So I purchased the vortech for my 24x24x18H tank. It was based on a sort of cost/feature ratio that seemed pretty good. The pump outputs 3000gph and has a wavemaker with some half decent features built in. it has flow control and a 10 minute feed mode. The fact it takes up almost NO room in the tank was a big plus.
So far the impression has been good. The features are pretty much how I expected them to work and the pump's performance is quite strong. It takes up very little room in the tank which is a bonus because the tank's pretty small as it is. It still allows for a nice "open" look to the tank even though there's the capability of a 66x turnover
.
The pump's build is appears better than a koralia and a seio which are the two other "high flow" pumps I've had experience with.
Setting up the single pump was quite easy. I got the propeller assembly to stick on the first try but the 2nd time I had problems. After a thorough read through the manual I realized I have to let ALL the air escape from the propeller module before attaching it to the glass. This solved the problem.
The wavemaking modes are not bad. It has the following modes:
- always on
- tidepool random
- reefcrest random
- pulse mode
There are two buttons and a control knob. On always on you turn the control knob to adjust the pump's flow. On tidepool and reefcrest random the knob controls the pump's maximum flow. On manual pulse mode the knob works in combination with the "set" button. Pulse mode works like this:
you press the set button to toggle between pump speed and pulse frequency. Then you turn the knob to adjust the pulse speed or pulse frequency according to the "set" mode you're in. If the light's on solid then you're in pump speed setting. If the light's pulsing then you're changing the pulsation and you can notice your change right away as you play with the knob.
A fellow reefer told me they absolutely loved the reefcrest random mode but I find for my little tank the pulse mode works better. I believe this is also because I only have one pump and not two. You can get more pumps and run them either synchronously or asynchronously. Down the road if I'm feeling like splurging again I could possibly get another pump and run them asynchronously and get the water moving in both directions.
In the little tank, though, wavemaking was definately possible when using the manual pulse mode. I had to throttle the power to about 70% and tweak the pulse to about 3/4 second intervals to get the waves going. It actually made a single wave that would wrap around the tank walls. Pretty neat
In the end I had to end the wavemaking because the tank only has 6mm side panes and I don't want to burst a seam.
I have a video of the wavemaking in action but my internet's REAL flakey tonight so youtube uploading's out of the question. I'll post the video tomorrow if the internet's better.
So after the 2nd evening of playing with it I have to say it's a pretty good product and worth the money. If you want to more control of your waterflow I think it's the most economical way to do so even for a small tank such as this. I'll post my thoughts on the vortech in the future too if I run into problems or find something I like about it I never noticed before.