alage problem

[Guest]

This is so coincidental, kinda changing the topic of the thread, but I got a 36 watt double helix for christmas and tonight I was pondering throwing it out into the street. I am rather disturbed. I had noticed the flow rate was going down, The powerhead would flow great if I unhooked it from the sterilizer. When I put it back online, the water flow coming out was very low and the water dang hot.

36 watt? cool. I believe that is rated for over 150 gal... A little too hot for anything smaller. It can also handle about 500 gal per hour and still be effective. I can imagine on a small tank, it would boil the water at anything less than 300 gph. IF you don't want it, I will take it...I only have an 8 watt on my 55 and it is working great at low flow....no heat change at all....

 

[Hara]

The flow was there when I put it on the tank...it is the flow of the water that quit. In the beginning, it was moving great amounts of water......the sterilizer has no idea as to the size of the tank it is sitting on. When we moved it from the 150 to the seahorse tank, the powerhead it was used to moved over with it.

 

[Guest]

The flow was there when I put it on the tank...it is the flow of the water that quit. In the beginning, it was moving great amounts of water......the sterilizer has no idea as to the size of the tank it is sitting on.

Point taken. however, with no blockage in the sterilizer, it would lead me to believe that when the powerhead is placed under stress, it is the powerhead failing and not the sterilizer causing the flow issue. I would try a pump rated for headroom instead of a PH which is not. JMHO

 

[fishfreek]

We took it off the tank, took everything to the bathtub, looked for a blockage. Decided to take the sterilizer apart and the hosing was so incredibly kinked it was unreal. Very very thin tubing and about 50 kinks. Seeing as this was a closed system, until tonight, I wonder how the mess just kinked up to where there was no water flow.

We called fosters & smith, they gave us the number to the manufacturer and said they would help if the people had no answer for us.

But I am rather mad that I could have lost a tank full of seahorses...I kept thinking it was a heater malfunctioning on the tetratec filter.

Needless to say, I recommend you guys with the double helix keep an eye out for this, especially after a bulb change. Looks like the kinking could happen very easily.

timbo2, I would not say head pressure had anything to do with it. If the internal plumbing of the UV gota ll tangled up reguarless of the pump on it the flow would be restricted.

 

[Guest]

Boop, sorry did not see the kinked part....I guess my brain is kinked

 

[Guest]

Hara my apologies. I did not catch the kinked part.

Come to think of it, I did think about that in looking at one of those at my LFS. The owner had one broken down so you could see the inside of it, said he hadn't had a problem with them and recommended them to me...I still chose to go with Rainbow Lifeguard instead..because of the way that it is accessed.

Thank God you caught it before damage was done...

 

[Hara]

After speaking with the manufacturer, they said ship it to them and they would look at it. They also said that if you have electrical outages, the tubing will sometimes get a vacuum and kink itself. My guess is that is what has happened here as we are prone to them with about every storm. Must have kinked itself pretty good and barely unkinked when water pressure came back. Sounds like they need to work on the design of the tubing...