Return Pump Not Turning Back On

MnFish1 · Aug 25, 2021

Fishingandreefing said:
But if about 30% of the food are not consumed by my fish because they got pushed by the return pump then I lost that 30% of food and became waste.

Thats why aquarium controllers have 'Feed modes'. this - to me - has very little to do with the OP

ingchr1 · Sep 18, 2021

I have two Syncra 0.5's that I have had this problem on. Both have been in-service for the past 2.5 years. The first one started happening earlier this year. After tank maintenance it would not start all the time. If I cycled power to it, sometimes multiple times, it would restart. The second one failed to start after maintenance this past week. But this one would not restart by cycling power. I pulled it out and it did start after I moved the impeller. For each pump I did not notice anything in the impeller area that would have caused the failure to start. The first pump I had out multiple times.

I have a support request in with Sicce to see what the issue may be. I put that in on Monday, but have yet to hear back. A little disappointed with the slow response.

I have swapped both pumps out with new 0.5's. Not sure what other options for my tank. I have an AIO and run dual return pumps.

ingchr1 · Oct 3, 2021

ingchr1 said:
I have two Syncra 0.5's that I have had this problem on. Both have been in-service for the past 2.5 years. The first one started happening earlier this year. After tank maintenance it would not start all the time. If I cycled power to it, sometimes multiple times, it would restart. The second one failed to start after maintenance this past week. But this one would not restart by cycling power. I pulled it out and it did start after I moved the impeller. For each pump I did not notice anything in the impeller area that would have caused the failure to start. The first pump I had out multiple times.

I have a support request in with Sicce to see what the issue may be. I put that in on Monday, but have yet to hear back. A little disappointed with the slow response.

I have swapped both pumps out with new 0.5's. Not sure what other options for my tank. I have an AIO and run dual return pumps.

I have yet to hear back for Sicce, it's been three weeks.

I did find another option that I'll get as backups, the Eheim CompactON 600.

Fishingandreefing · Oct 3, 2021

They need to do a better job handling it. Mine is playing dead once in a while so perhaps next it won’t be another sicce

Chrisv. · Jun 5, 2022

I hate to necro this thread, but did anyone have luck working on with sicce on these issues?

CoralB · Jun 5, 2022

lrp693 said:
I agree but shouldn’t pumps last at least a year??

Try cleaning it first

ingchr1 · Jun 5, 2022

Chrisv. said:
I hate to necro this thread, but did anyone have luck working on with sicce on these issues?

Yes, I did work with them after they saw my post in the below thread. They did end up replacing my pumps.

ingchr1 said:
I contacted Sicce about issues I experienced with Syncra pumps and never got a response. I sent a follow up after a couple of weeks and still did not get a response back. The lack of response was disappointing and has led me to no longer purchase thier products.

Joe31415 · Oct 11, 2023

Bumping this thread again. I have a Sicce 1.0 that did this a few weeks back. It's down in the bottom of an AIO chamber and a bit of a pain to remove, so I smacked it a few times with something long (turkey baster? hemostat?) and it started working again. A few days later, it wouldn't turn back on so I pulled it out and cleaned it. It had some slime, but nothing jumped out at me as being *the* problem.
Last night it happened for the third time. It's been off for about a day now and I'm planning to run to the store soon and pick up an identical one (if they have it) or get grab one from BRS.
I do still have the original pump that came with the tank, but IIRC, I replaced it within a few days because it was so loud.

jda · Oct 11, 2023

Many pumps will do this as they age - AC and DC alike. They sometimes need a nudge or bump to get going again. Why are you turning it off?

Joe31415 · Oct 11, 2023

jda said:
Many pumps will do this as they age - AC and DC alike. They sometimes need a nudge or bump to get going again. Why are you turning it off?

It's only been about two years. As for why I turned it off, it's because I didn't want it on. Not trying to be a jerk but I'm more interested in getting to the root of the problem than defending myself for shutting off a return pump.
While it may be "just not necessary" for you, other people might not feel that way.

jda · Oct 11, 2023

You are going to wear any pump out quicker by turning them off and on all of the time - even if they have feed mode or the like - that is the root. If you want do do this, then it might be a good idea buy a few pumps and always have a backup on hand. I would say that 2 years is pretty good for a pump that starts and stops a lot.

You can always keep it as a backup or to mix water or something where it stays running.

Joe31415 · Oct 11, 2023

jda said:
I would say that 2 years is pretty good for a pump that starts and stops a lot.

How often have I been doing it?

jda · Oct 11, 2023

Good luck. Seems like you have it all figured out. I am sure that you will be happy with whatever you decide.

ingchr1 · Oct 11, 2023

Joe31415 said:
Bumping this thread again. I have a Sicce 1.0 that did this a few weeks back. It's down in the bottom of an AIO chamber and a bit of a pain to remove, so I smacked it a few times with something long (turkey baster? hemostat?) and it started working again. A few days later, it wouldn't turn back on so I pulled it out and cleaned it. It had some slime, but nothing jumped out at me as being *the* problem.
Last night it happened for the third time. It's been off for about a day now and I'm planning to run to the store soon and pick up an identical one (if they have it) or get grab one from BRS.
I do still have the original pump that came with the tank, but IIRC, I replaced it within a few days because it was so loud.

I posted earlier in this thread about the same thing happening to me. Since then I've been through additional pumps. They only seam to last ~1.5 years before exhibiting this behavior. My pumps only get turned off a couple of times a month at most, so I don't believe that to be the issue. What the issue is, not sure.

When my next one starts to do this I'm switching to Ehiem CompactOn 1000's. I actually just ordered a pair this week.

Reefer Reboot · Oct 11, 2023

These symptoms can also be indicative of a burnt motor winding.

ScubaFish802 · Oct 12, 2023

Same issue on a 4.0 I just replaced. Would fail to start until power cycled, after a while cycling stopped working, manually take the impeller out and back in and everything back together and it starts sometimes, finally got tired of pulling it apart.

I did notice after I started using AF Life Source it showed really extreme grooves in the magnet portion. Even when pulled apart and cleaned regularly. Really like the AF though so the pumps will have to suffer on

BRS is having a sale right now

Acros · Oct 12, 2023

I had a sicce 0.5 go bad in similar fashion after a year of use. Now I used two return pumps and hope they won’t both stop working at the same time.

ingchr1 · Oct 13, 2023

Acros said:
I had a sicce 0.5 go bad in similar fashion after a year of use. Now I used two return pumps and hope they won’t both stop working at the same time.

I run two 0.5's as well. I've had occasions where both failed to restart following being off for maintenance. Both were around the same age. If thier ages are staggered that could minimize the possibility of both having the issue at the same time.

Reefer Reboot said:
These symptoms can also be indicative of a burnt motor winding.

I'll see if I can disassemble a failed one or two to try find the failure mode.

Joe31415 · Oct 13, 2023

When I stopped at the LFS the other day to grab a new one, he was familiar with the problem and even suggested a different brand of pump that may exhibit similar behavior, but was easier to get running again without having to pull it out of the back of the tank (but I picked up another Sicce 1.0 anyway since I knew it would fit and I wouldn't have to rearrange/re-plumb anything).

ingchr1 said:
I'll see if I can disassemble a failed one or two to try find the failure mode.

I plan to do that with mine as well. When I have a few minutes I'll clean it and see if there's anything obvious going on inside/outside/electrically etc. I still have a good backup for this tank, so I'm not all that concerned about this one.