mag drive pump ran dry

[kole]

Came home to a mess. The outlet of the phosban reactor popped off and 10-15 gallons of water went onto the floor. :mad: My return pump ran dry. Question is will it be ok or will I have to replace it? If your running TLF phosban reactors please put clamps on the inputs and outputs. Save yourself from the mess I'm cleaning up now.

[BlueTang<3]

What do you have to loose, try to run it and see what happens can you see any damage on the impeller? Yeah that was a lesson we also learned but our dogs knocked ours off.

[kole]

Its running but it doesn't seem to be pumping as fast. I haven't checked the impeller. Didn't think of it.

[BlueTang<3]

My biggest concern would be the magnet as it was probably running very hot when running dry. If it doesn't seem right order a new pump and keep an eye on this one, change it out once it fails. But i would make sure to have a spare on hand.

[kole]

I think I will order one just in case. I also had a fluval tronic heater that was in the same part of the sump as the reactor so that was dry but I just read it has a shut off built in that protects it. Which leads to another question. I had 2 heaters in my sump but of course when the water level dropped the display tank stopped getting heated water and the temperature dropped in the display. DOes everyone place a heater in their display or only in the sump?

[Funky_Fish14]

I only have heaters in my sump. No ugly equipment in my tank for me!

Mag drive... those things are like a super-sized maxi-jet. Abuse the heck-out of em... throw them around a bit, they still run. Pull the impeller out, see if its swollen or has some bad ridges worn into it. If it looks shot, order a new impeller,(provided inside the motor housing, its still ok). If it feels messed up inside the main unit you may have to replace, but I'd give it a good cleaning of all the parts and fire it up again. I have had pumps that ran dry many times before... maxi-jets and a mag. They were still fine!

Like Wes said though, good idea to have a back-up on hand anyways.