Help with vortech pumps.

[lougotzz]

I bought a vortech pump the other day, and not realizing it, they are only designed for up to 3/4'' thick glass or acrylic. My tank has 1'' thick acrylic, I wanted to know if there was anyway I could still use the power head on my tank so I didnt waist my money. Has anyone done something to make the fix?

Thanks.

 

[crooks]

I think just like the people in your avatar you are PNWD

 

[Keyvan S]

I bought a vortech pump the other day, and not realizing it, they are only designed for up to 3/4'' thick glass or acrylic. My tank has 1'' thick acrylic, I wanted to know if there was anyway I could still use the power head on my tank so I didnt waist my money. Has anyone done something to make the fix?

Thanks.

Give the Eco Tech customer support a call, maybe they can help you out!!! and let us know what was your fix?

Good luck.

 

[am3gross]

welll what you could do is build a water proof box to sit in the tank. have the wet side in the tank.... where it is wet.... lol.. and have the dry side sit in the box... i was thinking about doing this myself except having it in the corner so that i could get more of an angle... just my thoughts here. in theory though i think it would work

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

You could build a "dry box" out of thinner acrylic to house the dry side of the pump.

Or, sell it and get a Tunze - you can always use a stronger magnet with a Tunze, I don't think that's realistically an option for a vortech.

 

[Keyvan S]

IMO, using a dry box inside the tank, might cause over heating issue, not enough air circulating around the dry side......

 

[mcoomer]

I'd give them a ring and pose that question. Surely someone has asked them in the past.

 

[uncleof6]

The only fix I can think of is a dry box inside the tank. The walls extending above the water line.

Couple of problems with this however, one is the footprint in the tank, kinda defeats the whole purpose of the wetside/dryside design of the pump. A second is the position of the pump, if you don't like it, you will be stuck with it. Getting the pump into the box-- and aligned right will be a hassle, that is IF you can get it in the box (eurobrace etc.) And the most important one, is the ventilation of the dry side-- it is going to get hot.

The question of a dry box for vortechs, comes up once in awhile. All in all, I would chalk it up to a 'learning' experience, sell/return it. Absolutely no reason to take a loss on it, it is a brand new-- unused pump.

Now the true addict, would look at the pump, and say "Hummmmm, already got the pump-- this is a good reason to get another tank that it will work on."

Jim

 

[lougotzz]

They told me they heard of this, and someone else mentioned it in the ecotech forum, to use a two sided piece of tape?

This is what someone in the forum said:

Put the pin spacer on the 5/8 inch setting (the shallowest setting) and use double sided tape to hold the pin spacer to the glass and the pump workes just fine.

I gotta look over the pump, and see if I can do this.

What I do find a little rediculous here, and I know that this is 100 percent my fault, but I find it a little rediculous that a power head designed for tanks up to 500 gallons, are only to be used on 3/4'' thick walls...Vortech has to have excpected tanks that are that big are going to have thicker walls than 3/4''...

Crooks, its PWND, not PNWD

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

With an open top dry box, you could even add a fan if you thought it was getting hot. Plus, you could magnet-mount the dry box inside the tank to allow for easy movement.

All hypothetical of course, I've never done any of this (and doubt I ever will, since as I jokingly said above, I'd probably just stick with Tunze).

 

[uncleof6]

With an open top dry box, you could even add a fan if you thought it was getting hot. Plus, you could magnet-mount the dry box inside the tank to allow for easy movement.

All hypothetical of course, I've never done any of this (and doubt I ever will, since as I jokingly said above, I'd probably just stick with Tunze).

Now der_wille, snickers........ if the vortech magnet is not powerful enough to attach the pump through 1" acrylic, what magnet are you going to use for attaching the movable box to the side (with the same 1" acrylic)?:idea:

All things considered, I would go with the tunze also.

Jim

 

[Keyvan S]

IMO, The magnet might not be strong enough for 1" glass to generate power to run the wet side... it might might work but you might put too much stress on the motor and it might fail eventually...
but let use know how you made out....

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Now der_wille, snickers........ if the vortech magnet is not powerful enough to attach the pump through 1" acrylic, what magnet are you going to use for attaching the movable box to the side (with the same 1" acrylic)?:idea:

:lol:

In seriousness, I doubt it would take a ton of power to hold a box up through 1" acrylic, and I'm sure that some hobby-oriented magnets would work fine. On the flip side, I can imagine that the folks at vortech were facing certain constraints and hence didn't chose to make the magnet larger (for one thing, they had to transmit power across the gap).

 

[shaginwagon13]

I'm tagging along, the drybox issue is a problem I'm trying to work out too

 

[strayvoltage]

I seen it done with the dry box idea. Can't say how well it did or didn't work. There is an RC member that done this very thing in a very large tank, not only with one vortech but eight of them in a dry box. I can't remember the member name or the name of the thread. I want to say it is called something like, My 1200 gallon reef. I could be wrong and it wasn't on RC, but I do know I seen it. Look on youtube it is called 1200 gallon reef at 9000 feet

 

[fox2589]

i was pretty sure the guy had those vortech's on the divider to the over flow on the end of his tank..and i assume the glass or acrylic was under 3/4 inch..but i have no idea..ill check it out as well-drew

 

[TitanTV]

Hmmm.. I think the tape idea may work for you and will be your best bet. Or you could build a brace to hold the dry side and I am sure the magnet is still strong enough to hold the wet side in place and turn the prop. Plus I am sure it will not stress the motor as there is most likely almost zero resistance from the wet side magnet on the motor to begin with. I am sure you can figure it out but building a dry box seems like the worst idea of the bunch for a number of reasons.