Which Vortech to use?

[Mayberry]

I am setting up a 75 gallon reef tank with live rock, corals and a couple small fish and crustaceans. Which type of Vortech should I use, an MP 10 or a MP 40?

 

[steallife904]

I have a 75 and run 2 mp10s and have to run them full power. No way would one be enough. If I did it again I would have most likely done an mp40 but the 2 mp10s have done well. I am currently upgrading tanks and got the maxspect gyre 150 (2 of them). You may want to look into one of the gyres. There flow is pretty crazy.

 

[thestreetzking]

your best bet is to go with the 40 off the bat and not have to buy multiple

 

[BrettDS]

I have a 75 and I just went through this. I bought an MP40 to start, but I wound up returning it. I was only keeping it at about 30-40%... and even there it would kick up some sand as it varied in speed for some of the programs. But the problem was that at only 30-40% it was too much power for one side of the tank and the current barely reached the other side. I replaced it with two MP10's and I'm much happier... I run them around 80% during most of the day and have no problem with sand storms... I could probably go all the way up to 100 if I needed to. One MP10 would definitely be too small for my 75, but two seem to be perfect.

 

[CJBuckeyes]

I have two mp10s on a 22 gallon ada tank (similar to a 20H) and I run them at 70%. It's an SPS tank, so you may not have the same flow requirements. I'm looking to upgrade to a 75, and am planning to use two mp40s.

I don't see you mention any corals. If no plans for corals, then one mp10 will be plenty.

 

[scooter31707]

I would recommend getting the 2 MP40s and tuning them down if necessary. then that if you do decide to upgrade, that piece of equipment you will already have.

 

[BrettDS]

I would recommend getting the 2 MP40s and tuning them down if necessary. then that if you do decide to upgrade, that piece of equipment you will already have.

Depending on how much they have to be turned down this may not work well. I was using them with a wxm on my apex, so this might be a bit different with the reef link, but I'm don't believe it is.

20% is about the lowest they can go (You can set them to under 20%, but they still operate at about 20%... And at lower settings, the programs that vary the speed of the pump don't work well (or at all) because they can only vary the speed between that 20% minimum and whatever you have set as the max.

So if you have it set to 30% then the maximum variation you can get is from 20%-30% which really doesn't provide much change. If you can run them at 50 or 70% or better they might work well, but as I said above, in my 75G the MP40 at 30-40% was bordering on too powerful for things close to the pump.

 

[Mayberry]

Thanks everybody. Steallife904 the maxspect gyre 150 look pretty interesting, I may go that route.

 

[TylerHaworth]

In my 75 I ran a pair of MP40's on 75-80% Reef Crest... I found one to be woefully inadequate at preventing dead spots.

 

[oseymour]

I had 2 mp10s on a 50 breeder and it wasn't enough (and loud) I upgraded to 2 mp40qd and it was kicking up my DSB. I now have 1 mp40qd on about 10% and went back to one of my old mp10.

I mp40qd would be enough for the tank close to the top, it creates a huge undertow and a gyre effect.

 

[Uncle Luke]

2 mp40's ftw.