Is your tank a joy or a chore? How to keep it fun!

[Treefer32]

Good luck finding what's wrong. Let us know how you make out. I hope it's nothing too serious.

Reeflo is a great company and great customer service. They said if the shaft can't turn it will cause GFCI to fault and the power supply of the pump will fault. Removing any debris or anything in the way of the impellor could cause it start working again.

I found a plastic cap and 3 zip ties in the intake. No idea how they go there. But, I pulled them out, put it on my water change station and plugged it in. It was working no problem. Yaay!

So, I had a friend come over we reviewed all the plumbing. Discovered a union gasket was leaking, (highly compressed). I had other unions not in use that matched that union so we exchanged that. Siliconed it. and leak# 1 resolved.

Leak #2 was the 8 year old bulkhead on my sump. We got the old bulkhead off put on a new nut and gasket. Put it on and couldn't get it to tighten by hand. My friend went and got his plumbing wrenches and we were able to tighten, then loosen and tighten just so the gasket is tight and the bulkhead doesn't move very easily by hand. (this is after draining the sump of 40 gallons of water - 75 gallon sump). That appeared to fix leak #2.

Leak number 3 was where I had some spa flex (1.5") hose connected to a 1.5" male threaded connector that screwed onto my pump. The design was to have the spaflex absorb some of the vibrations from the pump... however, the pvc glue had caused gaps to form in the connector from unscrewing and screwing the hose onto the pump.

I ran to a hardware store, got some wet dry pvc cement, costed the heck out of the spaflex where the adaptors were. Waited 20 minutes for it to be dry to the touch and restarted the pump.

As of this morning, no floods, the return pump was offline for 8-9 hours, no heaters, and tank had dropped to 73. Fish and corals are all fine as of this morning and things are fully operational with no leaks. . . . !!!! I'm checking every few hours just to make sure, but I think I have a solid fix for all three leaks.

 

[flyfisher2]

All in all you scored 100 percent. and didn't have catastrophic issues to deal with. Keep on Reefing!!

 

[Treefer32]

All in all you scored 100 percent. and didn't have catastrophic issues to deal with. Keep on Reefing!!

That's the joy in this hobby! Seeing how life can tolerate stresses and act like nothing happened the next day! I'm o.k. being drama free for a year or two now! I don't mind cleaning the scrubber, the glass, and pumps weekly or even the testing. I just hate when equipment breaks. The money we spend on the equipment for these things, I would expect longer periods of operation if they're maintained. I maintain my powerheads monthly, thoroughly cleaning and washing and scrubbing them. And to have them die after a year or two just sucks. I've lost 4 powerheads in 3 years. Almost lost one of my gyres but it was still under warranty. That would have been a fifth. The equipment losses alone are enough to make one question one's devotion to the hobby.

 

[flyfisher2]

That's the joy in this hobby! Seeing how life can tolerate stresses and act like nothing happened the next day! I'm o.k. being drama free for a year or two now! I don't mind cleaning the scrubber, the glass, and pumps weekly or even the testing. I just hate when equipment breaks. The money we spend on the equipment for these things, I would expect longer periods of operation if they're maintained. I maintain my powerheads monthly, thoroughly cleaning and washing and scrubbing them. And to have them die after a year or two just sucks. I've lost 4 powerheads in 3 years. Almost lost one of my gyres but it was still under warranty. That would have been a fifth. The equipment losses alone are enough to make one question one's devotion to the hobby.

I agree with you. It's hard for the average Joe and it seems that the hobby is becoming more and more for the upper crust. Unless we go with the lesser known brands being offered by eBay and Amazon it will be difficult to keep up.
The good news is that the quality of those lesser known brands is improving and is no longer overseas "junk". Unless you invest in the likes of Ecotech ( my MP 40 is 12 years old) Eheim, and others like these then the option is for the Jebao and such. Do your homework. READ the customer reviews. Learn to weed out the negative reviews which are solely based on the ' mine is better than that garbage' mentality. You work hard for your money and need to know where to invest it wisely. Good luck, it's all part of the hobby. Remember all work and no play make Jack a VERY dull boy. LOL

 

[Treefer32]

I agree with you. It's hard for the average Joe and it seems that the hobby is becoming more and more for the upper crust. Unless we go with the lesser known brands being offered by eBay and Amazon it will be difficult to keep up.
The good news is that the quality of those lesser known brands is improving and is no longer overseas "junk". Unless you invest in the likes of Ecotech ( my MP 40 is 12 years old) Eheim, and others like these then the option is for the Jebao and such. Do your homework. READ the customer reviews. Learn to weed out the negative reviews which are solely based on the ' mine is better than that garbage' mentality. You work hard for your money and need to know where to invest it wisely. Good luck, it's all part of the hobby. Remember all work and no play make Jack a VERY dull boy. LOL

I have two MP40s magnetically attached to my steal stand as reminders of dead equipment. Neither will run. The dry sides are shot. Not sure if it's the control units or the drivers themselves. But they're both nonfunctional. They worked great for the first year, then slowly they started acting up intermittently not running at all unless I manually turned the impellor. Then finally I found them both faulting and refusing to run at all. I Haven't had the heart to throw them away yet, knowing it's easily $600-700 of equipment I'd be throwing away. I've got two Skimz S18s that died within 2 months apart. Probably cheap junk, but they were each $150. Between the two of those and the two MP40s, I've had $1000 of equipment die.

I do have two new replacement MP40s that are still running so far, almost a year old. And then running two Gyre XF 350s. The pump on one of the XF 350s warped, they replaced the pump under warranty, they said it's a known issue for the pump to slightly warp and the shaft to then vibrate in the pump and get stuck intermittently.

I'm planning to get 2 more XF280s to finish out the flow I need for my SPS. It's taken me 3 years to get to this point, because of equipment continuing to die. I would have gone with 4 MP40s and two gyres, but because they keep dieing, I'm going with 4 gyres and two MP40s. I may regret that, but, It's $2000 in circulation pumps....

 

[flyfisher2]

I've heard about the Gyres giving problems and needing to be cleaned frequently. A little surprised about your misfortune with the MP40's . The whole idea of paying more for the gear is to get a more reliable product. If it's going to be the same as the cheap no brand stuff then why pay the premium?

 

[Sunny in Miami]

It's the way you look at it. I have a canister filter for my 29 g. that is kind of on the heavy side to lift up and out from under the aquarium stand for monthly maintenance, but I eat my Wheaties in the morning before I tackle the job. Then once all is cleaned out it's just working up muscle to lift it up and back inside the stand. Gives me a good reason to work out my girly muscles.

 

[Borg]

work or chore, its still a money pit.
lol

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

I said both or between the two. I get joy from watching corals grow and the fishies swimming. The chore aspect is there but i’ve always thought of my tank cleaning time as a form of meditation because I am wholly focused on the task yet it’s a pleasant task.

 

[Nano Chris]

1. When does a reef aquarium hobby become a chore, become work to you?
When something goes wrong
2. What are some tips for keeping the hobby enjoyable and fun?
Researching your fish, corals, inverts & learning more & more about them.

 

[glb]

Once I automated water changes and dosing, the tank has become a joy. The maintenance isn’t all that fun, but it’s so much less work than when I had to do everything manually. It’s a pain when something goes wrong, but things have been stable for a while. And I couldn’t do it without my apex.