280g Inwall

[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.

[Delphinus]

Yeah, thanks, that's sort of what it's going to come down to at this point although at least it's not a wavebox that's the problem, just a stream on its own. Coleus on here had a 6100 for sale for the longest time, it's too bad mine decided to crap out a month after that one finally sold.

After poking around some more on the net this morning I've figured out the difference between the $255 replacement motor block and the $270 replacement motor block ... and of course it's the $270 one that I would need since it's the older style stream that I have. Funny that the older one is the more expensive but I think that's the explanation - it turns out you can't even get these from tunze.com anymore - totally discontinued. So the options are buy used, there do seem to be a few for sale over at RC at the moment, buy something else (Time to get a Vortech???) or buy the replacement motor block. But that last option seems like a non-starter. Check it out:

$270: http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/tz...+6101.015.html

$332.35: http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/tz...mp+-+6105.html


Unfortunate timing with the holidays around the corner and a recent streak of rather expensive unfortunate luck. I'm really feeling squeezed at the moment... for now I might just have to make do with whatever I can muster out of the junk drawer. Don't be too surprised if the next FTS there are about a hundred itty bitty powerheads all over the place in the tank .. I knew I was hanging onto all those things for a reason even if said reason wasn't entirely clear at the time..

[kien]

Let me know if you don't have enough ittt bitty powerheads. I have a box of 2xtunze 6055s (with controller), and some koralias and I think there might be a noisy 6105 in there too. Noisy as in it rattles a bit. They are just collecting dust at the moment.

[michika]

If I was you, I'd just make due for the next little while, and then replace it with a new one. Like you said everything for it is discontinued, and what happens if you pay the $270 and something else goes a few months later?

So what if you have some extra powerheads in the tank for a while, really what does it impact aside from the aesthetics of it all?

[Delphinus]

Yeah unfortunately the sad part of that is that the powerheads are in the spare drawer for a reason - most of them are either tiny (the Hagen 201's and 301's don't even put out enough flow for the 40g carpet tank but I use them there on a wavewaker just to shake things up a little in there - but in a 280g they may as well be eye droppers) and then there's a fairly large collection of Maxijet 12's which would be not so bad except that they almost all need new impellers. The impellers only last so long but the motor drives on THOSE appear to last forever and ever (Tunze maybe needs to take lessons from Maxijet?!)

With the sump return, waveboxes and one 6100 there's probably enough flow to get the tank through the cycle and just be a FOWLR for a little while. I can accept not having corals at this point it's not any different than what I have going on right now anyhow. Or maybe I sell one of the waveboxes after all and put that towards the purchase of something else.

Kien - thanks for the offer, I'll msg you offline and we can talk some more

[lastlight]

I'm really anxious to hear some good news for a change man this sucks. It doesn't seem worth it to replace that motor block and I hear ya on feeling squeezed. Best to just make do. Even a couple Koralias new would be good for a while but sounds like Kien has you covered. There's always that evil other option and that's to shift towards Vortechs...

[michika]

Yes, good news would be awesome!

Also you need to December FTS! How far away are you from cycling and adding livestock?