vortec or tunze?

[Angela Short]

Our house is under contract as of last week (yipee!!! It was my birthday the day we signed the contract!!!) so I have the go ahead to start buying my new equipment for the new tank. I was planning the Tunze streams but have been doing a lot of reading on the vortects and they look pretty neat. Especially since they are controllable now. Anyone have a opinion, I know lots of you guys have tunze but has anyone have any hands on with the vortecs? I need to go play with the one at the critter I guess. Biggest negatives I read on them is they can sometimes be loud, hot to touch when ran on high and need a bearing replaced every year. With 2 on controllers you can get a true wave action throughout the whole tank with very little equipment in the tank. Tunze speaks for itself and everyone knows they are a great product. Opinions anyone? Thanks!!

 

[crumbletop]

Cool that you are getting to go to that kind of level with the new tank! I don't have any experience with the vortecs. I really like my tunze's and also really like the setup Julie and Scott have with theirs and the wavebox. I have pillars in my tank that are close to the sides and so the tunze is nice because I can aim it past the pillar. With the vortec, I don't think I could do that.

 

[fishdoc11]

I had the same decision recently and went with the Tunzes because they tend to have less problems than the vortecs.....at least from what research I did. The controller is also more versatile. You can also find Tunzes used for a good price if you check in on the selling forum fairly often.
Chris

 

[Angela Short]

Yea, I don't like the yearly maintenance idea on the Vortecs. A pump that high should be no maintenance IMO. I just remember seeing them in action at the critter and the broad flow and strength was amazing. From what I have read they push the water across a very broad area of the tank opposed to a more narrow stream from the Tunzes. The Tunzes are more maneuverable though. Ah, decisions, derisions!

Crumbletop, I need to go ahead and get the nice pumps in the main tank because I plan on working my sump design and parts buying VERY slow! Skimmer, top off...Tank..., return pump, controller Oh my!
I plan on running the main tank without the sump for awhile till I get my ducks in a row kinda thing.

I wonder if Sean will order all my nice things at the deep discount from the meeting tonight

 

[NeveSSL]

Angela, do you have a Neptune AquaController? If you do (or plan on getting one... whether its the Jr., III, or whatever they all support it), you don't have to get Tunze's controller.... there's actually an add on to the Aquacontrollers that will control your Tunzes for you!

Here's a link if you'd like to investigate further. Oh, and its only $175 and will control up to 4 Tunzes.

Brandon

 

[chadfarmer]

tunze

i have 2 vortechs and they have have fell off 3 times in 4 months

nothing like leaving for the weekend to come back to your pumps destroying a acro colony under neath them

i have had tunzes for over 3 year and bought the vortech (now i am going to get rid of the vortech and buy tunzes again)

i will never buy another nano tunze

 

[NeveSSL]

You care to expound on why you won't buy another nano tunze, Chad?

Brandon

 

[Mikeyjer]

I have owned my Vortec for about 2 years or so now, never had a problem with it!!! Never had to replace anything yet, should not curse myself....lol....It's never fallen off my tank, must read the direction if yours is falling off your tank!!!! I have never once had it fall off my tank. I do have to say it's a bit too powerful for my tank if turned up too high, I have it at low setting. IF you have it at higher setting, it's harder to tune in. it tend to vibrate a bit if it's not finely tuned. It will run hot if turned up high for a long periods of time. IF you have it on a controller, I don't think you would have that much problem of it running hot since it can have time off a certain period. Even on low setting, it runs all the way across my tank, it's a 90g bowfront. You would see a sand storm in my tank if turned up too high.....

 

[Angela Short]

I have read if you loose power they (vortects) can fall off and crash things up under them pretty bad. Also check into it Mike but I think you are suppose to change out a berring every year...? On the wet side. It wears out fast and is recommended to change it yearly by the company but yours may last longer since you do not run it on high.

Hey Chad, I will give your vortecs a try if the price is right if you sell them soon . I love the wide flow they give but I think if I can't pick up used ones with controllers pretty cheap from the selling forum I will just go with the trusted reputation of Tunze. Hopefully someone will be letting them go used soon also... Gotta hope for breaks!

 

[Mikeyjer]

They also give you little zip ties and sticky tapes with holders to keep the cords attached to the tank or the hood. IF that was used, it shouldn't fall off. I have lost power many times, mines never fell off once and I have taken it down to clean numerous times and nothing went wrong, I just put it all back together and back on the tank again...It's not the power that holds it on the tank, it's the magnetic that's holding it on!!!

 

[Angela Short]

Ahhh, I wonder why they fall off so easy then for some folks? I had read about others having them fall off and mess up corals before.
Anyways, I think after talking with some folks on the layout of my tank I am gonna need all 4 Tunze in the long run as this will be my only real source of flow so I am gonna go with what is known to work in my tank instead of going with a very expensive pump only to wish I had went with Tunze in the first place.

Picked up my return pump today off the selling forum so I am excited to start getting all the peices gathered up little by little. Its a pretty big pump but I am toying with the idea of going all the way to the Garage with the sump now so I know this pump can handle it. Its an Iwaki MD 100 RLT.

I think I am more excited about this tank even though its the same size and shape as my current one just because I actually have a budget I can use this time instead of the grocery money :lol:. I wonder if the bank knew they were funding my new tank in the home mortgage when they OKed the loan! Cory is still keeping a pretty tight leash on me though . I will be a regular in the selling forums for the next few months I bet!

 

[NeveSSL]

Very cool, Angela! This is really exciting. I'm hoping to do the same one day!

Keep us updated. You should keep a tank build thread going on all of this.

Brandon

 

[Angela Short]

Too lazy

 

[Mikeyjer]

One of the possibility of them falling off is because they didn't read the directions. You can hook up the pump in two different ways, one is to remove the plastic cover on the motor itself if your glass is pretty thick. If the glass is thin, you leave the plastic piece on. It fell off on me too as well when I had the plastic piece on so I removed it and it have not fell off on me since. That time I had no idea how thick my glass was when I first left the plastic cover on. Once it was removed, I have never had it fell off of it since. It's been about 2 years I believe...I've never had a tunze before, but heard a lot of good stuffs about them. I probably wouldn't mind trying them one day....

 

[ct_vol]

I would only choose Vortecs if space were a problem, and for the size tank you're setting up, I don't see that being the case...

I love my Tunzes... Also if you have any problems whatsoever Roger is always accessable and will get things sent out to you or repaired quick as can be... JMO...

What size are you looking at Ang??? 6201's??? Hmmm, I haven't seen anyone with the 6301's yet... They're PRETTY pricey...

 

[Tennsquire]

+1 on the Tunzes. I started out with the Turbelle powerheads several years back (still have 'em), and upgraded to 6000's a couple of years ago on a multicontroller. They're all repairable relatively easily and inexpensively, and their customer service is second to none.