2 Circulation pumps or 1 MP40

[shrimphead]

Actually, the flow through your sump should match as closely to the GPH your skimmer puts out. then you are more sure to get as much as possible. So, 3X is relative. Check you skimmer specs and use that as a guide.

makes sense, thx

 

[battplus]

I also had a MP40 on a 6 ft tank. Great pump, but it doesn't reach all the way to some areas on the other side unless you really turn it up high. By doing that it pulls the sand too much for me and creates too much flow on one side. Switched back to two tunzes and directed the flow. The Vortech is great, but you have to get two of the MP40 at almost a thousand dollars for the new ecotech.

 

[DeepSeaBeauti]

you don't want too much flow going through your sump because your skimmer won't be as efficient at picking up waste, i hear you should aim for round a 3 times turnover for you sump size.

These Circulation pumps will have nothing to do with my sump, There just to circulate the water in my display tank. Thats the question, one MP-40 or two Circulation pumps (meaning powerheads that just move water, not pump it). On my 6' tank thats a long way for water to travel, my conern is if the single MP-40 has to be cranked up. Causing me to have a strong current blowing sand, corals, and fish to one side. With two circulation pumps i can move the water more gently to get the crap on the bottom of the tank blow up and then filtered out.

Obviously i could put two MP-40's but thats almost a grand, Two circulation pumps and a wave maker are less then $500. This is the paradox! Curse Vortec for monopolizing the external motor wave makeing industry!!!!

 

[DeepSeaBeauti]

I also had a MP40 on a 6 ft tank. Great pump, but it doesn't reach all the way to some areas on the other side unless you really turn it up high. By doing that it pulls the sand too much for me and creates too much flow on one side. Switched back to two tunzes and directed the flow. The Vortech is great, but you have to get two of the MP40 at almost a thousand dollars for the new ecotech.

Thats what my concern is.... A sand storm at the bottom of my tank. Ive got a deap sand bed with all kinds of things living in it, last think i want is to move sand causing rock colapse, clams being blown around, live rock covered in sand ect......

What Tunzes pumps did you end up going with? Are you running them on a wave maker? And can you turn them down? There max output that is.

 

[Hurdicuss]

I jumped on the bandwagon and took the vortech plunge also. I was running a MP40W on a 4' tank and I was just unhappy with the amount of flow I was seeing from a nearly $450 piece of equipment. I also dealt with intermittent issues of the motor & wet side separating causing the pump to fall off (before anyone goes there, yes I had the proper pin spacing for the tank thickness). I also had friends who owned them and they complained their motors ran hot. Fortunately for me, I was able to sell mine on the boards here and get back nearly what I paid. Now I am running 4 x Tunze 6055's on a 7095 controller and I am much happier with the flexibility and control of this system. I will say that I have no experience with the newer ES model so I cannot speak about any of the new features. But for me personally, I do not care for the external motor hanging on the outside of the tank... Unless you are mounting them on the back of the tank somewhere (or on the sides of an in-wall display) then you have to look at a motor, or a pair of motors, when viewing your tank.

And I will agree that equipment is not something to skimp on in this hobby. Tunze stuff is priced comparably to vortech and may not be necessarily cheaper. You just have to decide what application will work best for your system and find how much and what kind of control you need over your flow. If I had it to do all over again, building a display from the ground up, I would probably go as far as a custom closed-loop design possibly with 2 switching interval pumps and hide all the outputs within the rock work (but that's just me, and you may not have any problems with lookin at power heads all the time :lol. My $0.02.

 

[solitude127]

Curse Vortec for monopolizing the external motor wave makeing industry!!!!

They just found a niche in the market.

 

[battplus]

What Tunzes pumps did you end up going with? Are you running them on a wave maker? And can you turn them down? There max output that is.

2 6055's on a 7095 controller. Gives me moderate flow and works much better than an MP40 which has almost no versatality for position. Sure you can mount it anywhere on the tank, but it still pushes water out in only one direction across the tank. I will probably go with 2 more just for more movement in the ends when the tank starts to fill in more.

 

[DeepSeaBeauti]

After a long weekend of trying to decide on a pump, im still lost. I really dont know what to do. Im really torn because of the intricate rock work i have in the tank, and the fact that i dont really want to see two 5" pumps stuck to the side of the tank.

Perhaps wave maker pumps are not the solution to my tank. Maybe like sugested i should get a large external pump to move water around the bottom with camouflage discharge tubes on the bottom of the tank. Any sugestions or ideas?

 

[DeepSeaBeauti]

I broke down. I bought a new Mp-40. Figured worst, comes the worst i just sell it and upgrade to somthing that works better, if thats posable.

 

[RedHeckle]

We at least now you'll know if you like it or not I just installed an MP40 (got used here on RC) that replaced a Koralia K4 on my 90g (I have a K4 on the other side).

I really like the flow it can produce; the only thing is that it's noisier than the k4 as the rpms spool up (it's set on reef crest mode). I can hear it spool up from 3ft away. I'm going to tweak with it a bit and see what happens (it was missing the rubber pad, plus I'm going to let it break in a bit).

Have fun playing with it, worst case, chalk it up to gained experience and sell it here on RC. Prices range from $275-$325. If you decide to sell it you won't have a problem.

Good luck,
Glenn

 

[Nanz]

I would just run Korallias. They are much cheaper and we all know nothing lasts forever in this hobby. I'd rather have disposable pumps than one that costs four times as much. As for the controller buy a real controller instead of one that just effects the pumps rpm. Vortec and Tunze are a waste of money IMO.

 

[DeepSeaBeauti]

Well just as i had thought one MP-40w is just not enough to get water movement to the other end of my tank. This thing is sick though. It moves gobs of water, you can see the current pulling water in and blowing it out. Unfortunatly in my tank it looses energy about half way the total length of the tank. Other then that im really impressed with this thing, witch kind of sucks cause now i have to buy another for the other side of the tank.

Does anyone know if the other wireless modles work with the MP-40? For instance, can i run the mp40 as the master and a mp20 or mp10 as a slave. Even all of them together?