EcoTech Marine VorTech MP40 Release Information

[chad508]

what about lps's.

to say this pump puts uot gental flow right out the nozzle is silly. if that as the case sand would not blow around in the tank and frags would not blow off rocks. 3000GPH is alot of flow coming out of a 2" opening. not including the undertow. i have a patch of gsp atleat 16" away from the pump on the bottom of the tank. they never sway, they only get pulled toward the pump. if the flow was gental and random they would sway.

and i don't see how a deflector will concentrate the flow. that would be like saying a pump with a 45* elbow will concentrate the flow. the only way that would happen is if you made the opening smaller.

and if a deflector had no purpose and the pump put out such a wide flow pattern the the pump should be able to be put any were in the tank and not have a problem with anything. at full speed this pump can not be 2" from the water surface nor 2" from the sand, and in my opinion 2" from a coral. thus this pump is limited to placement in the tank, as most pumpsare. but the vortec as it stands can not be fired off anything to create an even more random flow

 

[sherm71tank]

chad508
What about lps's? We all know they don't appreciate direct strong currents. If your pump doesn't cycle up and down I would not expect to see any type of swaying in any of your corals. I find the idea of a deflector to be interesting though. Maybe you could direct a portion of the current one way, and the rest another direction? Thus taking the place of multiple pumps? That is the only reason I would buy one is if I could replace a few of the smaller pumps.

 

[jnarowe]

Sherman,

One Vortech in that new 75g would be sweet. Maybe borrow one to see?

 

[Philwd]

I don't know what to say Chad. My milli's polyps definitely get random flow. Sway back and forth, up and down. If you put any coral 2" in front of any pump you get what you deserve. It is the most gentle flow I have ever seen out of a PH and I've owned Seios, Tunzes, Maxis and now Vortechs. How you want to define gentle is up to you. But I will say again corals that would get blasted by my Tunze 6000(1850GPH) 9" away are perfectly fine with the Vortech @ 3000GPH. So as a qualititative comparison the flow is gentle.

 

[chad508]

philwd,

i agree that at a distance the flow is random, but its due to the flow bouncing off of rocks, glass and the waters surface. thats why i feel if you were able to direct the flow off of something else that you had some control over the flow would be even better.

with all the control these pumps have as far as speed and switching between pumps (when the controller comes out), you are still limited to placement. most tanks that are rectangular have these pumps on the ends, as i would assume. i personally would like to put it on the back wall and point the outflow at 45* to the the wall. to me this would be the optimal placement.

 

[phishlet]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8019988#post8019988 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Philwd
I don't know what to say Chad. My milli's polyps definitely get random flow. Sway back and forth, up and down. If you put any coral 2" in front of any pump you get what you deserve. It is the most gentle flow I have ever seen out of a PH and I've owned Seios, Tunzes, Maxis and now Vortechs. How you want to define gentle is up to you. But I will say again corals that would get blasted by my Tunze 6000(1850GPH) 9" away are perfectly fine with the Vortech @ 3000GPH. So as a qualititative comparison the flow is gentle.

I'll second this. My sps polyps certainly seem to 'sway' or at least receive random back and forth motion. I keep LPS, softies, sps, clams, zoas... the whole deal with two vortechs. Here's a pic. The LPS sure seem big and happy.

Notice you seen no pumps in the tank.

 

[jnarowe]

Nice FTS phishlet.

 

[jjac]

I agree with Chad. I don't think its an issue with the amout of flow that you get with these pumps. It soon will be adjustable when the so called controller comes out. Not everyone has an in the wall tank. And from an appearence stand point I think these things look ugly as hell hanging on the outside of the tank not only that you have to deal with the cord. If you could place this pump on the back wall with a diverter of some sorts, lets say a 2"-Y it would not not harm the so called wide flow. Yeah its some fancy new invention that got all of those ugly pumps out of your tank but now you have an ugly pump hanging on the outside of your tank for everyone to see. Ecotech should have made a better logo.

 

[Bax]

FWIW

My newly set up 120 is free standing, 46 x 24 x 24

I have Vortech MP40 running at about half speed attached to the back center; a Tunze 6000 on the right front corner, pulsing at 100% & 50%; a 6100 in the left rear corner pulsing at about 70% & 40%; and flow from the return.

I am guessing that is the equivalent of, give or take, 4500 to 4800 gph of flow. I can assure you it is quite random and nothing is getting skinned alive. All for what, 150 to 175 watts, and virtually zero heat addition from the Vortech?

The surface of the water just boils. And there are moments when waves literally break at the front of the glass at random points along the front from time to time.

I could not get this flow out of two darts (& 180 watts plus a lot more heat) on CLs. No way. And then, I'd have all the plumbing to build and then look at.

I'd rather have the Vortech on the back of the tank or even a side then deal with all the CL plumbing. I am sure of this, as I ran two CLs on my last tank. I eventually dismantled one CL and experimented with the MP40 & a Tunze 6000.

I considered two Darts for this tank (have them sitting in boxes) but after testing this current PH combination founded on the Vortech's huge diffuse flow output, I feel it is the way to go on this size tank for me and my needs.

and .... If we all keep on using Tunze, CLs and other PHs to direct flow out of the corners, EcoTech will surely figure out a way to market Vortech to that niche as well

 

[chad508]

bax,

its like you said at half speed. why do you not have it full speed? do you feel that at full spped the flow would be even more randon are start balsting things.

phishlet,

nice tank, but i do see two pumps in the tank. and look how far away from the corals they are. to me they look preety high on the glass and towards the front. i think if they were on the back wall pointing 45* you would have even more flow. by the way how high are you running them and are they on a timmer at all?

 

[phishlet]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8021902#post8021902 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chad508


nice tank, but i do see two pumps in the tank. and look how far away from the corals they are. to me they look preety high on the glass and towards the front. i think if they were on the back wall pointing 45* you would have even more flow. by the way how high are you running them and are they on a timmer at all?

Thanks for the compliment on the tank.

I don't see any pumps though. Just two impeller housings. And that's a whole lot less mass than SEIO's or Tunze's. In fact, I replaced 6 maxijet 1200's and 2 SEIO's with just two Vortechs. Talk about less mass in the tank. As I look back at some older pictures what an eye sore all those pumps were. And the SEIO's were the worse. Like big huge cannons hanging in the tank. The back wall was like a row of powerheads blowing this way and that way trying to do what only two Vortech's accomplish. And with less watts consumed as well. That alone was enough to sell me on the pumps. Oh... and don't forget how many less suction cups you'll have to worry about. I got rid of 30 suction cups in my reef.

I run the left Vortech over the sps side of the tank at 3/4 of the way up and the right Vortech over the more softie/lps dominated tank somewhere around half. Both are running on one regular old Aquarium Systems Natural Wave power strip with one on for 1.3 minutes and then off and the other on for 1.3 minutes and than off.

Apparently RIO will be releasing a controller for SEIO pumps but they're not available yet. So no wave maker for the SEIO's. And you can't safely run SEIO's on a regular old Natural Wave but you can with the Vortechs.

Both Vortechs are both positioned exactly in the middle on both sides of my tank. I have them positioned about 3 inches from the water surface. With the solid part of the impeller housing (wet side) facing up there is no problem with a 'vortex' being created. Current from the left Vortech reaches the right side of the tank and starts to rebound backwards creating real nice clow everywhere. That's the positions I started them in and I've seen no reason to move them.

Hope this helps.

 

[phishlet]

I didn't comment on the distance from the corals part. Sorry.

The big yellow finger leather on the right side of the tank is normally only 2 inches from the wet side of the Vortech. Sometimes, when it is super inflated, the coral actually touches the wet side and kind of rythmically flap in the current. It doesn't seem to get annoyed at all by being diretly hit with the output of the Vortech.

The Vortech is further away from sps on the left side but that is not becuase I couldn't lower the pump. I certainly could and it would be within inches of some sps. It's just that I don't need to. The left Vortech seems to provide plenty of current everywhere around the sps positions.

Hope this helps.

 

[Bax]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8021902#post8021902 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chad508
bax,

its like you said at half speed. why do you not have it full speed? do you feel that at full spped the flow would be even more randon are start balsting things.

Half speed because I think I am good at 40x or so. By being center back flow hits the front and deflects left & right to meet the flow if the Tunze. It makes for very random flow. But an early observation is that the Vortech even at half speed wins in terms of who pushes whose flow around. We'll see as the tank settles in. I may very well change the settings and positions of each of these PHs in time.

It's the versatility of the flow that you just have to feel all warm & fuzzy about.

phishlet

Your tank looks great!

 

[phishlet]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8022206#post8022206 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bax

phishlet

Your tank looks great!

Thanks!

 

[melev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8020908#post8020908 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jjac
I agree with Chad. I don't think its an issue with the amout of flow that you get with these pumps. It soon will be adjustable when the so called controller comes out. Not everyone has an in the wall tank. And from an appearence stand point I think these things look ugly as hell hanging on the outside of the tank not only that you have to deal with the cord. If you could place this pump on the back wall with a diverter of some sorts, lets say a 2"-Y it would not not harm the so called wide flow. Yeah its some fancy new invention that got all of those ugly pumps out of your tank but now you have an ugly pump hanging on the outside of your tank for everyone to see. Ecotech should have made a better logo.

Wow, what else can you take a shot at? You don't like the look of the outer portion, and you don't like the company logo? And yet, you want to add more plastic to the inner section, which in my opinion would look "ugly as crap" in my tank.

I have my Vortech on the viewing end of the tank. Not once has anyone said "What is that ugly thing?" If anything, I have to hold my breath when they reach out to touch it, always hoping they won't pull on it. I've had hundreds of people over here since it was installed in January, and everyone is curious, likes the size and the silence it emits.

My first SPS pieces are about 13" from the VorTech, and when I turned it on high for a few days, the tissue was tearing off the skeleton. At that point I knew it was too much flow, and backed it down to about 50%. So what? That only means I'm using less power.

I made a video of the flow of my corals, and the VorTech is a big reason why the corals are doing so well.

http://www.melevsreef.com/video/280g_movement.wmv (41 megs)

 

[agent007]

Melev, what can I say? VERY NICE!!!
Even my wife stopped to look at your video.

Let's keep this thread clean and on track. There's a lot of good info on the Vortech here. It's helping folks like myself understand the true purpose and effect of good water flow. I'm looking to clean up the look of my tank and replace my Seio 850 and Aqua Clear 70 with a Vortech. I'm just waiting for a stable product.

You almost lost me when the thread got side tracked on semantics. Thank you all for sharing. I'm looking forward to updates on experiences people have actually had with these pumps.

 

[jnarowe]

Mine are running great now with the new mods but two of them have to be slightly adjusted occassionally. I have not heard back on a solution to my Neptune controller issue but I expect they will figure it out soon. When these issues get resolved, I will definitely be getting at least two more for the back of the tank.

 

[phishlet]

Melev I think that videO really hopes to show what kind of [quality] flow these things produce.

Looks great!

 

[Bax]

Nice video melev!

I am pretty sure my Vortech is an original release. I bought if from someone who preordered two and then felt one met her needs. It has the orange wet side pad.

... Works perfectly by the way

 

[sknoch78]

I am curious as to who if anyone is running these on the back wall of there tank who also has a sand bed? I currently have two on the back wall of my 72x30x26, they are approx. 6 inches down and within a couple of inches of the side wall. I plan to add the third one int th middle of the back wall once I tear down my frag tank. The reason I ask is that I am only running the two at 50% power and they keep blowing the sand clear in the two front corners. I am looking for ideas on how to stop this, I do not mind the sand moving, I just don't want bare spots. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Shawn