MP40QD magnet flaw

[drclifton]

This is a warning on the MP40QD wetside assemblies. I am not sure if this is a known issue or not. I am a huge ecotech fan and own 4 radion pro gen 3's, a reeflink, the vectra L1 and 3 MP40QDs so I am not trying to hate on ecotech at all. Let me start at the beginning.

I purchased 3 brand new MP40QD pumps for my 200 gallon display (left side, right side and back side) shortly after they were introduced to market. MP40QDs worked great until about 6-7 months ago when I seemingly randomly lost an orchid dottyback, lineatus wrasse and 2 flame wrasses along with a yellow tang and a naso tang within a short time frame. I thought is was very odd as nothing had changed on the tank that I could tell.

Fast forward a few weeks while I am still reeling from the loss of my fish, my acropora and LPS begin struggling. Bleaching at first until finally it was completely dead. I went from many corals to only 2 survivors, half a rainbow monti and a montipora setosa in about 3 weeks time. I was dumbfounded. Literally nothing had changed on the tank that I could tell. I run a full apex system and everything is automated. I ripped everything I could think of apart and cleaned it, removed rock and cured it, did massive water changes and tried to find a cause. I never found anything I could definitively say had caused the problem.

I was dejected. I nearly gave up on my tank and contemplated taking it down. I think the only thing that kept my tank up and going were the few surviving corals and fish. Well just the other day I noticed a sound coming from one of the MP40QD pumps that I had not heard before. It was loud and sounded like the pump was struggling. The wetside had become disconnected. I put my hand on the dryside and it was almost hot enough to burn my skin. I tried to re-attach the wetside only to have it fling off immediately upon restarting the pump. I immediately turned the pump off and tried to troubleshoot what was happening and noticed that the propeller was very difficult to spin on the wetside. I had routinely cleaned the wetsides of the MP40QDs and tried to keep coraline algae at bay to avoid seizing up , but until now did not realize that you can remove the magnet from the housing. Maybe I am dense, but no manual I had seen explained that this was possible. Well I opened the housing and this is what I saw.










It looks like the magnet has exploded and nearly completely rusted out. The expansion eventually caused the wetside to seize up and cause the dryside to malfunction.

I immediately grabbed the wetside off of the 2 other pumps I have and tore them apart. This is what I saw:



Pump 2 looked okay, but pump 3 did not!





Pump 3 has a linear crack in the black housing that extends to the central cap and there is the slightest raised surface under the crack.

I was again left speechless and dumbfounded. Could this have been the cause of my tank crash? It is certainly the only abnormal thing I have found since my loss. I was furious. It has taken me several hours to calm down enough to even put together this post. 2 out of 3 of my pumps seem to be affected and one has progressed to the point of taking down the dryside so now I suspect the pump is worthless. This seems like a flaw that may affect more people than just myself.

I caution you to check the magnets on your wetside assemblies as soon as you can. I have no idea what it is going to require to get my tank back to normal at this point.

David

[mpsteve]

I have four and haven't seen signs of this issue yet on mine. And I have some mp40 Wes going on 5 years old still working. I would contact ecotech by phone to get this corrected


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[ddanis60]

I'm really sorry to see this and hope your tank condition improves from here forward. From lurking the forums, I have seen others post these exact same type of pictures of their wet sides in the last year or two. Good luck getting it resolved.


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[davocean]

I saw this posted in the ecotech feedback forum and posted/commented there not so much to bag on eco (I still like their pump design) but to make aware that there are some issues, though they seem random, one of my pumps(MP40QD) has been fine but another was bad, not to your level as shown in pics, but popping away from each other and screaming noise, and though they were quick to send a replacement originally, that replacement did the very same thing.

After more than a month later my issue was finally resolved on the 3rd wet side I was given, but it was not easy to get that from them or get them to admit I was given a couple bad ones.

I saw in your other post ecotech did reply to resolve your issue based on pics of a pretty obvious failure.

[fcmatt]

I am sorry to hear about all of this. Losing so much live stock to such a premium pump is hard to swallow. You would think they could fill that piece with something less reactive to salt water for safety's sake at the price point they cost. Essentially if something fails.. we all understand there is a lemon out of 100s but they should plan on failures not being so damaging to a person's tank. Fail safely for goodness sakes.

I owned an original MP40. Bit the dust after a year and a half. I have two MP10s sitting in their boxes because one is loud and the other seems ok but they were not used much more then a year.

I am not going with them anymore. Some people swear by them buy I would rather try a gyre that is on the second or third gen or old fashioned powerheads which just keep working after years and years.

[TX_Punisher]

I've been seeing more and more of This. I just picked up two of the 40 qd's twocmonths ago for my new build. For the price point it is a bit disappointing to see these types of issues pop up. I've heard good and bad from eco's dealing with this.

[coralfish]

I've had the same issue...ecotech replaced the wetsides...but I'm sure it's just a matter of time before they wear out again.


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[DivingTheWorld]

I found the same cracked/rusting issue on one of my wetsides during my last cleaning. Ecotech was quick to send me a replacement. I plan to carefully inspect the magnets during each cleaning now. If this keeps happening though, I hope I don't get grief doing multiple exchanges...

[mrhighline]

I've had the same issues with the 40's on my 180. my pumps are about 3 years old. I just replaced both wetsides to the tune of 150.00. I'm thinking its just a normal "wear and tear" type situation.

[DivingTheWorld]

Originally Posted by mrhighline

I've had the same issues with the 40's on my 180. my pumps are about 3 years old. I just replaced both wetsides to the tune of 150.00. I'm thinking its just a normal "wear and tear" type situation.

If it is, that's disappointing. Mine was on a MP40QD which is only about 1.5 years old...

[chgoblknazn]

I'll be checking my wetsides tonight. I tried out their feed modes in the last few weeks and each time the mode ends, the wet and dry sides pop apart on both sides of the tank. I hope this isn't the precursor to issues with my MP40QDs.

[homer1475]

I wonder if its just the 40 line? My mp10's are 3 years old now, and fter seeing this and another thread(both mp40's), I took mine apart and the magnets are fine.

[ktownhero]

Originally Posted by chgoblknazn

I'll be checking my wetsides tonight. I tried out their feed modes in the last few weeks and each time the mode ends, the wet and dry sides pop apart on both sides of the tank. I hope this isn't the precursor to issues with my MP40QDs.

I only have that happen if Feed Mode is set to the lowest setting (prop barely spins).

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[jayball]

Thanks for the PSA. I was also unaware the wetside could be taken apart like that. (to be fair it is in the manual)

I'll be checking on this during my next cleaning