reefboarder
Intelligent Donkey
Fish street website. A lot more cheaper
How much was it after shipping if you don't mind me asking?
Fish street website. A lot more cheaper
Startup at partial voltage is not going to cause appreciable extra wear due to excessive current in this case. There's very little inertia, the "extra" current is going to be less than a fraction of a second. Go plug a maxijet in and see if you can determine how long it takes it to get up to speed. It's probably so quick that you don't even notice. That's the timeframe that it'll be drawing extra power.
Again, this is a valid concern, just not in this application. If you were talking multi-HP motors that were started hot with no cooling and were spinning gigantic heavy pieces of machinery I'd be worried. On a pump motor pulling a few hundredths of a HP sitting immersed in relatively cool water it's not an issue.
Obstacles with respect to starting torque will be both obvious (it won't start) and easy to fix (start it at a higher speed, then ramp down to the speed you want).
octopus, this would be a good first Arduino project! I'm sure there are already people working on something.
Thanks DZM...
I "get" what you are saying... The hardware part of the Arduino dosen't phase me a bit, as a Networking Major though I just hate "coding" the software part though... I have pulled my hair out more than once trying to debug code...
Here are my first impressions. A couple of pertinent points for readers here:
1) I've never used a Tunze, so cannot compare this pump to that brand.
2) I've been using an EcoTech MP40w Gen 2 for the last four years.
-This pump is much stronger than the MP40, and not in a "Maxi-jet"-concentrated-narrow-blast way. The stream is very diffuse, but even dialed back to about 75%, it's moving an RBTA on the opposite end of an 8 foot aquarium.
-This pump is much quieter than the MP40. I can't even hear it. My MP40's aren't "loud" per se; the WP40 is silent. Note: The WP40 makes a slight noise in W1 mode (which is on/off to make waves). I'm not a fan of wave motion in the aquarium, so do not use this mode.
-This pump sticks out (in?) into the inside of the aquarium about twice as far as the MP40. That may be an issue for some folks.
-The outside footprint is much smaller than the MP40. In fact, it's smaller than my original style Koralia 4's. (No more earmuff on that side of the aquarium!) This is huge for me since 12 year old kids cannot help but touch the dry side of an MP40. It's in their DNA.
-I love the ability to point this pump in any direction. It's very easy to adjust, yet stays in position. Note: It did seem to "jerk" a bit when in W1 (on/off) wavemaking mode.
I have no desire to set up a program on this pump. I'm running it currently on W3 mode with the dial set at about 3/4 of the way. I think this would be something like the MP40 "Random Reefcrest" mode.
Now, the jury is still out as to whether this is "better than" the MP40, or "the next best thing" closest to an MP40. To me, the thing that will determine this is the longevity of this pump. Out of the box (aside from the lousy Pidgin instructions page), I say this pump is a contender.
Hey scott, I just got mine in too. I'll post a video once the new tank is up and the pumps are dialed in. As a note though, I'm pretty sure the "else" mode is supposed to be like reefcrest. Having owned both of them, what is your opinion on "Else" relative to the reefcrest mode?
Can you unplug the pump to see if it stays in its current setting. Some have posted that it reverts back to a default setting with loss of power. Just curious. Thanks---Rick
Thanks for the input. I think that the W1 mode is maybe the default mode as some have posted. I have read posts indicating both that the WP40 stays in its set mode on power outage, and others that it changes to a dealt mold.