Turning off your return pump

[ECFENCING]

Does anyone turn off their return pump for a certain period of time e.g. do you have your return pump on a timer or do you run it 24/7?

I was talking to a local guy who told me he has it on a timer to increase the Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF).

The benefit I see is conserving energy which is minimal.

Wouldn't starting and stopping if only once a day decrease the useful life of the pump?

 

[masterswimmer]

24/7, except for the times I do large water changes (sump gets too low), maintenance and the ocassional time I shut it to feed and make sure nothing goes down the overflow.

Russ

 

[ECFENCING]

Russ: I run it 24/7 as well except of course when I do water changes and maintenance (I keep the return on when I'm feeding. I only shut down the circulation pumps) but I'm wondering if it makes sense at all to even shut it down once or twice a day as a matter of habit. Of course you want to make sure your siphon breaks are working.

How's the recovery coming along?

 

[cali_reef]

I was talking to a local guy who told me he has it on a timer to increase the Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF).

Cycling electrical motors on and off will decrease the MTBF. Bearings and seals wears out much faster due to temperature contraction.

Some of the lower RPM motor pump we use in the hobby will not restart everytime after a power interuption.

 

[masterswimmer]

I can't imagine that shutting it down is beneficial at all. Would it do irreparable harm for a few hours on a daily basis? Don't know and I will NOT be the one to experiment with this one. lol

Granted the oceans to calm down, but never stop, and, ours is a closed box with very limited natural sources of intervention. To me constant flow for oxygen exchange and filtration is more important than saving a few pennies on electric or having to replace a pump. Besides, I think the constant on/off of a pump is worse for it.

Russ

 

[ECFENCING]

Thanks Pierce and Russ: That's what I thought. Didn't make sense to me when he explained it.

 

[pecan2phat]

Ernie,
I would not put a pump on a timer or shut it down 1x or 2x a day. I can tell you from experience that it will wear down your pump prematurely.

When I set up my closed loop the past Feb., so about 13 months, I emailed MDM Sequence whether I can shut the Reeflo dart off once a day for feeding and they replied yes with no damage to their pump. So that is what I have been doing for the past 13 months and the pump has started to make a bearing type noise now and also takes sometimes up to a minute to start back up now.
Time for a new pump.

 

[ECFENCING]

Warren: Thanks for your reply. Even one time per day makes a big difference. You should call MDM and tell them you want a new pump for their bad advice.

 

[pecan2phat]

I'm going to purchase a spare Dart and call them on the pump since it is a 3 year warranty.