Return Pump not turning back on...

[Pennies2Cents]

Okay so we have this old return pump that actually came with the setup when we originally purchased it. The issue has always been that when we turn it off to clean the tank or for what ever reason it had to be hit a little on the side or water pushed back into it. Well tonight has been a different case. I turned it off, but now it wont turn back on, not even with the water being pushed in there with a pump, a little smacking with the hammer etc....

My worry is well of course the obvious.. Will my tank survive with only the 2 MP40's running? And if so how long?

We plan on taking it off and cleaning it on the inside to hopefully clear it of any ditrus tomorrow.

[StevenSeas]

as long as you have surface disturbance you should be ok for the night.

as far as getting the pump to start up again i have run into a similar problem again and again, especially with older pumps. What I would try is remove the front cover to get to the impeller and while its plugged in tap the impeller (ideally with something like a screwdriver not your finger as that hurts) I am not sure why this occurs my guess is that it just gets locked up or seated to low or something. but this always seems to do the trick for me

[BIGBIRD123]

nevermind

[roscozman]

Still would no start up this morning. We dropped a back-up Mag18 inside the return section of our sump and ran some tubing we use for water changes for now. This is only temporary. The pump that went out is a ReeFlo Dart Pump.

[Pennies2Cents]

Time for a NEW ONE!

[aquasport24]

I am having the same problem with my Mag 18, i think it has alot to do with back presure. I ran with just 2 mp40s for 3 days when my return pump was down, with no issues.

[Bill S]

Eve/Ross. I have a QuietOne 9000 - 2300gph+, that is anything but quiet, just sitting in the garage. Let me know if you want to borrow. It's brand new - just been run a couple of hours in fresh water.

And, if you need our could use an external only, I have at least 1 1200gph sitting around.

[roscozman]

Thanks Bill. We might be giving you a call today or tomorrow...

[chrisfowler99]

Knew I read something like this the other day. Found it on the Reeflo site:



Not sure this is your case...but it's a possibility.

[roscozman]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. The pump did come back on last night.

We had a little issue with our back up pump. We got home yesterday and everything was great until we took our puppy outside to do her business. Some time in the 5 seconds we were gone, our two year old turned off the only switch on our light strip that controls the pump. This created a siphon and the sump over flowed a little and we had to clean up some water off the floor. I never put a hole in the top of the PVC pipe because we only used it for water changes. Also our door that covers the light strip has a child proof lock... But we forgot to close that door. Now there is a hole in the pipe and we have our two year old on puppy patrol.