I had a really positive experience with my Abyzz A200 IPU pump and wanted to share it.
About a month ago, I got a new freshwater aquarium.... it came with a couple of bags of cheap carbon, and I thought... "don't just throw it away... toss it in the saltwater sump for a day or two and then toss it." I checked my sump the next morning and my Abyzz pump had sucked the cheap mesh bag of carbon into the input, tore the mesh, and spit out a couple of large granules of carbon out in my tank. I had a 'duh' moment that I did something stupid, took out the ripped carbon bag, and moved on with my life.
A few days later I noticed that my return pump wasn't pumping with as much flow, but it was still pumping. My non reef tank life was busy so I ignored it for a few weeks. I FINALLY had some time to check in on things, and felt the return outflow and it was weak. I checked and my Abyzz pump was at 80% which used to pump a LOT of water. I removed the return pump, took it apart, inspected it, and all looked well. I reinstalled it and flow was still slow.
I opened a support ticket, and Abyzz support, in Germany, replied immediately during their business hours (i'm GMT-8, they are GMT +1). They asked intelligent questions, really gave me confidence they know what they are doing. I took some pictures of the impeller, some readings from the controller, etc).
Everything looked fine. one of the fins on the impeller was bent, but otherwise all was well. but the pump was still slow.
So... I thought... maybe my plumbing is clogged somehow? i've been reefing for a lot of years and have never had clogged plumbing but... maybe? So I disconnected some unions (thank you past me) and sure enough... my Neptune 1" flow meter, which essentially has a spinning plastic paddle in the pipe, was jammed up with carbon pellets!
In retrospect it's all so obvious. My flow meter went to zero (i noticed a few days after the initial carbon incident)... I wrote it off as some disconnect with my Neptune Apex but didn't take the time to diagnose right away. The pump was in perfect condition, wasn't loud, etc.
A few takeaways.
1 - I'm going to remove the flow meter. Even though it actually gave me valuable data, it does introduce a clogging hazard. If I wasn't silly enough to ignore the 0 flow rate and realize it was telling me that was where the clog was it would have been a quick fix...but the paddle wheels of the sensor actually caused the problem. And do I really need to know GPH for the return pump or can I just feel the output from the return with my hand? I don't think sump return GPH is critical to tank health, not really, and adding an extra piece of equipment caused an issue.
2 - I'm sooo happy with my Abyzz pump. Initially I was wondering if I was just stupid/gucci for paying so much for a pump to shoot water down a pipe? really? But then I looked at the hour counter on the pump... 33,000 hours. That's 3.7 YEARS of continuous duty. Besides the impeller issue caused by the carbon pellet strike, it still works PERFECTLY. I've had decent luck with Ecotech too (one failure in 2.5 years running three pumps) and they are a lot cheaper... Ecotech is still a solid choice but they aren't Abyzz.
Anyhow, thought this was an interesting gear story. Happy reefing!
So I guess this is a love letter to simplicity in aquarium setup, and Abyzz pumps.
About a month ago, I got a new freshwater aquarium.... it came with a couple of bags of cheap carbon, and I thought... "don't just throw it away... toss it in the saltwater sump for a day or two and then toss it." I checked my sump the next morning and my Abyzz pump had sucked the cheap mesh bag of carbon into the input, tore the mesh, and spit out a couple of large granules of carbon out in my tank. I had a 'duh' moment that I did something stupid, took out the ripped carbon bag, and moved on with my life.
A few days later I noticed that my return pump wasn't pumping with as much flow, but it was still pumping. My non reef tank life was busy so I ignored it for a few weeks. I FINALLY had some time to check in on things, and felt the return outflow and it was weak. I checked and my Abyzz pump was at 80% which used to pump a LOT of water. I removed the return pump, took it apart, inspected it, and all looked well. I reinstalled it and flow was still slow.
I opened a support ticket, and Abyzz support, in Germany, replied immediately during their business hours (i'm GMT-8, they are GMT +1). They asked intelligent questions, really gave me confidence they know what they are doing. I took some pictures of the impeller, some readings from the controller, etc).
Everything looked fine. one of the fins on the impeller was bent, but otherwise all was well. but the pump was still slow.
So... I thought... maybe my plumbing is clogged somehow? i've been reefing for a lot of years and have never had clogged plumbing but... maybe? So I disconnected some unions (thank you past me) and sure enough... my Neptune 1" flow meter, which essentially has a spinning plastic paddle in the pipe, was jammed up with carbon pellets!
In retrospect it's all so obvious. My flow meter went to zero (i noticed a few days after the initial carbon incident)... I wrote it off as some disconnect with my Neptune Apex but didn't take the time to diagnose right away. The pump was in perfect condition, wasn't loud, etc.
A few takeaways.
1 - I'm going to remove the flow meter. Even though it actually gave me valuable data, it does introduce a clogging hazard. If I wasn't silly enough to ignore the 0 flow rate and realize it was telling me that was where the clog was it would have been a quick fix...but the paddle wheels of the sensor actually caused the problem. And do I really need to know GPH for the return pump or can I just feel the output from the return with my hand? I don't think sump return GPH is critical to tank health, not really, and adding an extra piece of equipment caused an issue.
2 - I'm sooo happy with my Abyzz pump. Initially I was wondering if I was just stupid/gucci for paying so much for a pump to shoot water down a pipe? really? But then I looked at the hour counter on the pump... 33,000 hours. That's 3.7 YEARS of continuous duty. Besides the impeller issue caused by the carbon pellet strike, it still works PERFECTLY. I've had decent luck with Ecotech too (one failure in 2.5 years running three pumps) and they are a lot cheaper... Ecotech is still a solid choice but they aren't Abyzz.
Anyhow, thought this was an interesting gear story. Happy reefing!
So I guess this is a love letter to simplicity in aquarium setup, and Abyzz pumps.
