Replacement pump/impeller for Vertex Omega 180i?

OriginalUserName · Jun 2, 2020

I'm pretty sure my reef is built on top of an old burial ground as I have yet another piece of (quality?) equipment fail on me after less than 2 years. (I'm looking at you Kessil H380, Maxspect Gyre, Cor-20 power supply, and Red Sea Stand) Seems like some debris made it's way into the pump and it lost a couple of the needles and the rubber gaskets are worn.

I have to assume there an easily swappable replacement available but for some reason Omega wanted to pretend they had some custom pump built. Searching hasn't come up with anything. I emailed Sicce but those requests usually take a bit of time. I can't be the only one with this question.

This guy looks almost identical, but the volume is off. The vertex pump is labeled as 1k-1300lph, I think. So 260-340 gph seems right.
https://www.marinedepot.com/sicce-professional-protein-skimmer-pump

OriginalUserName · Jun 9, 2020

In case this helps others. The SICCE PSK-600 PROFESSIONAL PROTEIN SKIMMER PUMP W/ NEEDLE WHEEL is close to an exact replacement. From what I can tell the impeller is a little bit lower quality and I had to slightly modify the exterior cover on the intake. I also cut off the old white plate from the skimmer pump and glued it onto the new one. I'll update once I confirm that the skimmer itself operates to spec.

MJH01 · Jul 1, 2020

OriginalUserName said:
In case this helps others. The SICCE PSK-600 PROFESSIONAL PROTEIN SKIMMER PUMP W/ NEEDLE WHEEL is close to an exact replacement. From what I can tell the impeller is a little bit lower quality and I had to slightly modify the exterior cover on the intake. I also cut off the old white plate from the skimmer pump and glued it onto the new one. I'll update once I confirm that the skimmer itself operates to spec.

Do you have an update on how it performed? Sicce told me the PSK1000 impeller is a good match for the V-180 pump in the omega 180i. I just wondered how the PSK600 complete pump assembly functioned?

OriginalUserName · Jul 2, 2020

MJH01 said:
Do you have an update on how it performed? Sicce told me the PSK1000 impeller is a good match for the V-180 pump in the omega 180i. I just wondered how the PSK600 complete pump assembly functioned?

My answer is, "not sure". I had to lower the skimmer to the bottom of the sump (I was annoyed that originally I had to buy a stand for it) Right now I'm not getting a ton of skimate, but it's super dry. I do have a leak at the base of the skimmer though so it's not holding as much water as it could. I think if I fix that it will be working great. I could never really get it dialed in before so I'm actually happier now overall.

The told me the same but that was after I made the swap.