need advice for water movement with vortechs
 

completely new setup
30x24x22 69g heavy sps mixed tank

i absolutely need the most quiet option its super important to me

1mp40QD at 80%
ou
2mp40 non QD at 40% each
ou
une mp60 non QD at 20-25%

what would be the best option to your knowledge and opinions

2x MP10 QD ou 1x MP40 QD.

my aquarium glass is half an inch thick and ecotech mp10 are good up to 3/8 according to the website

2MP40s should work nicely for you. I run 3xMP40 on my 4 foot 77 gallon Hagen tank. They are in a master/slave configuration running in TSM. Two on the end glass are limited to 80% speed & the one on the back glass is limited to a lower speed because tank is narrow, 16 inches back to front. TSM runs all 3 pumps at varying speeds over a cycle of several hours for random flow patterns. With a single button push on the master drive, I can switch to NTM (short pulse wave making mode) which I like to do prior to water changes. You'll need to tune a wave for your tank first, for optimal result. Single button push again on the master, reverts back to TSM. Speed variations in TSM are gradual, keeping noise to a minimum. I also use Night Mode to slow all the pumps overnight, more for power savings/noise reduction rather than any attempt at recreating what actually happens in a reef at night.

i know theyre are the bomb performance wise
my inquiry is about the noise

The QD's are quieter than the older WES model. I just installed a QD driver on my 1 year old dryside and wetside. I measured it to be 7 dB quieter. The thread is in the equipment section somewhere.

if sound level is your greatest concern, Vortechs are not for you...

You will find that they are very loud.

if you really need quiet, look at Tunze's instead...

Or if you plan on running an Apex controller these new Neptune WAV pumps should be out very soon and they look really promising.

http://www.neptunesystems.com/wav/

I think ill be grabing a pair.

I agree, you will always get some motor sound, if you must have a controllable wave maker you might consider Jebao RW's

My WES 40s have been running on the tank for many years and aren't that noisy running in TSM. Purchased my first MP40 in 2008. For me personally noise is a non-issue regardless since I have a large air pump running 24/7 sitting next to the display. It drives the wooden air diffusers in my old school skimmer which also sits there making the whole scene not only noisy, but rather ugly too :lol:. The cooling fans for my diy LED fixtures run most of the day helping to further drown out any sound emanating from the VorTechs. I have no personal experience with the new QD VorTechs, so can't offer any advice there, WarDog has contributed info on those with his thread.

If you want dead quiet, VorTechs may not be the choice for you. I suggested 2xMP40 because with your size tank, you'll have a ton of options & flow while running them at a lower speed. In my experience with my non QD versions, they are barely audible up to about 50%. If you want to make a large wave, then you need to run them in short pulse mode up to almost maximum speed and that will drive you nuts long term, so not a good way to run them constantly. If you run them in TSM limited to 50%, you'll barely know they are running, provided you get them aligned properly.

Here's a link to a post from another thread where I provide a bit of history on my experience with VorTechs.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...5&postcount=12