Some time in early 2016, maybe March or April, the Swabbie motor stopped rotating. I ordered a new motor from Avast Marine, and it arrived within a few days. I never tackled that repair primarily because there's no space in the ABS section and I thought my tank sitter Bobby could do it more easily than I could. He loves this stuff, fixing broken things.  

Today he called me up because he needed a new RO/DI system and while he was here I asked if he'd swap out the motor for me. That 10 minute project ended up taking over an hour, and lots of trips back and forth into the workshop for tools, screws, etcetera. This is exactly why I didn't want to do it. We had to dremel the outer collar off the lid to get the rusted motor out, and pry out the inner acrylic block the motor is affixed to.  Sparks were flying, shrapnel on the counter tops and cabinets, it was as messy as you'd imagine. 

This is just the nature of reef keeping. Nothing is every quick and easy, usually. Fortunately, we got it running again.  I think the next time this motor goes out, I have to get the entire assembly from top to bottom, and I'll affix it to the Nyos lid instead. It was hot-glued back together for now, and electrical tape was wrapped around the newly cut seam to keep moisture out. It'll be more important than ever that I don't get any liquid up into the electrical section when cleaning the lid & assembly in the future.

It's nice to have this mechanism operational once more. It is controlled by the Apex, triggering the squeegee into rotation for two minutes every three hours.  It cleans the neck completely so the thicker skimmate is pushed into the cup, and the skimmer works better under those conditions. Without such a nice attachment, it's best to take the skimmer's cup off every other day and clean the neck for maximum effectiveness. The Skimmer Swabbie allows me to clean the cup once a week, or wait even longer.

Thanks for the assist, Bobby. :)