VarioS 6 Skimmer Pump Not Working After Cleaned

[MoKan Reefer]

So after over a year I finally got around to cleaning the Reef Octopus VarioS 6 on my skimmer since it'd been doing poorly as of late.

The impeller was cram packed with chaeto (no surprise since the refugium has been producing 3lbs or so of chaeto every few weeks) so I carefully removed the impeller shaft and impeller from the pump. I got all the chaeto out of the teeth of the impeller, cleaned all the brown slime off the magnet of and the inside of the pump, and reassembled just the way it came apart.

I put the front plate back on, put it back on the skimmer in the sump, plugged it in, turned it on, and absolutely nothing. So I took it apart again paying attention to make sure everything was right, reassembled it, plugged it back in, turned it on and still nothing. So I decided to see what happens without the front director plate on with the bare impeller. Still nothing. The motor attempts to move it, you can feel it, but nothing. So i attempt to spin it by hand while it's trying to start and same result. I've disassembled and reassembled it making sure I missed nothing. I've even went so far as to pull the pump off my external model skimmer (same impeller with the older white Diablo skimmer pump) and you can tell it's trying but going nowhere. I'm not sure what could've happened considering I didn't even unplug the skimmer. I literally turned it off. Same thing I've done a million times in the past.

Hopefully someone's had this issue before and fixed it without having to buy a new pump... This is a second hand skimmer/pump that's 2 or so years old so no warranty...

 

[ksed]

Try posting on CoralVue sponsor forum.

 

[Totroc3]

I know this is years after the issue but hopefully someone else with this issue might try what I did. I also cleaned my pump and mine would start, run for 2 seconds then stop. I found that the closing channel had buildup behind the pump where I couldn’t see. I used a small zip tie and curved the tip so it could make the bends and clear the small obstruction. Water had been able to run through but the small obstruction caused the intermittent running. Now it runs as new.