Neptune WAV causing EB832 power bar to short - a bit disappointed with product reliability

[Acalin]

Hello all,

I am currently experiencing some issues with the Neptune WAV & EB832 components, and I must say I am quite disappointed to see what's happening and the fact that the product is not as reliable as I thought. I'm also going to note that I was a strong supporter of the Neptune Apex system but now I am having doubts and second thoughts.

Fortunately, the story I am going to tell you here happened a few days after my family and I got back home from a 3 week vacation. I am scared to think what could have happened if this issue would have popped up while we were away.

Two days ago, in the evening, I started smelling something like a burned electrical wire.
After a bit of panicking and running around the house, I got to my tank and realized the smell was coming from the EB832 bar.

My energy bar is in the cabinet below the aquarium, fairly close to the sump and in the past, I did have a few episodes when my Red Sea skimmer got full and as the foam was getting through the holes on the top lid and the bubbles were popping, some of those tiny droplets got sprayed around the interior of the cabinet. However, every time I made sure to check and confirm that the energy bar was not affected, and did not get wet.
Such episode did not happen in a while now and it wasn't the case 2 days ago either, but I started thinking that those past times could be the culprit and over time somehow it affected my power bar which now failed.
Next day (yesterday) I went to the store to buy another power bar. Got home, cleaned all the wires, all the connections from aquabuses and everything else, plugged all the wires back in, re-programmed my fusion as the address for the power bar had changed and everything was up and running by around 4PM and I was happy the issue got resolved.

Turns out it was just temporary.

This evening I started sensing again the same smell and I went straight to my tank cabinet just to see that the story is happening again. How is is possible? A brand new power bar?
So I start pulling out all the wires again and I notice that one of them, the WAV cable coming from the pump to the power bar was wet and had salt accumulation around it. I started to think how would that be possible as I cleaned everything very well the prior day, even used an electronics contact cleaner spray that is non-conductive and everything was like new.

At this point, I am starting to think how that connection can get wet and then I realized what happened.
Currently I have only WAV pump in my tank. The second is out of service because one day, about half a year ago, as I was cleaning my tank, I wanted to clean the pump too. And while I cleaned the pump, I wanted to clean the wire as well, as there were some deposits of from some algae on it as well, so I started brushing it. But as I was brushing the wire I noticed the black plastic cable is quite brittle and cracks started to form along the wire as I was brushing.
I stopped, but it was too late, as by the time I plugged the pump in, it wasn't working so I am pretty sure some wires got stripped or maybe even interrupted while I was cleaning.
Because of that, I left my second WAV pump in the tank, untouched.
Looks like that second pump's wire must have gotten eaten, or as it got brittle started having micro-fisures or micro-holes, I cannot say exactly what, but what I can tell you for sure is that the water from the tank leaked through the wire and got inside the connection and shorted by EB832 power bar. Pretty hard to believe, but I'll attach some pictures to prove it.
So think about the black rubber covering the 3-4 color wires (I don't know how many are inside). The water got inside that black wire covering the colored ones and it was an easy path to go through there down to the connection in the cabinet.
I actually tested it. Dried out the connector at the end of the wire with a paper towel and left it hanging for a few minutes. I saw a water drop forming from inside the wire.

I assume many of you have the WAV pumps so I am curious to hear if any of you had this issue before.
I opened a ticked with Neptune Support to see if they are willing to help me in some way. I am likely going to repair the EB832's locally, as I live in Canada, and I don't want to waste time with shipping them to Neptune in California and back. Every year I seem to have some major issue with this Neptune system. 3 times in the past with the actual Apex controller and now with the WAV pump wire causing the power bar to short.
What I know for sure is that I pulled that second WAV pump out of the tank and I will look for something like a Vortech pump so that I limit the amount of wires coming out of the water and down into my power bar.

Attached are some pictures.
I am hoping this thread will help new refers with their decision making in purchasing a wave pump and I am also curious to find out if anyone else from the other reefers here experienced this issue.

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I’m having a difficult time imagining how water could enter the jacket of the wav cable, climb uphill out of the water and over the rim of the tank. Are you positive water is not splashing/wicking and just following the cable down? Do you have a drip loop and the water is climbing back up, inside the cable jacket, through the molded connector, and out the pins, entering the powerbar? Anything’s possible I guess, but it doesn’t really seem plausible. I would strongly recommend moving your electronics to a separate area from the sump, or at the very least as far away from the skimmer as possible. Nobody’s equipment is potted and water/salt proof. Not that it matters but I’ve had wav pumps for many years and while I have had longevity issues with them, I’ve never had water inside the cables. Even with urchins that chewed up the cable jackets pretty well. Bright side is that you really don’t have too awful long to worry about it as wav pumps are history. I’ve been replacing mine as they go on the cheap with Jebao gyres as I just can’t spend the coin on mp series pumps.

Edit. I can’t see pictures due to my vision, so I apologize if this was covered in the pics

 

[Acalin]

I’m having a difficult time imagining how water could enter the jacket of the wav cable, climb uphill out of the water and over the rim of the tank. Are you positive water is not splashing/wicking and just following the cable down? Do you have a drip loop and the water is climbing back up, inside the cable jacket, through the molded connector, and out the pins, entering the powerbar? Anything’s possible I guess, but it doesn’t really seem plausible. I would strongly recommend moving your electronics to a separate area from the sump, or at the very least as far away from the skimmer as possible. Nobody’s equipment is potted and water/salt proof. Not that it matters but I’ve had wav pumps for many years and while I have had longevity issues with them, I’ve never had water inside the cables. Even with urchins that chewed up the cable jackets pretty well. Bright side is that you really don’t have too awful long to worry about it as wav pumps are history. I’ve been replacing mine as they go on the cheap with Jebao gyres as I just can’t spend the coin on mp series pumps.

Edit. I can’t see pictures due to my vision, so I apologize if this was covered in the pics

Well, I hope you'll never have the chance to see it on your side. I was as surprised as you are when I noticed it.
But you stated exactly what happened on your cables with urchins chewing that black jacket.
That's what happened in my case.

I have a Red Sea 250 tank with the cabinet underneath and all my electronics are in that cabinet.
If you read my post, it's not the water splashing on them. Initially, that was my assumption too. But I bought a separate EB832 last week and within a day that one was fried too so that's what triggered me in doing some deeper research and that's when I found the actual issue.

Again, once the jacket got punctured or eaten a bit inside the tank, that made a way to the water to get inside the cable. Since all electronics are in the cabinet below, that cable was acting as a syphon. Drip loops are useless in this case because the water is inside the cable, not leaking through the exterior of the cable. Eventually, because the cabinet is below the pump's level, that water will get in the socket through the cable. And that's what happened in my case.

As far as having more WAV's in my tank, the answer is NO!
I already got a Vortech pump instead, to limit the amount of wires that go in the water and down into the cabinet.

I hope this clarifies a bit things.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Well, I hope you'll never have the chance to see it on your side. I was as surprised as you are when I noticed it.
But you stated exactly what happened on your cables with urchins chewing that black jacket.
That's what happened in my case.

I have a Red Sea 250 tank with the cabinet underneath and all my electronics are in that cabinet.
If you read my post, it's not the water splashing on them. Initially, that was my assumption too. But I bought a separate EB832 last week and within a day that one was fried too so that's what triggered me in doing some deeper research and that's when I found the actual issue.

Again, once the jacket got punctured or eaten a bit inside the tank, that made a way to the water to get inside the cable. Since all electronics are in the cabinet below, that cable was acting as a syphon. Drip loops are useless in this case because the water is inside the cable, not leaking through the exterior of the cable. Eventually, because the cabinet is below the pump's level, that water will get in the socket through the cable. And that's what happened in my case.

As far as having more WAV's in my tank, the answer is NO!
I already got a Vortech pump instead, to limit the amount of wires that go in the water and down into the cabinet.

I hope this clarifies a bit things.

Yeah, glad it’s dc not ac! Pretty crazy! I guess one could remove part of the jacket at a low point and video it draining into a container to send into support as proof. I’ve always had good luck with customer service, but again that doesn’t mean everyone does.