Tunze Turbelle already seized!

[texman]

My 2 month old Tunze Turbelle has already seized. Today, I noticed its internal alarm going off. I unplugged it, took off the front housing and removed the propellor. Both the rotating magnet and housing were completely covered in a thick calcium deposit. I have been soaking both parts in diluted vinegar and the calcium seems to coming off. Is this normal for just 2 months in operation?

 

[Anonymous]

They have alarms on them?!?

Seems kinda quick to sieze up, if I were you, I would check all the pumps on the tank, I would imagine every pump that runs warm would have similar deposits.

 

[texman]

All my other pumps except 1 are external Iwaki's and all have been running continuously for over 2 years with no problems. I have one little powerhead (Maxijet 1200)also in the tank which has been running for about 1 year without any problems. The Tunze has a control box which detects overheating or if the impellor stops. It then shuts the pump down to protect it. Overall, I am very happy with the pump, but am very surprised with the severe calcium buildup. I have already re-started it in its vinegar bath and it seems to run fine again.

 

[Len]

I've never encountered such a problem when I had my Tunze 2002. And I run both a CaCO3/CO2 reactor and a nielson reactor full time. The Tunze ran without a hitch for the few years I had it running, completely quiet, reliable, and maintanence free. I would still be running it if it didn't fall in my tank last year :?

 

[Anonymous]

I found it to be a problem only on pumps where the magnets got warm, if the magnets got warm for some reason they acted like a magnet for calcium too, the buildup would get pretty bad on my old rio's, eventually they would seize up. Other pumps had no problem at all.

Maybe somebody more affluent in chemistry can explain it

 

[anthem]

Do you dose kalk ? I believe I read somewhere that Roger vitko said something that if you dose kalk quite heavily, more frequent cleanings were necessary. I haven't tried the stream yet, but my Tunze pump/powerheads have been running for over 18 months w/o any cleanings yet (yeah, I've been lax).

 

[buff1]

I'm using the Tunze stream pumps in my new 120 that is supposed to arrive on thursday . I got the twin 6110's with the multicontroller. I'll be reporting on my observations as I put things together and get a little experience with the new equipment. I'm not thrilled to hear that you're having problems Tex, and I can't understand why the propellers would attract more calcification than other pumps, but I'm glad to hear that the vinegar is helping. Perhaps the reduced velocity of the water relative to a powerhead/impeller pump allows the calcium to build up easier? I blew about $700 bucks on this stuff and i'm counting on it to provide virtually all the water movement in the display tank so I'm curious to hear what else you learn Texman.

 

[texman]

I do dose quite a bit of kalk as well as adding B-ionic, and have a calcium reactor running. My Ca levels and Alk levels are not that high, however I have quite a few hard corals (200+) in my tank, that are using the stuff up as fast as I can put it in. After soaking all the parts in vinegar for 2 hrs, followed by running the pump in a 5 gallon bucket of vinegar/water over night, all the deposits were gone. I got an email back from Roger at Tunze, who told me that it is advisable to do this type of procedure at least once every three months, since the buildup is typical of this pump in an environment with high calcium. I would advise anyone using this pump to at least check the pump casing and propellor assembly once every month or so, just to be safe, since this pump is quite an investment. I am still very happy with it, and would buy another one!