check out this impeller gone bad off my skimmer pump... this is just terrifying that it was in my tank and the octo is still alive...

couple of nights i kept hearing a strange noise and a few moments later it stopped. so i did what everyone does when they hear strange noises and i went back to sleep. this morning i noticed that the skimmer wasnt running so i checked the pump and behold the monster from hell... this thing had just cracked the plastic coating on the magnet at first and a few hours later out of the water this is what resulted... just think if i had left it in! anyway i think everything is fine with the octo though cause hes still very active and hungry and i put in a couple poly filters just to be safe but DAMN thats scary!

Hi Joefish, Forgive my ignorance, but I don't understand what happened. Would this mishap have killed the octopus? Or just messed up his environment? Hope it doesn't cost too much to repair.

OMG good thing you got that out!!!! Hopefully its not an expesnsive fix and maybe buy 2 just incase

Thats nutty. I service about 60 tanks a month and have been for more then a few years now and I have never seen an impeller do that. What was the brand pump?

it was a pengiun 1140 i think thats on my skimmer and ive never seen this before either and no lie all that started it was a little crack in the plastic coating on the magnet. im just glad i got it out before it did this while in operation sending the little magnetic metal particals all over the tank! that truely would have sucked and result in an entire dimantlement of the tank and new substrate, rock, and water. but luckly i got it out just in time apparently.

and to the first question yes this would have killed the octopus seeing that the magnet is comprised of heavy metals and if you look closely at the picture that frozen explosion is all metal shavings... deadly to the ceph and any other invert out there

hey this is kinda funny i posted a thread much like this one on reef central to remind everyone to check their pumps and some guy freaked on me and started threating that he was an weapons engineer but yet he thought that an impeller was the motor and didnt think that a ships engine and its propeller is the same theory as a magnetic motor and an impeller for an aquarium! funny huh? glad no one here freaked out like that the man pissed me off i just wanted to remind everyone to check pumps regularly due to my mishap.

thanks. Good thing you caught it. Glad junior is okay! :smile:

I've NEVER seen anything like that!!! Showed the pic to our staff which has reinforced our resolve never to skimp on the weekly checks of our pumps and impellers!!!!!

Thanks for the heads up Joe!

J

it was a pengiun 1140 i think thats on my skimmer and ive never seen this before either and no lie all that started it was a little crack in the plastic coating on the magnet.

Don't replace it with a Rio. I was about to order one with a needle wheel for my new skimmer until I came across this thread:

Let's count the broken Rios (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=103466&perpage=25&highlight=Lets%20Count%20the%20Broken%20 Rios&pagenumber=1)

Dan

Thanks for posting that link, DHyslop!

Thanks for posting that link, DHyslop!

Given that any thread like this is inherently an unscientific sample, it still is amazing that there are that many failures out there for this powerhead. And spectacular failures too, entire systems killed, electric shocks, etc etc!

Dan

despite the mishap though i still love my penguin and am planning to just get a new impeller. somehow this little pump has been running a 3 foot tall 4 inch whide diy skimmer for 3 years beatifully. i tried runnig it with an 802 and it didnt perform as nicely as with the little penguin so im just gonna replace the impeller and hope it doesnt happen again