......and I came home to a problem...

DD

"Rambo"
Hey fellow reefers,

I was away from home since this morning and just got back a little while ago.

Apparently the circuit breaker tripped around 3pm and while one of my tanks is perfectly fine, I came home to find that the smaller of my two tanks water level is fairly low. Immediately I know something is wrong.

I open the stand to take a look at my sump and hear the return pump sounding pretty awful. I turn the pump off and then proceed to remove it, take it apart, clean it, and then put it back together.

With my fingers crossed, I prayed that it would start. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand nothing. The pump is pretty much shot.

I just ordered a replacement from Amazon to be delivered tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's what I'm thinking: I drain the sump, remove and clean it and all of the equipment, make some water, and then once the new pump arrives tomorrow, I'll get everything back in, fill it up with water, and get it going again.

Currently I have my vortech working fine so I'm not terribly worried about water flow.

What do you all think? Good plan or should I do something different?

Thanks in advance in this stressful time lol.
 

maidia

Team CR
Sorry to hear the problem DD, plan look good to me...one day will be fine for the tank. Hope the pump come in tomorrow..
 

madjoe

Premium member
Plan sounds good the vortect will keep everything alive i accidently turned of main pump during a coral feeding for two days before i noticed. Power heads kept every thing alive so i wouod worry to much
 

jrpark22000

Premium member
Always a stressful time without power. Plan sounds solid to keep oxygen and water movement. What size and brand pump? Likely one of us has a spare on hand if you new one doesn't show up.
 

DD

"Rambo"
Thanks for the input everyone! I'm getting ready to toss the heater, temp probe, and PH probe into the tank.

The pump that went out was an eheim compact 3000. I'm thinking that it should arrive tomorrow but who knows.

In the meantime, I'm just going to drain the sump, clean all the equipment, and get it ready for tomorrow.

Such a terrible way to end an otherwise great day.
 

DD

"Rambo"
So far so good. The corals and fish are all acting like nothing is wrong. Still currently waiting for the pump to arrive, but it's out for delivery so should come shortly.

On the one hand, I'm glad that I had a chance to take the sump offline and clean it and all the equipment out. On the other hand, it sucks having to spend more money.

But, when I set up my first reef tank, I didn't have a sump, skimmer, or any of the other equipment I had to clean and take down so I'm not as concerned today as I was yesterday when this first happened, especially after seeing how well everything in the tank is doing.

I may buy an extra pump with the fittings required for both of my tanks just in case this happens again. If a skimmer breaks down, it's not the end of the world; just annoying. When your return pump breaks down, it's a bit more concerning, but still not that big of a deal unless your entire system is run off of that one pump; like if you have the return as your primary means of water movement.
 

DD

"Rambo"
New pump arrived a few minutes ago. The process of getting everything set up again will begin.

As I was taking the new pump out of the box I noticed that it has a three year guarantee so I'm going to send the broken one in and have it fixed or replaced. I can then use that one as a spare just in case this ever happens again.
 

skyon888

Member
Good that it worked out for you! I've been meaning to order a spare return pump (mag 9) in case something like this happens.
 

grumpy

Member
You may want to run a separate circuit for your aquarium to prevent this from happening again. Your aquarium draws 125% of what everything adds up to due to continuous load.
 
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