mag drive pump ran dry
 

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.