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Oase Biomaster Users: Has anyone tried Concave upgrades?

Aqua sobriquet said:
Have you got this part as well?
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Still on order. However, I have a strange feeling my current motor plate is that version!

I can find an image of how an old one looked, when compared to the concave one.
 
Old and new.
IMG_9276.jpeg
 
Not quite sure why that should reduce the flow, unless, when fitting the motor plate, it somehow impedes rotation of the impeller.
 
hypnogogia said:
Not quite sure why that should reduce the flow, unless, when fitting the motor plate, it somehow impedes rotation of the impeller.
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It is really odd isn't it?! But, I could see the flow was reduced and tried refitting. Placing the old one back restored the flow! Very odd.
 
Bradders said:
If you download DB Meter from the App Store, or you have a DB meter, how loud is it registering?

The below is one of my Oase 250’s with the phone right next to the unit when taking the reading. Interested to get a comparison.

View attachment 216037
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I'll try and get a reading when I get home from work today if I remember! It would be interesting to compare. My Biomaster 850 is far louder than the Fluval's (Although to be fair it will put out more flow so I expected it to be at least a little noisier).
 
Just to add to the mix…….
I recently bought and set up a 600, l shopped around until l located a unit with the new prefilter pipe and bought it, it also has the new concave head plate.
Initial start up was not good, more noise than the models l’d viewed in operation in a couple of shops.
I spent a few mornings tilting and farting about until all the air was out, same noise level…… Next step was trying a bit of rubber between the venting unit / impeller housing as in this thread, no difference, same noise…. I called Oase Tech Help, their view was the only thing causing the noise would be air in the filter or the impeller rubbing… Next step, remove impeller, get some natural plant cellulose lubricant on the impeller shaft and bearings, result is pretty much silence😃.
Flow rate from my 600 on a 160 liter aquarium is 3.35 tank volume / hour, l’m shocked at how low that is for a quoted 1200 liter / hour pump. I have two trays of blue foam, 2 of seachem matrix, one of sera siporax.
 
Superpuma1 said:
Just to add to the mix…….
I recently bought and set up a 600, l shopped around until l located a unit with the new prefilter pipe and bought it, it also has the new concave head plate.
Initial start up was not good, more noise than the models l’d viewed in operation in a couple of shops.
I spent a few mornings tilting and farting about until all the air was out, same noise level…… Next step was trying a bit of rubber between the venting unit / impeller housing as in this thread, no difference, same noise…. I called Oase Tech Help, their view was the only thing causing the noise would be air in the filter or the impeller rubbing… Next step, remove impeller, get some natural plant cellulose lubricant on the impeller shaft and bearings, result is pretty much silence😃.
Flow rate from my 600 on a 160 liter aquarium is 3.35 tank volume / hour, l’m shocked at how low that is for a quoted 1200 liter / hour pump. I have two trays of blue foam, 2 of seachem matrix, one of sera siporax.
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Hmm. Not good.

So you are getting 536L/per hour on your 600 when I am getting 500 (ish) on my 250. That is not expected, but maybe that new concave causes this, as I (anecdotally) witnessed reduced flow using the concave head plate.

@Superpuma1 - do me a favour if you get time, could you measure (vertically) the distance between the top of the Oase Head Unit (where the out/inpipes are) and the top of your tank?
 
BTW - I am actually about to do a water change this morning, so it will be a good test to measure how many litres a minute my 250 is pumping out as a comparison - Ill do that and report back.
 
I also notice from the instructions that there’s a right and a wrong way to fit the impeller cover, it looks like if you do it the wrong way a web could obstruct the flow, didn’t notice this when l had mine apart 🙄.
 

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Ref my last…. Maybe you can’t get the venting unit on if the impeller cover isn’t fitted in the correct sense, something to look at next time l’ve got the thing in bits…., it’s quiet now so l’m not touching it.
 
OK, I just took out some water and placed it into a bucket using the outflow of the Oase 250.

The distance between the head and the outflow (vertically, not pipe length) is also ~80cm. It took 90 seconds to fill a 15-litre bucket, which equates to 600L/per hour. So, for some reason, my Oase 250 is turning over 11% more than your Oase 600.

All things being equal (which they are not, of course) and doing some very indicative math, I would expect the below. (This means you are losing a potential of 300L/hour somewhere if this math holds).

ModelManufacturer RatingActual Rating (very indicative)
250900L/hour600L/hour
6001250L/hour838L/hour

Now, to help, I'm sharing my setup in detail.
  1. Oase Biomaster 250 - 8 months old, bought June 2023.
  2. There are very short pipes between the canister head and outflow/inflow. (Limited slack, just enough).
  3. Very clean canister pipes, spray-bar pipes, and impeller and impeller housing.
  4. 10PPI pre-filter. Standard tray media ( 1x HELX-13, 2 x 20PPI foam and 1 x 30PPI foam).
  5. During the last check over the weekend, the main unit of Bio-media was not clogged in any tray.
Superpuma1 said:
I also notice from the instructions that there’s a right and a wrong way to fit the impeller cover, it looks like if you do it the wrong way a web could obstruct the flow, didn’t notice this when l had mine apart 🙄.
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I would check that; however, when I got it wrong initially during fitting, I found it very hard to fit together! So, this may not be the issue, but it is well worth making sure that it is right.
 
Good write up Bradders….. It took 6.8 seconds ( average of 3 fills ) to fill a one liter Pyrex jug, that = 529 liters/hour.
My set up is new, no plants yet, just sitting dark waiting until l buy some plants. l’ll see how things go, but 100% what won’t be helping me is the limited number of slots in my glass inlet pipe.
 

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Aqua sobriquet said:
This is the sound level from my 350 at the moment.
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That is about the same as mine. However, I think the impeller is slightly larger in the 600 and 850, so wondering if that is where the noise level starts increasing.
Superpuma1 said:
Good write up Bradders….. It took 6.8 seconds ( average of 3 fills ) to fill a one liter Pyrex jug, that = 529 liters/hour.
My set up is new, no plants yet, just sitting dark waiting until l buy some plants. l’ll see how things go, but 100% what won’t be helping me is the limited number of slots in my glass inlet pipe.
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It might be worth using the old Biomaster inlet pipe and see if that makes a difference. It has a lot more holes, but losing around 300L/hour seems like a large amount to lose ......
 
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