Ouch about the Blackfin :(

Something is not right with the Tunze. I'm thinking you might have debris in the impeller assembly or it's missing one of the pin guide things. The vinegar bath should help. I hope you get it all sorted out..

Oh my. :sad: I guess you should try to call back and speak with Chris. Or make a thread in Reef Central with the above info... *snicker* ...that should get a reaction.

I'm pretty sure that would get a reaction. I left an e-mail for Chris so I'm hoping he will respond. Otherwise, I have a dead but brand new pump and i will have to come up with a a backup plan. I guess if one failed, I could remove the volute from the failed unit and put it on the cracked unit. That would give me a "painful" backup plan.

Hi Mark try getting hold of Chris at Interior reef in town / I think he has a few blackfins may have some parts.

Thanks Brent, I will do that.

She's ALIVE!!! I started everything up last night...after completely taking apart my overflow and re-building it because I had a premonition that it would leak (now it does not for sure).

The return pump is pretty loud...my wife hates it so I'm working on methods to quiet it down.
The Bean Animal is dead silent...once I got it going right and tuned in. Amazing but a 1/4" turn of the gate valve will move the water level 1/4" in my overflow...so I can see why ball valves would be crazy tough to tune.

Still dealing with some cloudiness in the water, but working on that too. :)

congrats man! it's both thrilling and terrifying all at once :biggrin:

have you managed to get flex hose in between the tank and the pump anywhere? you could also place some soundproofing tiles on the ceiling in your fish room maybe? if the sound is from pipe vibrating against walls though no soundproofing down there is going to help.

I'm just not sure. I just took apart the fan cover on the pump and put some padding into it where it touches the metal body. Haven't restarted it as I'm fixing a few spots where my unions needed to be "tightened".
If I can't get it to be quieter, I might take apart the return plumbing just out of the pump and try black spa-flex. The stores tell me it shouldn't be used salt as in salt pools, it degrades quickly. I'm also watching for the Blowhole 2750 pump as it might be enough to replace my Blackfin (with less watts and better head pressure abilities). I hear they may be out in March.

Is your pump base bolted down to something solid? If not, it is free to vibrate and transfer motion noise to your plumbing.

Yup, bolted to the bench, through several layers of padding and another 5/8" board. She can't move. The bench is bolted to the floor and is 1" plywood with 4" beams. You can't feel any vibration in the bench at all.