280g Inwall

[lastlight]

Tony I think all the 6101, 6201 etc are repairable but not the 6100, 6200 series. I think it's the old hockey puck transformers that are no longer made and if I recall correctly they are part of the pump. But for both to go at the same time...that's pretty much impossible. So the red and green are coming on opposite each other...what about the other red light that says the pumps are on?

[Delphinus]

I can only recall two LED's, a green and a red and they always alternate. I don't recall a third LED to indicate pump status. In short the controller looks fat dumb and happy and doing it's regular thing, the pumps just sit there as if they are not getting any power. No hockey puck transformers on these - they have two cigar-box sized 24v transformers then a little 1" black square box with 3 cables attached, one is the 24V supply, one goes to the controller port (master or slave), and the last is the lead to the pump drive itself. I'm probably getting the terminology wrong I know they call some things drivers and some things motor drives or blabbity blabbity.

Lance do you just use the Vortech's or do you use other things as well?

I've never quite embraced the look of all these things in the tank, I thought I'd get over it but I can see why people go closed-loops, I'm still not buying into that idea for myself but I can see ditching both waveboxes and all 4 Tunzes and going the Vortech route if I could convince myself what that would be like on THIS tank. It's hard to describe, I know nobody has ever regretted the purchase of them but to buy two of them is basically a thousand dollars more in cost than what I have to spend. I don't know .. I just .. I just don't know anymore. I don't know. I just don't know where to go with things some days. I'm tired.

[Delphinus]

Ok I have to share this. This actually made me LOL:

http://www.funlol.com/15983/Build_your_own_chopper.html

Admittedly, a bit of a stretch from reef tanks to R/C helicopters, but the idea feels about right.

[lastlight]

It's not a deal-breaker at least man. I saw the setup and you should be ready to cycle and get on with it. The wave thing would be nice but at least you can sort out that issue WHILE the tank gets it's reef on.

[Lance]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Lance do you just use the Vortech's or do you use other things as well.

2x MP40's, Turbelle Stream2, Korallia Evo 1400, Barracuda return pump via 2x 1" return pipes. Guesstimating about 12,000 GPH or about 50x turnover. I change up the settings on the Vortechs fairly often: going with a wave for awhile and then to erratic movement for awhile. I don't really have many SPS in this tank so it's probably overkill, but some of my LPS have really grown into large colonies, so it's not really too much flow. I use the night setting on the Vortechs. I think the LPS appreciate some lull time.

[Delphinus]

So I guess it's not the controller. Next step is get them out of the tank take them apart and see what's going on inside.

FWIW it does have the 3rd LED for "pump on" ad yeah it's indicating on.

Is all this worth it? I kinda doubt it.

Tomorrow .. I'll poke some more at it tomorrow. Today, I'm just done. Tomorrow will be the turnaround day that makes all the crap of the last 3 weeks seem like a distant memory. Or .. not. Time will tell.

[christyf5]

Tony, is the light on on the power supply? (I think its the 24v "fuse" that lights up or something like that.) if not its probably shot, I had one go that way and had to replace the power supply.

Also you could try reversing the master and slave to see whats up there or if you have another controller, hook that up as well as it will still run the pump without the proper controller.

[Delphinus]

So some good news and some not so good news for me. I finally got the waveboxes out and it looks like after cleaning the impellers they're both off and running again. I'm impressed by how little gunk it took to stop them dead in their tracks. I'm guessing they were probably fine when they were on and warm, but when I turned off all the pumps to add sand the other day, they cooled off and the contraction was enough to cause a problem for starting up.

So that's the happy news, they're still out of the tank on account I need two people to do the job of putting them back in and I'm never home when Linda is home and she's never home when I'm home because of the whole one parent is home with the kids all the time kind of thing wheeeeee! So yeah that's not done yet but whatev'.

The sucky news is that although I took some time and resoldered the power plug on the 6100's driver (I took pics as I went, it's a real MacGyver job - I cut up and used pieces of a paper clip to jury rig replacement pins for the plug and then soldered those in - I'll post them later) .. it turns out the broken plug was the least of the problems. Roger Vitko had suggested (about a month ago) that it might be worthwhile to replace the impeller but alas it's not the driver, it's not the impeller but it does seem to be the motor block. I've tried every other combination of motor blocks, impellers and drivers and everything works except when this one motor block is involved. Que'lle dommage. The silver lining, if it is one, seems to be that J&L has replacement motor blocks in stock (according to the website anyhow, in the meantime I've fired off an email and will see what they say back). The not-so-silver lining is that depending on which model I need (I'm a little unclear on this) it's either $255 or $270. Ouch. $325ish to buy the newer model 6105, it's almost a no-brainer not to even bother replacing the motor block.

So yeah it's not real clear to me at this point what's the better thing to do. Any advice?

[Dez]

I would find another wavebox used. I've seen them pop up every once in a while. That's what I would do. Sucky luck man.