There is no movement at all in the plate which holds the motor. The white center shaft looks sturdy. Only time will tell how it holds up. The only problem I could forsee would be the grooves in the center shaft wearing out over time, but this is just speculation. Even if they were to wear, it would be a quick fix and the unit would not have to be removed from the tank.
One issue I had was with the larger shaft pulley. There is a set screw in the large plastic pulley which, when tightened, holds the pulley to the shaft. If you overtighten this set screw, you strip out the plastic threads in the pulley, if you dont tighten it enough, the pulley spins on the shaft. What I did was drill a small hole through the pulley AND shaft, and inserted a small stainless steel bolt which now holds the pulley to the shaft without messing the the tiny set screw. This is not a problem on the motor end as that shaft and pulley is steel, and the shaft is also D shaped. The set screw there holds just fine.
It was nice removing all the cords from the maxijets...it 'cleaned' up the look of the tank alot. When I fist installed the unit in the tank it was rather noticeable, but after a few weeks, when covered with coralline, its hard to see, especially if you have an already black backround. I keep a few softies, sps and clams...all seem to be doing well.
When I had my powerheads installed, I used to baste the rocks to clean out any debris. I do that now and get next to nothing (except in one corner where the flow is hampered by a large 'pile'), this is how I know the unit is working better than my previous setup.
