Tunze troubles... am I the only one?
 

Well, I'm slowly growing a dislike for my Tunze equipment. Maybe I knock German vehicle engineering too much and this is karma biting me in the butt.

I picked up 2 used tunze waveboxes (old style) and am pretty sure that they malfunctioned somehow spilling water all over the floor, and the wavebox electronics. Hmm. Not all too worried about this portion of my problems, but I mentioned it anyways.

OK, so I gave up on used equipment, and bought 2 of the new style waveboxes... 6215 I think. I also grabbed 2 6105's. Shortly after recieving the 6105's, one of the power supplies crapped out and Tunze replaced it under warranty. Fast forward a week or 2 and one of the 6105 heads is no longer spinning. I finally find time to take it apart, give it a bit of a cleaning (not that there was anything inside of it) and it's working again. Today, I wake up from my deep night shift slumber, go downstairs and one of the 6215s is not spinning. I could see it twitch everytime that the wave controller pulsed, but it wouldn't spin. I cursed and grumbled, took the pump out, took it apart, 'cleaned it' (nothing in there that needed cleaning IMO) and put it back in. Applied power, it pulsed twice and crapped out again.

WTF!? The oldest peice of Tunze equipment in the tank is no more than 2 months old. I don't get it. 3 failures already? More than $1500 in purchase price? Maybe I'll switch back to Koralia!

I had read everywhere on here that 'you can't kill Tunzes'... 'they're bullet proof'

Am I just cursed? Is anyone else out there experiencing stuff like this (the new stuff... I'm not worried about the used stuff that got soaked)? Did Tunze build a bad batch of pumps or what?

I had some similar issues and after replacing a motor block and impeller, found that it was the power supply. I don't know if I have the wrong diode (for voltage.. you usually run them at 18 v but for wavrboxes you want 24 v and you can step them down if you want too). The new style and old style power supplies use diodes that look interchangeable but they are not the same. Not sure what the consequence is of using the wrong one. In my case the voltage output is not steady. Multimeter showed it bouncing all over the place.

All I know is I got a used wavebox running for over 2 years and no problems. I also got a 6101 that I have had for 5yrs....still going strong. Another 6101 for 3yrs that I bought used. I only clean them once a year too....

Tunze is giving people 24V jumpers now for their 6105s to boost the flow btw...

I've run dual 6100's for years, no issues.

I think you're cursed, I have always had tunze, my 500 gallon has four turbelle stream 6200 since 2000 and probably been clean only 4 times due to laziness. Only replaced 1 propeller in all those years. Love them, but they are bulky. So here maybe I'll give you some good luck. I recommend them. Regards Ken

I was under the impression that any of the 3 diodes can be used depending on if you want more or less flow. I've only used the new ones and I'm pretty sure that they are all running on the 18V diodes. I'd have to confirm that when I get home though. I wonder if they've just made a bad batch of power supplies. As I said, I had the first one crap out giving me no flow out of my 6215, and now this. Could just be fluke that they worked briefly when I "cleaned" them. I think I'm going to see if I can find a way to contact Tunze directly and ask about this problem.

check to see if Rodger Vitko is still running the Tunze forum over at Reef Central..

I actually just went to the tunze site, picked Canada as my coutry and sent them an email. Hopefully they get back to me.

Roger Vitko at reefcentral is far quicker and more informative than any email to Tunze in Canada whose distributor can be painfully slow to react. Unfortunately, he can only offer advice to you and any warranty issues have to remain in Canada.