Tunze 3155 (5017 controller) stopped working

[reeftankdan]

My Tunze 3155 is less than 4 months old. Has been working steady until now. I was woken up by the alarm beeping a few nights ago, yet the water level was fine. I unplugged it and when I went to reconnect it the next morning, it simply beeps and does nothing. I rechecked all the connections, checked the laser sensor, cleaned the sensor thoroughly, cleaned the power port, and even opened it up to check for moisture/water damage… none of this worked. I turn it on, I get all green for a second, then beeps, and rotates from all red/yellow to a green level light only… pump and pump light does nothing…

 

[reeftankdan]

If I move the sensor around in the sump. It recognizes it on the controller. But the pump light is just off. Did my pump just die??

 

[reeftankdan]

here’s a video

 

[rvitko]

This light pattern indicates a voltage overload, the usual causes are below and must be checked in this order.

1) The wrong power supply has been connected by mistake, make absolutely sure of this first as if this is wrong, the other tests and solutions are meaningless, they will all hide this root issue. The power supply is 12VDC 1600mA and should be labeled Tunze 5012.010. This is the single most common cause of this problem.
2) The pump connectors are shorted by water or salt creep.
3) The pump speed was completely maxed out, turn it down slightly, fully maxed out the current draw can exceed the maximum amount the controller safeties will allow and cause this error code.
4)The pump has failed, assuming everything above has been verified first, if you try it with no pump connected and the lights stay on and indicate correct water level status, the pump has failed.

 

[reeftankdan]

This light pattern indicates a voltage overload, the usual causes are below and must be checked in this order.

1) The wrong power supply has been connected by mistake, make absolutely sure of this first as if this is wrong, the other tests and solutions are meaningless, they will all hide this root issue. The power supply is 12VDC 1600mA and should be labeled Tunze 5012.010. This is the single most common cause of this problem.
2) The pump connectors are shorted by water or salt creep.
3) The pump speed was completely maxed out, turn it down slightly, fully maxed out the current draw can exceed the maximum amount the controller safeties will allow and cause this error code.
4)The pump has failed, assuming everything above has been verified first, if you try it with no pump connected and the lights stay on and indicate correct water level status, the pump has failed.

Thank you for getting back to me and emailing me. So I ordered a replacement and it’s working great. I think the issue may be partially number 2.

Awhile back the pump start choking on air and no longer working properly, though I could hear it trying to activate, it was just stopping. I began searching online, and I found a video of a guy on YouTube who had a similar issue and said he solved it by putting small punctures in the bottom of the pumps neck. I did this, and immediately the pump started working again! A month later the pump completely failed and I posted here. That “fix” must’ve allowed water into parts of the pump that likely busted it.

If my new pump starts choking on air again and not pumping, what is a better way to fix the problem that won’t damage the unit?

 

[rvitko]

The best practice is to just tip the pump upside down when resubmerged any time it has been out of water. We experimented considerably with the bleed hole idea, it has a lot of risks, primarily that in a low water level condition, you now have a high pressure water jet that can escape the reservoir and pump water on the floor and possibly electrical items, this is why even though it works, we never implemented it. The High Jet pump also would be a solution, it has a priming feature based on its circuitry to pulse if needed to purge trapped air.