Swollen Impeller ???

Tangdora · May 22, 2026

So rebuilt and cleaned, my three L2 about two weeks ago and 1 of them just decided tonight to take a crap. Seems to be stopping and starting every few seconds. Took it back out and re-cleaned everything and still doing it. Even tried swapping the controller with the other 2 controllers and still throwing the same error. So it definitely points to the pump side of things Not entirely convinced this pump is bad as clean them every 4 months. Can still feel it humming and trying to engage which it eventually does at time. Decided to ask the Al for fixes out side of the normal cleaning process. And the first thing it threw out was swapping the impeller shift as the magnets overtime can swell despite the shaft looking in pristine condition. Never even knew this was a thing. Learn something new every day if this turns out to be the case. I don’t rally really feel a drag on it but then again we’re talking micrometers. Tomorrow I’m going to try to swap the shaft from one of my other pump to see what happens . But curios if anyone else has ever heard of this with regard to pumps or has ever delt with it personally.

UncommonSense · May 22, 2026

Did you use vinegar during your cleaning process, by any chance?

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/beware-of-vinegar-the-pump-killer.643396/

Tangdora · May 22, 2026

UncommonSense said:
Did you use vinegar during your cleaning process, by any chance?

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/beware-of-vinegar-the-pump-killer.643396/

In the first year of cleaning mainly used vinegar but for the last two years almost I switched to citric acid.

UncommonSense · May 22, 2026

Tangdora said:
In the first year of cleaning mainly used vinegar but for the last two years almost I switched to citric acid.

Well, if it was going to do appreciable damage, it would have been done long ago then!

It’s worth noting that ceramic impeller shafts are actually often finished on a precision grinder, achieving a sub-micron surface flatness! This said, they actually need fairly delicate treatment when out of service! (I looked into cutting my own via wet saw and quickly abandoned that idea!)

Tangdora · May 22, 2026

UncommonSense said:
Well, if it was going to do appreciable damage, it would have been done long ago then!

It’s worth noting that ceramic impeller shafts are actually often finished on a precision grinder, achieving a sub-micron surface flatness! This said, they actually need fairly delicate treatment when out of service! (I looked into cutting my own via wet saw and quickly abandoned that idea!)

Yeah about to swap the impeller. Will see what happen.