmanny]

Hi guys,

Just wanted to share with everyone my experience. I noticed on my Apex that my power consumption looked higher (around 3.7 ah) than when I first started (around 1.6 ah). Therefore, I decided to enable the log on amps to see what was happening. I also started turning components off one at a time to see which one was the culprit.

I discovered that the biggest power consumption was the return pump, which is odd. I imagined the LEDs would pull more than the pump, but I was wrong.

Yesterday, I decided to change the return pump for my backup, which is identical and as you can see from the graph below, power consumption went down to the original 1.6 ah range.

Remember to clean your pumps regularly. It is costing you more that you think.

 

[BobbyV]

Nicely done!

 

[nitrodude]

Wow. What pump are you running and how dirty was it?!

 

[Webmanny]

Oh that is not just the pump. That includes lights, heater, skimmer and Wavemaker. The pump I am running is the Jebao DCS-2000. I always have one backup, just in case and to make cleaning them easier and not in a rush.

To be honest, it wasn't that dirty. It had a film of slime, like everything else in the tank, but it would come off with just water. However, that was enough to make a significant difference.

 

[d0ughb0y]

I would not trust the amp reading on apex, particularly for DC load.
I have all DC load (return pump, powerhead and led light) and amp is reading 0. The only time it comes up is when the heater (my only AC load) turns on.

use killawatt or get a smartplug that monitors power usage.
but just the same, cleaning pump is good advise.