Urgent help needed Reeftek TS3 Impellor broken

kvans

kvans

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PLEASE HELP! My Reeftek TS3's needle wheel impeller broke last week

Pic of impeller:

LJCotcEl.jpg


Pic of needle wheel (Note warped side and cracked center)

iDgdnV6l.jpg


9QalZgzl.jpg


I bought a replacement, but the replacement (Labeled as OTP-3000 needle wheel) doesn't work at all. The new impeller cant even fill the chamber with water or pull in bubbles.

If I attach the old impeller the chamber fills with water and bubbles are pulled thru but the pump makes a huge grinding noise due to the imbalanced needle wheel. If I attach the new impeller there is no noise, but the chamber barely fills with water and there are zero bubbles.

What could the issue be? are there different versions of the OTP-3000 impellers?

Tank has been without a skimmer for 4 days now and I'm terrified of losing my livestock!
 
Is there nothing coating the magnet of the new impeller? Does it spin?
 
Mac75 said:
Is there nothing coating the magnet of the new impeller? Does it spin?
Click to expand...

Nothing coating the magnet, it definitely spins, it just seems that it cant spin enough to pull enough water into the chamber to fill it.

Morak said:
Silly question, but are the rubber end caps in place?
Click to expand...

Both rubber caps are in place.

Don't know if this makes a difference but the replacement i bought doesn't work, but looks slightly different

ORIGINAL:
LJCotcE.jpg


REPLACEMENT:
P7Gwbum.jpg


As you can see the replacement has WAY less teeth and larger gaps, could that be why the pump cannot pull in enough water?
 
Is the overall length and magnet size identical?
 
Will the ceramic shaft come out of the replacement and use it on the old one. Hard to see with the picks.
 
Mac75 said:
Is the overall length and magnet size identical?
Click to expand...

Both are the same, its only the impeller bit that differs.

Carcharias said:
Will the ceramic shaft come out of the replacement and use it on the old one. Hard to see with the picks.
Click to expand...

If i remove the ceramic shaft and put it with the old one it works - water enters the chamber and bubbles begin to pull through, BUT the pump makes a HUGE noise due to the old impeller being warped and a little cracked.
 
ive sent the suplier all the detail , just waiting for a response while he checks his stock, but the one you bought is verified to be a OTP 3000( from pumps he has in stock.

Chat soon
D
 
Perky pets said:
ive sent the suplier all the detail , just waiting for a response while he checks his stock, but the one you bought is verified to be a OTP 3000( from pumps he has in stock.

Chat soon
D
Click to expand...

Thanks so much! your customer service has been phenomenal. Really sad I didn't buy the skimmer from Perky's originally. The supplier where I bought my skimmer has been useless in helping me fix this.

trad said:
Does the wheel turn with the magnet or are the two independent and loose? i.e. they should turn together, so what's on the back of the pinwheel to fix it to the magnet?
Click to expand...

Will confirm this afternoon. Pump is sitting in some RO water as the moment soaking in case there's some sort of blockage I cant see causing all these issues.
 
bit of advice here, I've had to do an urgent repair on a similar skimmer pump a few months back, there's a product at builders Aquamend that is blue/green in colour with a white core that you kneed together and becomes hard after a few minutes, this can be used to glue the pin wheel back to the magnet core, as for the shaft repair you could prolly get away with thicker Stainless steel welding rod from builders, they usually sell them in packs of 5's, cut it to length and remove the outer flux, and this should work for at least 6 months temporary until you get the correct spares.

Measure your current shaft, ceramic and try purchase a welding rod, same thickness but without the flux.
 
Issue has been resolved. Big thanks to Perky Pets for the great service. Skimmer is back in action!!
 
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