Via Aqu Pumps!! ARG!

[fishman]

I used to praise this pump and now am hating it more and more. I have 2 pumps sitting in my 35 gallon trash can mixing SW all the time. For some reason after about 3 months they simply quit working. I take them out and scrub them, bang on them, etc to try and get them to run again. I can take off the impeller protector and partly submerge the pump and it runs. When I put them all the way under the water, the impeller quite turning. How do you guys keep your pumps running? Via Aqua are the only ones I have found like this. I did use them in my tank but would come home to find them wobbeling and humming and not really running...any ideas?

 

[melonie]

If I had to take a guess, it would be that your pump problems stem from saltwater being somewhat abrasive. When used on saltwater, a submersible pump with a soft polypropylene pump head probably erodes 1/1000th of an inch at a time. Depending on the original manufacturing clearances, at some point the extra clearance results in the impeller being able to shift or tilt.

While I don't run SW, I have had excellent luck with Danner Mag-Drive submersible pumps on FW. Also, in non-aquarium applications on abrasive and corrosive fluids, I know that Little Giant makes non-submersible mag coupled pumps with fiberglass reinforced ryton pump heads which are much more resistant to abrasion and chemical attack. See http://www.littlegiant.com/LittleGiant/Indcat.nsf/HighlyPumpsWebView . Using a non-submersible would require the installation of bulkhead fittings on the side of your trash can, but that shouldn't be a big deal to wind up with a single circ pump which will last for 3 years versus replacing two submersibles every 3 months !