Smell something burning....could be your return pump

[Reefer_Madness]

Symptoms:

 

Temperature of tank had some big swings. Couldn't figure it out. 400w of heat in 120g

 

All of a sudden I started getting HA. Parameters would good and hadn't changed anything

 

Started smelling a hot smell. Wasn't insulation burning. Couldn't track it down. Strange smell but couldn't put my finger on it. One day it got really bad. Wife started worrying and made me dig into it.

 

After thinking about it and turning off each piece of equipment individually to try and find the issue, I realized the smell was steady but seemed to get worse around the same time each hour. Feedings happen at the 15m mark and Kalk goes in at 30m. I disassembled my doser, feeders, and lights looking for a smoking gun....nothing. Figured it may be my skimmer. Took it out and checked it. Nothing. Took out each heater and smelled them. Nothing.

 

Then it dawned on me that I have checked everything but my built proof DC6000 Waveline return pump. It couldn't be that tho....I was wrong. When I put my arm in the return pump compartment my are came out with some kind of oil spots. The oil smelled just like the bad smell. I reached down and started feeling around the return pump inlet hole. The inlet was plugged with a piece of plastic. It had obviously been restricting flow and burned out the pump. Completely my fault.

 

So...I went and bought an Ecotech Vectra M1 return pump. Just turned it on. Very nice pump....and it doesn't stink!!!

[EBR]

Glad you found it!  A few weeks ago, my wife and kids heard a "pop" from the tank, followed by a burning smell.  A bunch of tube worms had gotten inside one of the heaters and got so big that they stressed the casing and popped off the top assembly.  Water got in, and the whole thing toasted.

 

Why does this stuff happen only when the wife and kids are nearby?

[Squishie89]

 

 

Why does this stuff happen only when the wife and kids are nearby?

The equipment knows when we are near and not to misbehave.