closed loop or vortec?

C

coralcruze

New member
sorry guy I wasn't sure where to post this... I am currently building my own acrylic tank out of 1" thick material. I was wondering if thw vortecs work on 1" acrylic. If so do they damage the acrylic in any way?

The alternative is doing a closed loop system for water movement which I'm thinking to drill the bottom of the tank for the supply and the back of the tank for the return... what do you think?

Thanks
 
Closed loop: noisy, power hungry, supply and return show in display, flow tends to be laminar, adds heat, potential leaks / floods.

Vor-tech: quiet, efficient, inconspicuous, wide flow pattern, very little heat added to display, contained in display so no potential leaks/floods. Plus... all kinds of cool functions to control.

You can see which one I prefer. They are more costly tho.
 
I'm not a closed loop guy for the reasons posted. Powerheads are just so much more efficient. A Vortech is for 3/4" thickness max, so the 1" is a problem. If you decide to go with powerheads, Tunze can work with 1" thickness.

Good luck
 
I have a 1" thick acrylic tank and the vortechs will not work with this thick of a tank. I use Tunze streams and a closed loop. My closed loop has OM revolutions on all four of the outputs and they are becoming a PITA. They get stuck and wont spin like they are supposed to. Seems like I am always sticking my hand in the tank and turning them to get them to rotate properly again.

Very soon I will be taking my closed loop out and replacing the flow with more Tunze streams.

If I was you (speaking from my personal experience) I would go with Tunze streams on a 1" thick tank.
 
I'm not sure if this is correct, but hasn't vortec's melted acrylic tanks in the past? if it was a glass tank my vote would be for the vortec's... I want them myself.
 
I have a mp20 I love it. ...when it works. I've had it 1 year so far I've had to replace the wet side,had to replace the circuit board and motor.

It was all free under warranty the guys at vortech are great
 
guys dont ignore the fact that 1" is simply TOO THICK FOR VORTECHS, as someone else mentioned. you dont have much of an option.
 
I was gonna say, I didn't think vortechs worked on glass over 3/4", you might want to ask Ecotech in the sponsor forums though. In your situation though, I think a closed loops is going to be a more affordable option.
 
I would go with Tunze Steam pumps and a Tunze Wavebox.

I've used both Vortech and Tunze, and although I love how Vortech moves the entire column of water in my tank from top to bottom, gently, I find them to be noisy (on an otherwise almost silent tank). The Tunze's are nearly silent, require no tweaking and require cleaning once in a great while (depending on your nutrient issues).

But, it would appear Vortech isn't an option for you anyway.

Should the dry side of the Vortech become all but silent, I'd probably give them another shot just because the flow pattern is so nice.
 
I prefer CL over PH's in the display , but as some have mentioned 1"acrylic kind of closses the door on that depending on the actual size of your tank of coarse as it is possilbe to recess the acrylic down to 3/4 to suit the vortecs and then re-enforce the recess by lamination
 
I got my MP40W ES the new ones couple weeks ago, and WOW
cant even compare to a closed loop. this thing is amazing, although costs more.

in my 65G, took me hours to find a place to put it so it wont splash water out ! it moves quite ALOT of water.

although it is killing my LPS corals, lol as flow is same everywhere int he tank, I guess with closed loop u can make areas with less flow and areas with more for SPS
 
obviousely the vortecs are not an option so I'm going closed loop on this one. Damo awsome link... thanks

as for some of the comments about fears of floods... As I see it there is very little that can go wrong with a closed loop once the plumbing is all sealed and glued. I think with some one way check vales you can create some failsafe. flooding in a reef is more likely with the circulation to anf from the sump.
 
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