maxspect gyre questions

[iceman86]

I bought 2 of the maxspect and I hate them. 1 just died on me last week after 2 years of use. Aside from them being noisy, I'm constantly replacing worn out parts. The section of plastic coating on the cord that sits in the water even cracked and flaked off. I don't even have them at 100%. I'm going back to jebao or tunze since I've never had issues with them.

I had one on each end of the tank and played with all the settings and different positions. I either got dead spots or sand storms. I eventually just gave up on trying to keep the sand nice and neat, Iet the storm go until the sand bunched up somewhere and had spots of barebottom.

I watched the you tube videos where they put little balls in an empty tank with water to show the gyre effect and how there is no dead spots. It looks good and convincing, but throw in a few rock structures and a bunch of coral and fish moving and the gyre effect doesn't exist.

I have a larger tank so maybe that was the problem. I could see them being good on smaller or tanks with rock structures twards the back where there is lots of open space for the pumps to do their gyre effect.

I thought the purpose of these pumps was to look clean and avoid the cluttering of multiple other pumps because of the functionality of them, but I found them to be like any other single pump, but with a hefty price tag and constantly replacing parts which I've never had to do with other pumps.

End rant/

[DorySaid]

Originally Posted by iceman86

The section of plastic coating on the cord that sits in the water even cracked and flaked off.

I think I remember hearing that that was a design flaw and you could get a replacement part or whole headunit. I'm pretty certain it was somewhat of a recall and a common problem with the maxspect gyres.

[smokinreefer]

Oooh so reviews are 50/50... Not encouraging...

I've ordered a pair for my display which is in an open concept area... Hope it's not noisy cuz then they'll need to go back.

[kyl]

Gen1 early releases had the faulty wire / motor block, and faulty controllers. Gen2 seems to have ironed all that out, my 230's are pretty quiet below 70% since they slimed up.

What does suck is controller options. The icecap modules are a rip-off for what they do, and the ICV6 <> 2016 Apex functionality seems to have been abandoned.

[tang daddy]

Apparently the gyres are suppose to be run near the surface under 1-5-2” of water. I run mine about 6-8” below, it creates some awesome undertow and blasts the rock structure. The pair I have is set up so one blows across and the other angled to the surface sits a little higher across. The bottom still has currents but obviously not as strong as mid tank, flower pots, ricordea as well as other Lps on the bottom and constantly getting a current of particulate and broken down matter. They are expensive but worth the money imho...
Parts cost for a new motor block is $60 that’s cheap compared to if you are buying a whole new pump.

[Frogger]

If I run my gyre's too close to the surface they suck air. I run them about 4" below the surface. You can always adjust the direction of the flow if you find you are having a problem.