[mark]

Vortech Propellor Pump
anyone had any dealing with this pump before?
Sound very good at water movement and power use
spec:
Flow: 500-3000 gallons per hour
Power Consumption: 12-35 watts
Maximum Motor Temperature: 50-60 degrees Celsius
Aquarium Wall Thickness Range: 3/16”-3/4”
Appropriate Tank Size Range: 20-500+ gallons

www.ecotechmarine.com/products/vortech

[mark]

The VorTech is beautiful and designed with simplicity in mind. A magnetic couple transmits motion through your aquarium glass and clamps the assembly against your tank. This means you won’t have to drill your aquarium, and that you can easily reposition the pump somewhere else in the aquarium without having to move around complicated and awkward brackets.



The VorTech is the smallest propeller pump on the market when you consider how little space it occupies inside the aquarium. The motor is outside of the aquarium, meaning the VorTech may be positioned where it will be least visible. The VorTech is elegantly discreet both in and outside your aquarium.

Flow
The VorTech produces from 500 to 3,000 gallons per hour of low velocity gentle water current. The flow is so impressive and broad, that it actually creates an undertow along your sand bed. You will notice an equal amount of flow going out of your pump as you will see going back into it! Moreover, because the flow pattern is so wide, there is no reason to direction the flow, simply place the pump on the back or sides of your aquarium and flow will be created throughout the whole tank.

Energy Savings
The VorTech is one of the most efficient pumps on the market, consuming approximately 35 watts to produce 3000 gallons per hour. More importantly, all of the heat put out from the motor is outside of your aquarium, meaning you won’t have to invest in costly chillers to keep your tank cool.

Battery Backup Accessory
The VorTech Battery Backup will power one pump for up to 30 hours or two pumps for 15 hours each. Alternatively, multiple battery backups can plugged in to each other to provide even more run time during a power outage. There is no other product that detects an outage and provides as much insurance for so little money.

Wave Motion
Our new wireless wave driver will enable an MP40 pump to be upgraded to an MP40W model, providing pulsing-wave algorithms and allowing the creation of standing surface waves in most aquariums. It also features a feed mode allowing you to shut your pumps down for 10 minutes with the press of a button.

 VorTech_propeller_pump.jpg (16.46K)
Number of downloads: 22

[ben]

nice looking pumps but they arnt cheap

[SLAPPY]

They look nice but at those prices, I'll stick with my Tunze Streams.

[Crabbit]

I looked into these but because they stick on to the glass i was put off because i couldn't see how to change the direction of the flow appart from straight on from the the angle of the the glass.

[mark]

good point crabbit never thought about that.

Thats what good about these sites people always see things in a different light

thanks

mark

[lindsay]

Ok,i know that some of you guys have just started using these pumps,what are you're impressions on the pump compared to what you used to use?.Whats good?and whats bad?.

[dab]

lindsay, on Feb 15 2010, 05:40 PM, said:

Ok,i know that some of you guys have just started using these pumps,what are you're impressions on the pump compared to what you used to use?.Whats good?and whats bad?.

i run 2 on a 100 gallon tank,i love the water movement they produce and the varying speeds they run at BUT, the constant whirring from them i thinks noisey, considering the cost, i also like the fact that the heat they produce doesnt go in the tank,its got to be good for the summer,so theres fors and againsts, and i also like the fact there no big pumps on view in the tank
dave

[mrfishy]

i agree with all of the above except i can hardly hear mine and they run on full chat in reef mode on one lagoon mode on the 2nd.
The wet side is also very easy to keep clean, wouldn't use anything else that is on the market at the moment.
cheers
drew

[TrevC]

I run 2 of the MP40s on a 100g tank and can't quite figure out why I didn't buy them sooner!

I run them both in lagoon mode with one at full throttle and the other at half.
One is slightly noisier than the other but they do move a lot of water.

Corals seem to like the flow too.

I've had a pair of Tunze 6100s on a controller before and just couldn't get on with them. The flow was too "direct".
The flow from the Vortech is much broader.

Top bit of kit

[Roshan]

Linds,

I used a vortech for best part of 1yr 3mths. I had the MP40w - had it as my only pump in my upgraded tank from day1. The flow it provides is excellent and hard to beat - noise wise, it can be noisy to start with but seems to quieten down after about a week or so. My tank is not in our living room so a little noise was not a concern for me. What I did find a concern was that about 3-4mths use I started to have problems with my unit. I found the wetside would disconnect frequently - had a few wet side replacements, bearing replacements etc. Perhaps it was just my pump but I found mine to not be reliable and was always concerned when I was away that the pump would disconnect leaving the tank with very little water movement. This actually happened to me on a couple of occassions lucky not too much damage was done.

I eventually gave up on it just before Xmas - and went back to multiple tunze pumps. For me they are more reliable and I've seen just as good coral reaction to the flow as with the vortech. The vortech is an excellent design and you cant beat it for small footprint and controlability but for me I'd rather have a robust and reliable product. As I say perhaps it was just my unit but this is info from a user who has had a vortech for over a year. My advise is check out RC for graeter customer feedback - and perhaps try one out...

Hope its of use.
Roshan

[karnivor]

Some interesting info there Roshan.
It may however be worth noting that there are 2 generations of Vortech pump. The older ones did have problems, which i'm led to believe have been fixed in the GEN2 version.
I'm not sure when they did the upgrade, but it may be useful to state which generation you have when discussing noise and reliability.

So far, mine have worked great, but they are only a couple of months old and are gen2. I think the flow from them is unrivalled, but they were noisey at first. Much of the noise has now subsided as the bearings have run in, and i'm satisfied the what little noise they now put out.

I think they represent poor value for money in terms of hardware, but there is no denying how well they function, which is probably why they command such a high price.

[Roshan]

I should have noted that I had one of the first Gen2 models. I had my pump in Sept 08.

As mentioned I had a few issues and now run my tank on tunze nano's. I may be tempted to go to vortech again in the future but will wait a while. They are very good pumps but I seemed to have had a run of bad luck with them and thus lost confidence.

Like most things in life - keep it simple and it wont let you down.

Roshan

[Reefbrucie]

hi guys. interesting comments. I've contemplated getting these for a while but a few things keep putting me off. Firstly they are hughly expensive. Secondly and probably the most important is the fact that there is no directional flow facility and that on seaching info in the different forums there have been more moans about them than praise. alot of this may have been from the earilier models noted. I just think that tunze which i use at the moment are really reliable and the new models have a much better mag/bracket which allows the pump to face any direction. they are also quite a bit cheaper than the vortech (though still abit pricey). also the new models use much less power than previous and so help keep the leckie bill down.
Bruce

[lindsay]

Some interesting points .

[elliot09]

I've always wondered what exactly it is about Vortechs that make them so much more expensive than other PH's. I assume it's the fact that the motor is on the outside?

[Dave.I]

I think its more the fact that they can make more money from people.So over priced imo.

[elliot09]

Dave.I, on Mar 28 2010, 05:56 PM, said:

I think its more the fact that they can make more money from people.So over priced imo.

Must admit, I thought the same, but then I've never had any hands on experience with them. I got a new gen Koralia the other day that I'm really happy with, and it doesnt seem to get too warm either.

[TrevC]

The price of 2 x MP40s is on par with the price for the Tunze TS24 Kit

[pt1000]

I have a hydor koralia wave maker 4 , running two koralia 4's and two 3's. I think it is great, there is some pre set pro-grammes but you can make up
your own as well . You can set each pump to what you want ,plus point it where you want ,And this was the same price as two large vortech.
But i can not comment on the performance of the vortech as i have not had one, i just think the koralia set is more controllable