An Honest Review Of The AI Axis Return Pump
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- Опубликовано: 28 июл 2024
- In this video, I give you my long-term review of the ZKSJ line of pumps, here in the form of the AI Axis 20!
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0:00 Intro
0:48 Features and design
7:23 Install and performance
10:06 Long-term reliability
Correction: it IS possible to set feed mode to turn the pump off via the app.
On my Neros if you hold the button for 10seconds the light flashes white and pumps turn off, I’d give that a try hope it works & love the videos
@@brandonmacgillivray1890 That is how you enter feed mode, it's just that as standard feed mode is 1%. But it turns out you can change that to 0% in the app.
This was my first upgrade for my fluval evo 13.5 luv it
I have a 35 gallon cube tank with a small sump inside my cabinet. I decided to set up a 20 gallon tank as a softie / display macro refugium to help with nutrients. Since my sump is so small I only have about 10 inch x 10 inch area to work with and my skimmer takes up 80% of the space. I bought two Axis 40's and use them as my return pumps. The space saving vertical centrifugal design and having the tunability of the DC pumps Sold me. The Axis pump for the 20 gallon is tuned way down. The Axis alone provides enough flow that I don't even need a flow pump inside the tank. The one on the 35 gallon is running at about 80%. I absolutely love the app control as well. Works seamlessly with my Hydra 32 light and will soon be upgrading the light on the 20 gallon to an AI prime very soon. They both have been up and running flawlessly for about a full month now. My only regret is I should have went for Axis 90 for the 35 gallon only because I would rather have a pump that is overpowered and use the adjustability to turn it up or down to get that perfect amount of flow and have room for growth down the road.
I just ordered the Axis 40 for my 35g Cube. Glad to hear you're fond of it.
Thank you for the review. I was thinking of putting one of these in my IM Lagoon 25.
Spotted your valentini puffer, my favourite fish! They are awesome. Mine does take chunks out of acros every once in a while, but nothing serious. 😂
It's actually a mimic filefish! I'm hoping he won't eat my cuc...
I have one on my rowa reactor on my 950s Peninsula and in the few months I have had it, small snails or little feather dusters have made the impeller get stuck twice now. I never had that issue with my other reactor pump. I only run it at 30% through the reactor so that could be why it gets jammed so easy vs maybe at a higher RPM it would not.
You can program the feed mode to turn off the pump. In Mobius go to edit scenes, select feed mode, drag the return pump down to below 1%. It will then countdown 3-2-1 and give you a warning about turning it off. Then you tell it you want to turn it off. Then it goes to zero. I have an Axis 20 on my Evo and an Axis 40 on my Waterbox AIO 25. Both seem to work good and I like the ease of use with Mobius which controls my lights and Nero as well.
Best news ever! Cheers, I'll check it out 🙂
Thanks, I've been looking for that. I needed the return pump to turn off completely 😅
How do you calibrate the pump? Cause instructions say it will ramp out until it’s a trinkle but all it did was start very low until it started going fast so I don’t get it, then it says to fine tune it to lowering it but the mas low still feel hard
@@davidjmt8 it’s all determined by head pressure. You must not have a lot of head pressure. My little AIOs suffer from the same problem.
I’ve owned the Axis 40 for the past 7 months. *great pump* , but here’s a product issue I’ve run into! The date resets to February 7th, 2160. Clearly, a bit gets flipped from a 1 to a 0 somewhere lol. It happens rarely with no known cause, but once it starts happening changing the date on the app just doesn’t work. I had to unplug the thing and plug it back in to get it to chill. Then after a few weeks or month, the issue mysteriously reappears. Now, it only messed with schedules…. So all I did was place it in its own “tank” and had all my other AI products run in the main tank where the time and date is always correct. That way if the pump date resets, it doesn’t shut the lights off or anything. Super annoying, rare mystery bug you’ll see some talk about online. AI had sent replacement pumps for free to most I’ve seen… I’ve just kept mine because I want to find out what the issue is and determine a fix by hacking the pump to ignore it’s internal date and reference another equipment’s date instead to develop a workaround
The AI App has a "Pumps off" button that turns off the Neros completely until you hit the button again to turn them back on. I don't have my Axis 90 installed yet, but I would think it would work with that as well.
I use the TMC Compact for water changes it’s been a nightmare, tmc have replaced the controller and the pump twice and I’m still plagued with a random E6 error!
Big props to tmc to clearly state that they use zksj as OEM.. its not a shame.. even Royal exclusiv uses them for their reddragon X series pumps..
Where did you buy the A1 axis return pump I would appreciate the link thanks in advance.
Love the unbiased like and no like reviews, cheers 👍
I actually can't remember - probably either Kraken corals or charterhouse-aquatics.com
Great review again Alex. Was looking for a pump for my waterbox 25 because my jecod dcs1200 makes a high pitched whine (no vibration noise). Are the TMC and Axis still silent running? Tank is in a very quiet room. Thanks.
The Axis is absolutely silent still even at 70% and it's in a utility room so there's usually no ambient noise to mask any Axis sound. The TMC I don't notice but it's in a noisier room.
The issue with the TMC pump doing that is that the power wire that connects into the little controller is loose.
I had the same issue, unplugged it at the remote and then properly tried to seat it again.
It was something else with mine, connection was good...
Hey man my vectra m2 has packed in today thinking about getting ai axsis 90 what’s the difference ?? Apart from the £320 for m2 vectra & £170 for ai axis both work on the mobius app which is what a want
If you have it set to a specific speed level, say 60%, and you lose power/turn off/unplug, when power is restored does it turn back on at that same power level or does it default back to a different speed? I have my return set up on a wifi power strip so I can turn my pump and powerheads on and off as I'd like without opening my cabinet. The Jebao wavemaker retains the programming and speed, the return pump is only one speed so it doesn't matter for it. My Sicce is about 2 years old now and was thinking that this could be a good new/backup pump but it would be great to know how it functions on power loss. Thanks!
Returns to the set speed you chose
@@ReefDorkXtra Perfect, thanks for checking
Can you please let me know the voltage of the pump (after the controller) and if you know of any battery backup options? Thanks
12v - you can use an Anker 521 (which I've just bought)
Hey Alex, I was about to do some maintenance and just when I put my hand in the tank and electric shock, my return pump is having some issues, and the tank water is electrified. are there any Devices made to counter that or at least indicate that there are some electronic malfunctions?
Look up "stray voltage". I think a grounding probe will work but best thing to do is remove the faulty bit of kit
@@ReefDorkXtra Thank You 🤘🤘
How's the pump getting on?
Looking to get one for my 180L but I'm not sure what size to get because you're running the axis 20 in that little 12 gallon at 70%
I sold it after 6 months of having no problems, but the buyer set it to 100% and it wouldn't work, so I'm sending it back to get repaired/replaced. So I've had 2 of these now and they've both developed faults. But for what it's worth, I've just bought the 90 for my 100L tank. If I were you, I'd go for the 90 on a 180L.
I want to use this for my GFO / carbon reactor - because i want something small, with low flow, that I can shut off with an app just in case there is a leak while I’m not at home
Seems like this would be a great fit - anyone have any thoughts?
Yep, I'd agree
had the TMC 500 for 2 weeks now and get error e6 every 2 days. switch off/on all good for 2 days then repeat. Going back to lfs next week.
Yeah, very similar to my issue! Can't remember if I said but I now use the TMC as my water mixing pump - it still flashes up the error (E4 I think) but it doesn't seem to stop it working. Obviously something going on though.
@ReefDorkXtra any issue with the AI version you're running?
Not so far@@nitrox7266
Will the axis 20 fit in the fluval 13.5
Yep - the TMC equivalent did with room to spare
After getting this pump based on this review I’m very disappointed
I have it running an AF90 reactor and I continually have to keep upping the speed because after a while it stops being able to pump enough water to push the air through adequately and the reactor stops flowing
Very frustrating
Started at a nice low 16%, now I’m in the 40s to get a mild tumble on my GFO and actual flow
Would you run this as a sump return ?
Hmm. Maybe, although I don't know if it'd still be silent if it had to push a few feet up first...
What kinda puffer fish is that
It's a mimic filefish
Does this pump fit inside your fluval evo?
Yep
Great, thanks for the quick reply.
pro tip: Just cut the velcro strip to size.
So heck with the other countries that need a plug huh 😆
😅
This pump is horrible. It shuts it's self off randomly than boots right back up. AI sent me a new one and it literally does the same thing. This is set at constant 60 percent flow.
Dang, that sucks to hear :/ I'm looking at getting one to match my ai prime and Nero 3 for my nano
@@jjmccloud don't do it. They sent me another one did the same thing. Than gave me a beta firmware said it'll fix it and it does it still. So they have a major issue
@@garry4378you’re describing a power issue… how many appliances are plugged into the circuit? As in how much is plugged into the outlet with its two plugs? These axis pumps are powerful with a higher draw than lots of other sizes (or all plugs on the circuit connected to the circuit breaker fuse?)
There’s been recent documented cases (maybe a batch issue) that the pumps cannot run stably at over 80-90%. The issue is that it will pump for 10 seconds then shut off for another 10 and repeat. Both Mobius and MyAI result in the same issue with the Axis 20. Through some testing at home, I don’t believe it’s a power issue. Who knows though. Hoping they get this solved soon.
@@wbrycec definitely not power related. This runs at 40watts my cheap brand one is 40watts and that has no issues. They sent me a replacement and it did same thing, did a beta firmware upgrade and it was better but still did it. Not sure what it is but my tank isn't going to be a guinea pig for them to test firmwares.