Show Off your Vortech's

Labman48076

New member
I made this thread because I was talking to a friend that also has a set and nobody seems to really be talking about placements & setting what has worked and what hasn't so what I would like to start
I should get mine tomorrow so I should start adding to this then

your tank size-
where you placed the Vortech or Vortech's-
what you tried but didn't work-
photo's and or video
anything else that might help somebody else with there tank!
 
GREAT idea... I'll start:

70gal Oceanic RR at the office w/ Euro-Reef skimmer and 2x 250w DE IceCap bulbs/ballasts.

Two MP40w pumps: master on the left about 3 inches from the front and 6 inches down, slave on the right about 3 inches from the back and 6 inches down. Master is in pulse mode and slave is in anti-sync mode. We've tuned the master to produce a double wave. The end result is that the surface of the water sloshes and ripples like the surface of the ocean and there is realistic reef-like flow throughout the entire tank with no dead spots.

We tried placing both pumps along the back wall, worked well but our rock structure caused more dead spots when along the back wall versus the sides.

No photos or vids yet.

-Tim
 
I have a custom 30g starfire tank 24" W x 18" D x 16" H. My pump is on the back wall centered about 8" down. Creates wonderful flow throughout the tank. You can just see the top of it in this pic.

CIMG0572.jpg
 
SALT WATER CRAZ,

Which model are you running. From the clip you posted you have a nice wave going on. So looks like 2 is the way to go.

Happy reefin,
 
I have experimented with different placement and settings. Right now on my 120 I have all 4 of my pumps on the back wall of the tank about 5 inches down. I have them all on pulse mode highest speed, longest duration.
 
on my 48" i have my vortech on the far left...
The pump is about 2 inches below the black molding and basically in the middle of the side pane.
this has worked perfectly so far for me.

originally, i setup the vortech closer to the front pane, meaning on the left side pane it was placed closer towards the display pane (also about 2 inches below molding). the issue i had here was that the water flow would run against the side of my tank and that would creat some sort of mini tornado causing the sand to stir violently.

right now it is on reef crest mode.


DSC01113.jpg
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11145575#post11145575 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sokin
SALT WATER CRAZ,

Which model are you running. From the clip you posted you have a nice wave going on. So looks like 2 is the way to go.

Happy reefin,


thanks I got that wave in abought 10 mins. lol

I have the one MP40W set as the master and the other pump is in Anti-sync. thay are both running in pulse mode. I have them pulseing prity fast to.
 
Salt water - That is some serious waving - NICE. How are the pumps located?

Are they are located at the same spot of each of the tank? I am getting mine today and I am trying to find out what is the best way of doing it. Thanks!

Ron
 
thanks thay are abought 6 inchs down from the water line. Thay are both just off centered a littal closer to the front glass on the sides.
 
2048952877_7b40e19eb9.jpg


I had to move them down a bit in order to keep the water from sloshing out at 3,000gph.

With the controller and in anti-sync, I can make a really nice front to back wave, as well as a slight wave going lengthwise as well! It's so much that it gets within a centimeter of the lip of the tank. The pulse in this case is set to the second to fastest, and I throttle down 10% from 3,000gph to get the amazing waves. It's definitely a bit turbulent though, but really cool. I have nothing in the tank yet (still cycling) so I can't really tell how the water movement is.

Otherwise I have it on reef crest mode, does a great job. I will be getting an oceansvisions type vinyl black background soon so that you can't notice the pumps as well =)

More pix:

2048952705_0784bc1939.jpg


2049738090_1ef43fe30e.jpg
 
Here is where ours are positioned on our tank. (picture drawn to scale except for the returns and Vortecs themselves, I didn't measure the acutal pump but just measured to their center and used that for the icon placement).


tank_layout_v2_1.jpg


We used to have it setup like this :


tank_layout.jpg



This one is less to scale, but you get the idea. It had dead spots and overly laminar flow areas. The new setup (first picture) seems to work much better for us and our livestock (fish and coral alike). We are playing around with pulse and lagoon crest modes currently :), but we only have a single pair of WWDs, so there is only so much we can test/try out.. so not much I can really say about what they can do (with WWDs) for a tank our size as of yet :)
 
Here is my recent video with only the VorTechs running (no return pump):
http://melevsreef.com/video/3vortechs.wmv (8.5 megs - Right Click & Save As to your harddrive please)

And this is what the tank looks like with two on the left and one on the right.
fts_103107.jpg


Two opposing pumps are in Reefcrest mode / both are set to Master. The lower one on the left is set to Lagoon mode and is also set to Master. My tank is 280g (72 x 30 x 30) and the three VorTechs are set to run around 2000gph, plus my return pump at 3000gph.

Here's one more video with the return pump on as well:
http://melevsreef.com/video/280g_111507.wmv (17 megs - Right Click & Save As to your harddrive please)
 
45 Gallon Tech by Oceanic has 1 inch wave!

45 Gallon Tech by Oceanic has 1 inch wave!

No pictures yet but i have a 1 inch wave in my 45 gallon Tech ....

Didnt think i'd be able to get that much but there it is. Only downside is all the sloshing noise it makes since the tank is right next to my desk and computer. You can here pump rev up and down too but not as much noise as the water makes!
 
I just got my vortechs and tested it out on a test tank. 18 gals, 24x15x12 (lwh). Scary wave, I didn't even allow it to build momentum.

vid
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11279938#post11279938 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
:lol: What is that, a 20g tank?!

yup. 17.9 to be precise. The tanks it's (they're?) going on ain't much bigger either :D
 
90g tank, bare bottom, sps -- 3 vortechs all along the back wall.

Placing them on the left/right sides gave me some dead spots, and also looked bad, as I couldnt look into the side of the my tanks as much.

all 3 run at aprox. 70-100%

a11-full-tank-small.jpg
 
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