Decisions decisions decisions

[jg2269jg]

I have a question for all you large reef tank owners out there. IF you had the choice between closed loop, vortech and tunze what would you pick. I have a 200 gallon marineland deep dimensions tank that i am going to be starting up as an sps dominated tank and was wondering what everyone else thought about flow. I originally was going to drill the bottom for a closed loop and maybe add on some vortechs or tunze pumps later. Is it necessary to have a cl if i am running either the vortechs or tunzes.
Any help or thoughts are greatly appreciated
ThanKs a ton Jeff

 

[dave.m]

Some people don't like to see equipment inside their tank. The purpose of a Closed Loop is to hide the pumps outside of the tank and bring the plumbing up from the bottom, back or sides such that the outlets in the tank are hidden as much as possible.

If you are buying a commercially pre-built tank the bottom is probably made of tempered glass which cannot be drilled. You might be able to get Marineland to customize a bottom for you, but your wallet will take a beating.

How much you will ultimately pay for a Closed Loop will be dictated by how much you loathe seeing Tunzes and Vortechs inside your tank.

Dave.M

 

[tom obrecht]

I have done all three at one time or another and here are my thoughts. CL is definately the cleanest of the three but requires more planning, plumbing and more outside space for plumbing. The downside is if you have the need to move where the flow is going you are stuck. Vortecs are the hot thing right now and take less space and are a lesser eyesore than the tunzes. However, in my experience they are a bit noisy when they ramp up/down and can be an eyesore on the outside of the tank if you have them mounted on a display viewing panel. Tunzes are the bulkiest of the three in the tank but are close to silent when running. If you do some clever aqua aping they can be hidden but you still have cords inside the tank to deal with. My personal favorite is one that wasnt mentioned and that is a sea swirl. They come in different sizes and the newer model is a 1 1/2" model that can handle 3500gph. They give a great sweeping motion and if more than one is installed can create very random motion.

So what would I suggest...perhaps a combo of both sea swirls and either a vortex or tunze. I would use the ss for upper/mid water move and a hidden tunze/vortex bef
Hind some rock work for movt down lower in the tank.

 

[jg2269jg]

hey thanks so much for the quick posts back. i have been in the hobby for the better part of the last 10 years i have used the sea swirls on prior tank and i like them but i dont like that i have to by the sea swirl and then a pump to run them. i was originally designing the tank i have to be run with 2 1.5 inch sea swirls but i have also run the vortechs and the tunzes and i like the flow they give with the wide current and undertow that they give.

Thanks so much for the comments so far if any one has ideas for what pumps i should get for the 200 gallon dd marineland i would greatly appreciate it