Thread: disaster drum stopped working

Had a big build up of blanket weed inside my drum which was continually setting off the cleaning cycle so took out the drum today and removed the crud from inside the drum, the weed was quite thick and claggy after doing a treatment it was building up on the lip of the waste chute and not going to waste as it should do, so cleaned the drum and mesh with jet wash (waterproofed the only plug) and cleaned the filter box out but when i put it all back together the drum will not rotate.... the UV is working the spray bar is working but i cannot get the drum to turn.... cannot get anyone from Burtons being the weekend, so basically buggered until Monday, i will not feed the fish until this is resolved, really fed up, unsure what to do until then?

Originally Posted by smartin

Had a big build up of blanket weed inside my drum which was continually setting off the cleaning cycle so took out the drum today and removed the crud from inside the drum, the weed was quite thick and claggy after doing a treatment it was building up on the lip of the waste chute and not going to waste as it should do, so cleaned the drum and mesh with jet wash (waterproofed the only plug) and cleaned the filter box out but when i put it all back together the drum will not rotate.... the UV is working the spray bar is working but i cannot get the drum to turn.... cannot get anyone from Burtons being the weekend, so basically buggered until Monday, i will not feed the fish until this is resolved, really fed up, unsure what to do until then?

Thats a pain, and always happens on a weekend...

Could it be to do with the level sensors?
Or drum motor power?
I assume it's not working on a manual clean?

Don't have a drum so don't entirely know how they work but thinking would there be any sort of gearing or something that may be preventing the drum from spinning or not aligned to a sensor of some sort? Whilst you can't get any cleans going the drum will still collect the crap won't it? Sorry, I don't have one but trying to think of ways that might help?

i think its electrical as the UV is working the spray bar is working and this all runs from same multipin umbilical cable that also powers the drum motor, i have checkled inside the box and all wires are good.... unsure wether to run the pumps on minimum so the ammonia etc is still passing through the biological or remove the drum altogether and run the pumps still and put some filter wool on the dirty side to stop as much weed and crud from circulating and clogging up the jap matting in the bio section ?? if i run the pumps on 30% minimum its still going to pump 9000 litres per hour through the system and ultimately the drum is going to become completely clogged? maybe just best to remove the drum altogether and just run pumps on mimimum until i get this resolved sometime on Monday > what do you guys think ??

Does the drum have bypass caps to remove?

I'd thought about what i would do in this scenario,
And have kept some of my filter brushes to put in the dirty side to catch the worst of the solids.

Plus remove the bypass caps and run the pump on a lower speed.
And draw most/all of the water from the skimmer line and this will allow solids to settle in the bottom drain pipework.
And purge it straight to waste every day.

But definitely keep some water moving through the filters.

Hi Steve,

As DTF suggests most drums have bypass caps which can be removed to retain flow to the bio section.

Common issues when drums are put back together can include cogs not being properly aligned and the main drum but not being tightened enough (by hand).

Hopefully some more suggestions will come along soon from other members which may help.

Cheers

Gaz

thanks Gaz and Dave, what i have done now is just to run the 10k pump as this pulls water from the skimmer through the drum and back round to pond via the bio so at least i can keep on top of the ammonia etc, because its the skimmer at least it wont circulate any weed and crud into the drum as its literally surface level, i wont feed until resolved, i have turned off the 20k pump as this pulls water via the BD back to drum which would just clog the drum up big time..... what a pain!!

no bypass caps that i can see ?

Originally Posted by smartin

no bypass caps that i can see ?

...erm...
only thing i can think of then, is to remove drum/mesh screen...
as i don't know how yours is plumbed internally...

but as Gaz says most usually have some method of bypass,
to allow certain treatments that a drum would remove...

Hi All

well my initial plan back fired as 1.50am i awoke to hear the spray bar going constantly, when i opened up the lid there was hardly any water in there, the pump had not run dry but was close...... basically even though i had not run the BD pump the skimmer pump had pulled in so much blanket weed it had clogged up the mesh and so the water went to waste, i ended up removing the drum in its entirety and then placing a large sheet of filter wool on the drum side which i cable tied to the filter box, then still running the skimmer pump only was able to circulate water from the pond through the drum bay and through to the bio section so at least the bio side will keep the water parameters good which is the biggest worry, the amount of blanket weed is just crazy thats now stuck to the filter wool, i will picture it tomorrow..... i am not proficient with electrics/drive motors etc so i really don't know what's happened, i think the umbilical cable is at fault as the UV and spraybar still works but the drum will not turn at all even if i do a forced clean....... yes the drum was working before i cleaned it, i had the same issue when i took this out before but when i tightened the umbilical cord the drum worked fine, this time it refuses to work.....praying that Burtons can see me tomorrow and resolve the issue, cheers Steve.

to add Dave yes the lid switch does disable both drum and spray bar if removed, i had a look inside the electric box where the drum motor is and could see no issues, i did not fancy trying to remove this in all honesty so unsure if drum will turn by hand, cheers Steve.

Originally Posted by smartin

Hi All

well my initial plan back fired as 1.50am i awoke to hear the spray bar going constantly, when i opened up the lid there was hardly any water in there, the pump had not run dry but was close...... basically even though i had not run the BD pump the skimmer pump had pulled in so much blanket weed it had clogged up the mesh and so the water went to waste, i ended up removing the drum in its entirety and then placing a large sheet of filter wool on the drum side which i cable tied to the filter box, then still running the skimmer pump only was able to circulate water from the pond through the drum bay and through to the bio section so at least the bio side will keep the water parameters good which is the biggest worry, the amount of blanket weed is just crazy thats now stuck to the filter wool, i will picture it tomorrow..... i am not proficient with electrics/drive motors etc so i really don't know what's happened, i think the umbilical cable is at fault as the UV and spraybar still works but the drum will not turn at all even if i do a forced clean....... yes the drum was working before i cleaned it, i had the same issue when i took this out before but when i tightened the umbilical cord the drum worked fine, this time it refuses to work.....praying that Burtons can see me tomorrow and resolve the issue, cheers Steve.

to add Dave yes the lid switch does disable both drum and spray bar if removed, i had a look inside the electric box where the drum motor is and could see no issues, i did not fancy trying to remove this in all honesty so unsure if drum will turn by hand, cheers Steve.

not the kind of thing you want in the early hours of the morning
i've not run my drum yet, so i've not really got any other ideas that could help...

hope burtons can sort you tomorrow mate

Did you get this resolved Steve

Cheers

Gaz

Originally Posted by Gazkoi

Did you get this resolved Steve

Cheers

Gaz

yes mate, just put a thread up about it all....cheers Steve