VarioS-6 pump lost most of its flow????

[rsaylor3]

I installed and starting using this as my return pump on August 23rd of this year. It has worked flawlessly since that day, up until yesterday afternoon feeding time! As usual I turned it off, fed and when I turned it back on, I noticed the lack of forceful water when the returns are above the water line.

I turned it off and on, unplugged for over 10 minutes, took it apart and did a cleaning with RODI water (all looked clean anyway), checked my return nozzles, actually removed them and still no flow. So I normally run it at level 2, but now MAX level 6 is less flow than level 1 was!

The only thing I noticed, is that when I removed the front of the housing to inspect the impeller and such, that plate that holds the impeller and shaft, is not seated fully into the motor. I cleaned and reinstalled and it clicks into place when assembling, but when I remove it again after use it is not tight.

Any ideas? I submitted a ticket to support, but did not hear back yet. Reached out to my LFS where I purchased and they are having their ordering manager get their Reef Octopus rep to call me.

 

[rsaylor3]

Heard back from Reef Octopus support. They are shipping me a new power supply and controller. I guess thinking about it now, that makes sense. Considering the way DC pumps work.

 

[Simon Reefing]

Just bought a VariouS-4 glad that their customer support was good!

 

[rsaylor3]

For sure! Love the pump, it's completely silent in the sump! My recliner in the living room is only about three feet from it and I can't hear it at all!

Also the VarioS-2 is silent in my skimmer!

 

[minus9]

I would suggest not turning it off completely during feeding and just lowering the flow so it's always pushing a little water. That's the great thing about using DC pumps.

 

[rsaylor3]

Appreciate that advisew to all this. Had a Fluval-spec v since February and just bought a Red Sea 300xl two months back. I was turning it off to stop the food from making it to the sump. Is that not such a bad thing?

Always looking to make sure I'm doing things right!

 

[Simon Reefing]

For sure! Love the pump, it's completely silent in the sump! My recliner in the living room is only about three feet from it and I can't hear it at all!

Also the VarioS-2 is silent in my skimmer!

Thats great to hear! My new tank is going in the living room and i wanted this take to be quite. I had the jabeo and it was super loud

 

[rsaylor3]

You should be fine! I usually run it on level 2, but I could for sure go higher and still not hear it.

 

[rsaylor3]

Speaking of tanks in the living room. I run the new G5 radions. The defuser does an outstanding job of knocking down the glare! Makes it so much more comfortable to watch a movie!

 

[Simon Reefing]

Thats awesome! I have the ap700 and its not to bad but a diffuser would be nice! Do you think it would affect the shimmering affect? I have radions gen 2 but I just can not make a good program for some reason lol

 

[rsaylor3]

I had researched a lot before ordering the lights you can find some pretty good YouTube videos about the diffuser. I agree with them in that the shimmering looks even better with the diffusers! The reduction in light is negligible!

I also love the way they magnetically attach! I do find though that I remove them now when doing any maintenance to the tank because I have a tendency to always knock them into the water

 

[minus9]

Appreciate that advisew to all this. Had a Fluval-spec v since February and just bought a Red Sea 300xl two months back. I was turning it off to stop the food from making it to the sump. Is that not such a bad thing?

Always looking to make sure I'm doing things right!

The amount of food that would make it to the sump with reduced flow is negligible and not something I would worry about. Again, you would use the lowest setting that would still push water into the display and keep it from draining. That's the beauty of DC, adjustability.

 

[rsaylor3]

Great, thanks!