Need an Ampmaster 3200 like yesterday

[tdwyatt]

Hi Guys and Gurls,

I am in dire need of a replacement 3200 GPH Dolphin (Ampmaster) marine pump if anyone has one or knows of one locally (upstate SC) that I can buy (even retail at this point, $$$, the days will make a difference). If I cannot find one by Saturday evening, I guess I will order one and overnight it ($$$) here, I thought the one I had in storge would work, but apparently there is some isue with the seals I have a Sequence that puts out 4500 GPH, bit it will not fit in the space I have to work with, alhough if I HAD THE TIME, I WOULD THINK ABOUT REWORKING THE ENTIRE PLUMBING FOR MY DISLAY TO FIX THIS ISSUE.

If any of you know of a retail shop that has one, I will make arrngements to get that one Saturday if it is within reasonable driving range (up to ~150 miles away or so). For now the Tunzes are keping the circulation going inside the display, but this means no skimming, no ATO, no heat, no phosphate reacotr, no Ca reactor, no carbon for the time being.

[tims]

tom did you find one?

[hng]

I think he's got a lead on a loaner. Hopefully the Walnut Grove Seaquarium will dodge yet another bullet.

[tims]

if not he needs to get up here to me

[tdwyatt]

Thanks Timmah!, but TimmyG from Anderson, SC has one that he will loan/sell me untill I get the two that I have here rebuilt. These have been such great little pumps (I have the install date marked at Feb 02 on the one that has been in the display system running non-stop until now), but I should have known that it was too good to be true that the pump resolved it's last issue on its own... The second pump I had as a backup was a used pump that I thought ran when I put it up, but this was not to be...


I cannot thank TimmyG enough, when I left this morning, the big clam looked kinda bad (14" Squammie) and I am seeing some bleaching due to high temps (so I called the wife to unplug the lighting timer while on the way to work) now that some of the corals were recoverig from the last little outtage (grrrr...). Timmy called this morning while I was on the way to work to let me know of his generous offer. I'll meet him at the organizational meeting for the PMAC at Fat Tony's place tonight, do our business, then head back to Walnut Grove to do the install. Hopefully I will have the install swap done by midnight tonight ...

Thanks to both Tims for helping me out on this pump issue, and to Hoang for helping in the background! Possible pix tomorrow.

[aquawolf]

Very glad to hear that Tom and hurray to Timmy for being able to come to the rescue like that. I hope everything is able to recover quickly from this little outage. Good luck getting those pumps rebuilt and back in your possession quickly.

[tims]

glad things worked out tom. i hope everyone recovers!

[TimmyG]

Tom, give us an update when you get it hooked up.

No further thanks necessary, I'm just doing what reefers do, or at least should.

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by TimmyG

Tom, give us an update when you get it hooked up.

No further thanks necessary, I'm just doing what reefers do, or at least should.

Timmy, many many thanks!

I just finished the swap out, broke one of the 1&1/2 inch true union valves (but I fortunately had a spare...) in the process. Finally got the circulation going agin, and truned on the lights...


OMG...

Everything looks bleached out, I am asuming this is a combination of lack of circulation, high temp in the display without circulation, increased salinity, and a long period of 'lights out" for all day yesterday afternoon and today. I am going to do the slow acclimitization thing for the lighting for the next few days, but the tank looks awful. I was worried that the big squammie had died, but it coughed while I was taking pix, so I feel a little better. Saw the urchins, some snailis, the sea stars, but all the shrimp, etc. are MIA. The Chevron Tang is OK, but I have not seen either of the mandarin dragonettes...

Pix tomorow, I am too tired to mess with setting up the resizing for the pix I shot tonight. I am just glad I was able to get the pump from TimmyG before it got any worse...

Thanks again, Timmy, so good to see you and the guys from the club tonight.

[TimmyG]

OH NO Tom, I hope everything makes it through ok.

It was good to see you again too, I think this club will be the best thing for all local reefers in a long time.

[tdwyatt]

Again, many thanks to Timmy for making the pump avaiilable. The install turned from the usual expected less than 30 minute job to over 2 hours once I broke a piece of the valve I had installed to make changing out pumps (for maintenance) easier...



I finally ended up replacing the valve in pieces (a good reason to always have backup parts...)



...and started looking at the old pump. If your pumps stop after a power outtage and do not start back up, there's a pretty good chance that the impeller of the pump and the volute are encrusted with abiotically precipitated calcium carbonate, especially if your calcium and alk are high (>400PPM Ca++ and >10 dKH alkalinity).



The calcium carbonate in the pump wet end was over 3mm thick throughout! This only took 9 months to get to this point.



The outtage lasted about three days until the pump and support devices were running again as a system, the only thing providing any circ were the tunze 6100s. Most of the invert specimens seem to be totally unaffected by this and there are a few corals that only blanched a little...






but there are a lot of corals that obviouly are not going to make it.

[Fat Tony]

wow Tom that sucks! again! you can't seem to catch a break at all..

[TimmyG]

WoW that sucks Tom.
I'm sure there is somone that you've given frags to in the past that would give you a frag to repop. your tank.

[tdwyatt]

The bleaching corals, this is pretty much representative of everything in the tank now:













Some will recover, some may need fragging to remove damaged tissue, and there are a few that may pull through (the blue montipora looks actually good), but for the most part, it looks like about 80% of what made it through the last little episode of pump issues is going to totally bleach and RTN.

I post this for two reasons only: first, if you have a good club in your area, it is more than likely that SOMEONE in the club is going to have spare pumps, skimmers, etc that you may need in an emergency, so it is in your best interest to join a club or if there is not one in your area, form a strong club within driving distance of where you live to help avoid issues like this; and Second, that issues like this are TOTALLY avoidable if you perform regular preventative maintenance on your equipment...

It isn't that we don't all realize these things, it's just that often we think we can let it slide for a bit, especially if it appears that some ISSUE has FIXED ITSELF. Always consider such occurrances as the opportunity to thoroughly go through your support equipment at the first chance you get to prevent such disasters to our little Slices of the Ocean; all it takes is one small equipment failure to lose years of collecting and growth tending.


I hope this helps some of you avoid my mistakes in letting such a maintenance issue slide, I can only kick myself for the losses here. At least I have a number of specimens and frags that are healthy in the frag system.

[tdwyatt]

I'd post more pix, but it is just too depressing. I just hope that most of you will learn from my mistakes.

Again, I cannot thank TimmyG enough.

They say Paybacks are hell...