WAV randomly stopping

Hey everyone,

I have the new Apex 2016 and a set of WAV's. The WAV's have been installed for about a month and have been doing great!

They are plugged directly into the EB832. A few days ago I noticed one of my WAV's was randomly stopping. It almost looks like it is in some sort of randomized pulse mode.

The odd thing is that it is not consistent. Sometimes it might stall for a second or two, other times it is more like 5-10 seconds. It also seems to be happening at random times as well. It might go 5 minutes without stopping and other times it will be stop and go every 20 seconds.

Here is my programming:
Attachment 6547
Attachment 6548
Attachment 6549

So far I have tried cleaning the WAV, switching the 1Link port that it is plugged into, as well as switching which WAV is the reference pump.

Anyone else experience anything like this and have any ideas about how to fix it?

Just want to update this and say a few things. I noticed last night and this morning that the problem MIGHT have gone away. There MIGHT be a few explanations. These are the things that have changed:

1. It is only happening when in Mavericks mode
2. It was fixed by:
........a. Turning off both WAV's
........b. Upgrading firmware (both were already at SWRev 016 but I figured it might reset the firmware in some way)
3. It only happens when a second pump is running inversely to the first at 100%
........a. Last night I changed Wav_Lt to be running at 99% instead of 100%

I am going to have my girlfriend who is working from home today to see if it is still stopping while in Mavericks mode. If it is not then I will slowly revert the other changes I made and try to get an idea of what is causing it.

I am going to keep this thread up to date with my progress in case anyone else finds themselves with this issue.

Looks like it is still happening. Appears though that the issue MIGHT be isolated to Mavericks mode. I will do some more testing tonight and report back.

So I have been in contact with support. They had me try a few things.

The first was they wanted me to put the WAV in constant mode. I did this by editing the profile I was using so that all of the points were constant mode. I was still seeing the issue in this scenario.

They then instructed me to only use two points. I made two points in the profile, one at 00:00 the other at 23:59 and both are set to run a constant mode 20%. With these settings I no longer saw any stalling with the WAV.

This makes me think it might be related to the WAV having to transition to different %'s as the WAV transitions through the defined profile. Will wait to hear back from support about what to try next...

Any news to this?

What I have noticed is that if I turn the pump to on ... which is constant at 100% the pump does not stop!

Strange that is happening only to one single pump. The other is working just fine!

All the best,
Rui

Hi Rui,

Thanks for following along. It sounds like you are having a similar problem?

I had a support call with Neptune last night. We were able to confirm that my WAV is having problems.

He used telnet to connect to my WAV and took a bunch of readings while it was exhibiting the issue.

Interestingly enough he mentioned that at some points it appeared that the WAV was trying to run in reverse. He admitted that this was a known bug but that it had been fixed in a previous WAV software update.

At his recommendation I tried soaking the problem WAV in a 50/50 vinegar/water solution overnight to see if that helped the problem. It did not.

At this point I am just waiting for them to get back to me and let me know what to do next.

-Ryan

Have you tried to update the FW again?


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Yes. 16 is the latest firmware as far as I can tell. I was hoping the update would somehow reset the WAV and fix the problem. It did not.

Ok. Thanks for the update. I think I will open a ticket also in Neptune and see from there!


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And I will update here also!


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I noticed the same issue with my WAV's, on classic Apex, last stable firmwware, in Malibu and Rincon mode at 75/60%. Randomly my waw's stop and after a second restart. I hear the "click" at start of the rotor rotation.
This it's the same from the installation of the pumps, in the september 2016.
The pumps are both with the same sceduling, not in "inverse" mode and updated with the last fw.

So Neptune has set up an RMA for me. I asked if they could send me a replacement first, that way my tank would not be without a powerhead for a week or so. There is a large difference between having a powerhead that I can run at 20% constant and one only having a single powerhead in my 90 gallon tank.

I offered to pay up front the full cost of the replacement WAV and would then ship back the faulty unit upon receiving the replacement.

I still have not heard back from them, it has been two days.

If they are not willing to do this I think I will just buy a new WAV from BRS and then send in the faulty one once I have the new (hopefully not faulty) WAV installed.

With three reported incidents now that seem to have the same problem, I hope they find a solution for this soon.

this is interesting to me because i just installed the WAV system on my 150 reef 2 days ago. and it seems my programming is not right because last night i noticed they were turning on and off. i have the same exact setting in both my WAV units, is this wrong to do? i notice you have one of your WAVs with a nice graph & the other at 99% what is the reason for this? and how is it not going nuts at that high speed? this is all new to me so forgive me for being a "noob" but im just trying to figure out how to program correctly for my 150. Apex directions are very bland on this unit and i cant find alot of setups online.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Blkdonny22

this is interesting to me because i just installed the WAV system on my 150 reef 2 days ago. and it seems my programming is not right because last night i noticed they were turning on and off. i have the same exact setting in both my WAV units, is this wrong to do? i notice you have one of your WAVs with a nice graph & the other at 99% what is the reason for this? and how is it not going nuts at that high speed? this is all new to me so forgive me for being a "noob" but im just trying to figure out how to program correctly for my 150. Apex directions are very bland on this unit and i cant find alot of setups online.

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No worries I was confused by this as well at first when I was first setting them up. Basically when you are running two WAVs you can set one WAV as a reference pump for another WAV in two special modes. These modes are "Mirror" and "Inverse".

In Mirror mode one WAV will mirror the other WAV exactly. So in my example I have my left WAV set to "Inverse" and 99%. This means that it will be doing the opposite of the reference pump. So if the reference pump is set to 30% and varies +- 10% my left WAV will match this. So when the reference pump is at 25%, the inverse pump will be at 35%. When the reference pump is at 35% the inverse one would be at 25%.

In Mirror mode if one pump was at 30% the pump that is doing the mirroring would also be at 30%. When using inverse and mirror the percent is essentially a scaling factor. So I had mine set at 99% at the time because I was testing to see if that might fix my issue, it didn't.

An example would be if you set up a pump in mirror mode at 50% and the reference pump is running at 30%, the mirror pump would actually be running at 15% because of the 50% setting.

Does that make sense? Hoping I didn't confuse the issue more...

A little confusing to be honest lol, what i dont get is why they dont run at what i set them at and why they run differently. Example: i have both pumps in MALIBU mode i have them starting at 0:00 at 25% by 23:59 they ramp up to 35%, but yet right now one pump is running at 16% & the other at 18% and that still seems like to much flow, so im still trying to figure out what works best for my tank but my ultimate goal is to have 3 different styles of waves at all different speeds throughout the day and i guess to understand how to properly use them together.

So ...
I opened a ticket in support and waiting for their feedback to the initial log request that I sent yesterday.

Meantime I updated the FW again, removed all the alerts and put the configuration at 60% constant flow and I haven't seen the pump stop again during night time (I was working late as I had a meeting at 3am)

During daylight the pump continues to stop!

Strange!

hello all

i have three WAV pumps now due to me buying an extra pump because one of the first two quite working and freeze up, i would clean it like i was told, they would work for a while but then stop, i have changed impeller from one pump to the other with the same problem still happening, i have changed one link cable from port to port still freezing up, so i opened up a clam ticket with Neptune and also went reef a palooza to ask about this, i was told that it was not cleaned good enough, ( I can tell you that thing looked like NEW ), but was told it was dirty, so i went home and cleaned it like i was told and of course it worked for a day or two, i now went back and reopened the old ticket about the impeller not working and freezing up, after going back and forth in support they sent me an new impeller and i sent the old one back. the new one it worked for a little while and then stopped and are freezing up, the display says it is running at 44% but it is not doing anything.

i have never had to clean a pump as much as i have been cleaning all three of them ( NOW ALL THREE OF THEM ARE DOING IT ).

the problem seems to be at the top bushing and shaft area, not being able to take apart the impeller and clean that area is where i think the problem is at.

NEW impeller seem to work for awhile but start to freeze up after awhile

WHAT TO DO BUT BUY SOME OTHER BRAND NOW, NOT HAPPY WITH THE PUMPS AT ALL,
the controller works great BUT the pumps have a problem, Neptune made there MONEY on me this time.

I think the impeller needs to be changed to something better than the one they have now

Update ...

So I opened a ticket and they told me to clean the powerhead ... I did ... it worked for 2 days ... cleaned again ... worked for two more days ...

Change the impellers between pumps assuming it might be the impeller ... worked for about 3 weeks then came to the same!

I just reopened the ticket. Very unhappy with these pumps at the moment.

Sold the WXM module, sold 2 Tunze and 2 Vortech MP40 replacing with two WAVs and I have an issue now ...

Let's see what they reply but for me the problem is clearly on the motor side of the pump!

All the best,
Rui

I have had this same exact issue, I only have one pump that I use for circulation/mixing in a saltwater reservoir tank used in conjunction with a DOS pump that is used as a water change system.I have this pump drawing input and power from one of my EB832's. I have the pump set to constant and it wll run with no rhyme or reason, 5-10 minutes, then will click as if it is reversing flow, then will run for 10 seconds,..etc. the pump is clean with no obstruction. frankly the whole clean the pump sounds like an " I dont know" to me. this almost acts like an internal electronics issue or software. I have seen programmable pumps that have been caked with coralline with no issues. is a resolution to this issue been discovered yet? My strive has always been to have a fully integrated Neptune system and I am a huge fan of the products and a user for many years. any suggestions?

I'm seeing this stop/start issue now as well. Seems to stall in modes other than constant.

Sooo I just literally put these pumps in three days ago and one of them is starting and stopping just like described above. I tried everything to a T suggested, did anyone get anywhere with this or what did you ultimately have to do to resolve the issue?
Thanks

open a support ticket if the pumps are new!

I have a phone call scheduled this afternoon, what was your outcome? Not very happy spending so much money on these pumps and having issues like this!

Ok so I just installed 2 wav pumps less than 24 hours ago and I’m having this issue with 1 of them. Did anyone have any kind of answer from apex other than “clean “? I sure hope so cause mine basically came out of box doing this exact same thing.