Any Vortech owners?

[Anonymous]

In the never-ending quest to spend more money and try to simulate wave like motion in my tank, I am looking at the Vortech line of powerheads that come with electronic controllers that can give you waves with just one pump. Anyone have these pumps and what are your thoughts. My tank is rather small, so one would likely be sufficient. Thoughts would be appreciated since they are QUITE expensive, but seem less intrusive then the Tunze Wavebox.

 

[Anonymous]

I just got a used one a few weeks back. I like it better than my tunze stream. I don't use any of the wave timer functions. I just run it wide open. The piles of rocks breaks up the flow enough so the tank gets some randomness.

 

[Anonymous]

You should be able to get a standing wave with a single pump, it might be a bit more difficult if you have it full of rock, but it's possible.

My tank is 6' long, so getting a wave with 1 pump is quite impossible in fact two pumps I have not yet gotten a wave.

 

[Len]

There is a new, smaller vortech in the works that should be out "soon." I use the bigger one. It's probably not possible to get a rolling wave with just one pump, but you can get very good pulsed flow with its built in controller. With two, you can create a back-and-forth wave (I've been able to do it on my tank), but some people are afraid this is bad for the tank. sfsuphysics, have you tried playing with the frequency? Adjust it in tiny increments. You'll eventually find a wave node that gives you the rolling wave effect. On longer tanks, it will crest and trough less, but it should definitely be capable.

 

[Anonymous]

Len, I did try playing with the frequency, and maybe I just didn't have the patience to wait it through, some said it could take quite a while for the wave to finally form. I mean the knob doesn't exactly give for pin-point accuracy, however I started at the longest pulse rate and worked down to no affect.

I think my tank at 6' long really makes it difficult though simply because as powerful as the vortechs are they really damper down by the time they get to the other end. Plus I don't know if my coast to coast external overflow would have any effect either, lots of "what-ifs"

Also the constant upramping noise got to be quite annoying and a steadier noise is a bit more appreciative.

 

[Kevin207]

I have been using 1 Vortech in a 4'x2'x2' 120 gallon tank for at least a year.

-I love the water flow .... nice wide stream versus a sharp jetstream.
-I like the lack of heat
-I like not worrying about stray electricity getting into the tank as the Vortech ages

-There is plenty of flow, so for a small tank, maybe it WOULD work as a wave unit.

-However, I do not know if the Vortechs would speed up and slow down fast enough for your wave generation. I have no idea how fast the speed ramping up and slowing down would need to be.

-I agree with sfsuphysics about the noise potentially being an issue with the "upramping noise" as you can already hear the Vortechs a bit more than pumps mounted inside the tank.

-You MUST be careful and not let the 2 halves of the Vortechs join each other without something in between. The manufacturer warns you about this (a la "Don't cross the beams"). Unfortunately, the two halves want each other when they see each other from great distances, and my two halves went together :roll: Now my Vortech does not work perfectly....maybe half power maximum. I can pitch the outside part so it is not flat against the glass (holding it in my hand) to achieve close to full power again, but this is not practical to do 24 hours a day :lol: SO I must live with my weakened Vortech. Maybe I can buy a new internal half and it will work beautifully again. I might buy a second Vortech for my big tank to be, so I will test this then (external space is tight on the next tank, But I think I can make a second unit work.)

So a little noise is mostly all I would be concerned about. It seems like it would be a good candidate for a single pump wave generator in small tank since it has a nice wide stream.

 

[Anonymous]

Hmm interesting. The only reason I want it is for wave generation, as I have three MJ mods in the tank already for some decent flow. However, it is not very random at all, so if I would end up just using this as another MJ Mod type powerhead, it probably isn't worth the money for me. Thanks for the info.

 

[Anonymous]

You can get a wave with one vortec, I seem to recall hearing this going on at a show, but then again this was in a completely empty tank. Here's an idea for you, how about get another modded maxijet, set them up so that 2 would form a "circular flow" (Gyre) in your tank, and two facing the other direction, and put them on a timer (30 minutes, and hour, whatever) and have two on and two off to get a nice strong flow in one way, then reverse the flow back.

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a thread for Jake to chime in on

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, don't have ANY idea where I would have gotten that idea from!

 

[Anonymous]

You can get a wave with one vortec, I seem to recall hearing this going on at a show, but then again this was in a completely empty tank. Here's an idea for you, how about get another modded maxijet, set them up so that 2 would form a "circular flow" (Gyre) in your tank, and two facing the other direction, and put them on a timer (30 minutes, and hour, whatever) and have two on and two off to get a nice strong flow in one way, then reverse the flow back.

I need a picture . So you would have 4 powerheads, two on each side of the tank facing the front? Then alternate each side's pair every 30-60 minutes to create a somewhat circular flow?

 

[Anonymous]

proctoring a final now, I'll whip up a really ugly sketch in paint when I get home


For now, you'll have to deal with my lengthy rambling

Depending upon your tank's setup, there are many ways to accomplish it. But the general idea is to use two working together opposite sides (or pointing in opposite directions) to get a circular flow, the pumps themselves help reinforce and make the flow stronger the longer you keep the pumps on (I just shot out an hour off my hip as an example, you can do 6 hours between switches if you want). Then the other set of pumps mirrored of the first set, will switch on instead, so the pumps first have to slow down your flow, then eventually those will get a circular flow pattern going the other way.

This allows a really strong current, and the reversing pumps allows it to alternate directions so corals don't grow in one direction Plus they get flow from each side.

 

[Anonymous]

proctoring a final now, I'll whip up a really ugly sketch in paint when I get home


For now, you'll have to deal with my lengthy rambling

Depending upon your tank's setup, there are many ways to accomplish it. But the general idea is to use two working together opposite sides (or pointing in opposite directions) to get a circular flow, the pumps themselves help reinforce and make the flow stronger the longer you keep the pumps on (I just shot out an hour off my hip as an example, you can do 6 hours between switches if you want). Then the other set of pumps mirrored of the first set, will switch on instead, so the pumps first have to slow down your flow, then eventually those will get a circular flow pattern going the other way.

This allows a really strong current, and the reversing pumps allows it to alternate directions so corals don't grow in one direction Plus they get flow from each side.

Ah ok, got ya. Problem is, my tank has a rather large 4"x4" overflow box in the back, so it may not make the best circular flow pattern, but I do like the idea. Perhaps I'll pick up a koralia pump for my fourth...hmmmm...

 

[Anonymous]

It will be fine. I have a huge center overflow and the flow whips around no problem. I put the vortec on the same side as my stream, but about halfway down the tank and close to the front. The stream is now on a mag holder so it sits closer to the side in the same basic position as when it was on the universal holder. Iget nice back flow along the back and bottom og the tank. I'll take and post some pics tonight.

 

[Anonymous]

It will be fine. I have a huge center overflow and the flow whips around no problem. I put the vortec on the same side as my stream, but about halfway down the tank and close to the front. The stream is now on a mag holder so it sits closer to the side in the same basic position as when it was on the universal holder. Iget nice back flow along the back and bottom og the tank. I'll take and post some pics tonight.

Thanks I'd appreciate it. It is hard to plunk down $500 when I could spend $50.

 

[Anonymous]

Look for them on the used market. I got mine for $275. I hate to say it but RC has a more active for sale section that is worth checking out. The Houston local reef site has one pop up from time to time. If you like I will post here (Houston) to see if I can find you one.

 

[Anonymous]

Look for them on the used market. I got mine for $275. I hate to say it but RC has a more active for sale section that is worth checking out. The Houston local reef site has one pop up from time to time. If you like I will post here (Houston) to see if I can find you one.

Let me decide if I actually want one or not yet, but thanks Waz.

 

[saltysupply]

look for teh Gen2 model coming out soon..they have some updated features and there are upgrades that are backwards compatible

 

[Ben1]

Cool vortech video,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLPmea2II-A

 

[camaroracer214]

my first one broke on me. i got all pissed off and swore i'd never own one again. well, i guess i'm giving them another shot. i got my replacement in yesterday. i was too tired to put it in my tank, so it'll have to wait until tonight. we'll see how it goes.