Mod Gyres to be less sensitive?

[brahm]

First let me say when working correctly and clean my maxspect gyres are some of the best pumps I’ve used.

However as we all know they degrade quickly as they get dirty, for me with in 4-6 weeks the pumps are barely putting out half to 1/3rd of their clean output flow. To the point where they are essentially useless.

I’m curious as to if
1 - any one has any thoughts as to why the output falls off so drastically when compared to other power heads
2 - has anyone tried to mod them to mitigate this? (Ie maybe shavings or cutting out every other impeller?)

 

[blaxsun]

Mine don't seem to see the performance degrade that quickly. I do take them offline for 24-48 hours to throughly clean, scrub and soak in EzeClean, though. I think it also depends on what mode you run them in (mine are set to 20% constant).

It might be beneficial putting them on to a brief 100% forward/100% reverse cycle for a few minutes every day to clear out any crap.

 

[brahm]

Mine are covered in coralline within 4-6 weeks. I’m running them in gyre mode 100% reverse sync. Requires soaking, dissemble, scrubbing. Which uses a lot of cleaning solution on such short intervals. Compared to a tunzee, or vortech which don’t require 1/6th to 1/12th the attention.

 

[Garf]

Mine are covered in coralline within 4-6 weeks. I’m running them in gyre mode 100% reverse sync. Requires soaking, dissemble, scrubbing. Which uses a lot of cleaning solution on such short intervals. Compared to a tunzee, or vortech which don’t require 1/6th to 1/12th the attention.

Is it photosynthetic stuff, clogging the internals, or the external case? Either way, can’t you shade it somehow, to slow down growth? I’m guessing yours are horizontal and getting a load of light? I’ve got 2x xf250s, vertical, not cleaned for 12 months.

 

[KimG]

I always heard this as a problem for gyres, but I don't seem to have this big of a problem with mine. While I may have some reduced performance over time, after a good clean there is not a massive difference in flow. And they easily move the water across the entire tank without issues. I don't really clean them often (probably every 3 to 4 months). I ran them in different modes throughout the day.
I'm also curious, what do you think causes the issue? build up on the outercasing?
If its coraline algae that is causing you problems, you may just need to soak them more often for lower periods of time in citric acid and not let them build up that much.

 

[brahm]

My gut tells me it’s more the impeller than the external casing. When you compare them to a standard pump that is running a much smaller and single impeller on a shorter shaft I can only assume that cause of the sensitivity may be the additional weight, or how small the space is between the blades clogging up. I can’t say I’ve inspected a poorly performing one prior to cleaning. typically I’ll toss them right in the solution running, after a couple hours dissemble and wipe everything down once the organics are malleable.

But I am no mechanical engineer. My goal behind this thread is to get the opinions of others with similar experiences as every thread about these pumps is riddled with similar feedback.

and sure I could clean them more frequently but that is exactly what I’m looking to solve for.