Tuesday, January 31, 2006
I've been running the new VorTech pump in my tank for the past three weeks. I'd like to thank VorTech for letting beta-testers speak publicly about our impressions finally.
When I opened my box, I swear I heard angels in the heavens singing.
It has been very interesting testing the pump to see what it would and what it wouldn't. Everyone mentions directing the flow. I've seen no need. The flow is wide.
The intake grate is large enough to suck in food without clogging, and chop it up even finer for my smaller fish. ;) It doesn't clog. Snails climb all over it, and seem unaffected at all. I've had my longnose hawkfish perch on it and swim away easily.
The pump doesn't eat up a lot of real-estate, nor block my viewing panel. This is very important to me and why I've never had a pump on this end of the tank.
The sound - we all care about sound. It is very very low, like the sound of a computer tower's power supply on the floor under your desk. You know it is on, but it doesn't stop you from doing what you need to do. When it is running 100%, you are still aware of it. If you had these on your tank inside the fish room, you'd never hear a thing as your skimmer would likely be far more noisy. My entire setup is pretty quiet, as is my home. It hasn't bothered me at all, including when I watch TV & movies. No complaints at all.
The glass of my tank is 1/2" thick, so I have a pad on the inside and outside of my tank. Moving the pump takes both hands, working from the inside and outside of the tank at the same time. It is very easy to move it and keep it aligned.
When you first set it up, you may hear some mild noise coming from it as things need to slime over like all other plumbing parts. I never really heard anything, but it actually got more silent the next day. If that makes sense.
The propellar cover has a flat area to face upward to avoid vortexing air into the pump. And when I had it within 1" of the surface, it still didn't vortex. That was really surprising, and cool.
The one negative I can think of is that every person that sees it puts their hands on it and says "what's this for?" I want a label on it that says "If you didn't pay for this, don't touch it!" LOL If the person tries to pull it or move it, they can cause the inner half to drop to the bottom of the tank. It hasn't happened yet, but I could imagine someone doing it if I wasn't there staring them down.
I have SPS corals about 16" from the VorTech (when it was positioned in the picture above), and two corals ended up with a small bald spot due to running it on high. I moved the pump more toward the front of the tank to avoid that direct contact and both are doing just fine. Of course, turning down the flow at the driver box is easily done as well.
Because I have two Tunze 6100 Streams at the opposite end of my tank, they pump against each other. The sandbed has definitely shifted, due to the undertow all three pumps create. My tank is 72" x 30" x 30".
As I expected at MACNA, I knew this would be a hit. I'm very happy with what I've seen thus far, and am excited about the controller and battery backup as well. Had VorTech decided to not release the pump for another six months just so they could have a controller to go with it, I still would have waited. And face it, many people will probably try to buy the pump only, to save money. So there really isn't a reason to demand a controller from Day 1. These are the same guys running Maxijets and Seio pumps with no controlling ability.
You can demonstrate flow by dropping food in the tank, or pouring in Purple Up or some type of alkalinity booster, but the tank will get cloudy.
When I opened my box, I swear I heard angels in the heavens singing.
It has been very interesting testing the pump to see what it would and what it wouldn't. Everyone mentions directing the flow. I've seen no need. The flow is wide.
The intake grate is large enough to suck in food without clogging, and chop it up even finer for my smaller fish. ;) It doesn't clog. Snails climb all over it, and seem unaffected at all. I've had my longnose hawkfish perch on it and swim away easily.
The pump doesn't eat up a lot of real-estate, nor block my viewing panel. This is very important to me and why I've never had a pump on this end of the tank.
The sound - we all care about sound. It is very very low, like the sound of a computer tower's power supply on the floor under your desk. You know it is on, but it doesn't stop you from doing what you need to do. When it is running 100%, you are still aware of it. If you had these on your tank inside the fish room, you'd never hear a thing as your skimmer would likely be far more noisy. My entire setup is pretty quiet, as is my home. It hasn't bothered me at all, including when I watch TV & movies. No complaints at all.
The glass of my tank is 1/2" thick, so I have a pad on the inside and outside of my tank. Moving the pump takes both hands, working from the inside and outside of the tank at the same time. It is very easy to move it and keep it aligned.
When you first set it up, you may hear some mild noise coming from it as things need to slime over like all other plumbing parts. I never really heard anything, but it actually got more silent the next day. If that makes sense.
The propellar cover has a flat area to face upward to avoid vortexing air into the pump. And when I had it within 1" of the surface, it still didn't vortex. That was really surprising, and cool.
The one negative I can think of is that every person that sees it puts their hands on it and says "what's this for?" I want a label on it that says "If you didn't pay for this, don't touch it!" LOL If the person tries to pull it or move it, they can cause the inner half to drop to the bottom of the tank. It hasn't happened yet, but I could imagine someone doing it if I wasn't there staring them down.
I have SPS corals about 16" from the VorTech (when it was positioned in the picture above), and two corals ended up with a small bald spot due to running it on high. I moved the pump more toward the front of the tank to avoid that direct contact and both are doing just fine. Of course, turning down the flow at the driver box is easily done as well.
Because I have two Tunze 6100 Streams at the opposite end of my tank, they pump against each other. The sandbed has definitely shifted, due to the undertow all three pumps create. My tank is 72" x 30" x 30".
As I expected at MACNA, I knew this would be a hit. I'm very happy with what I've seen thus far, and am excited about the controller and battery backup as well. Had VorTech decided to not release the pump for another six months just so they could have a controller to go with it, I still would have waited. And face it, many people will probably try to buy the pump only, to save money. So there really isn't a reason to demand a controller from Day 1. These are the same guys running Maxijets and Seio pumps with no controlling ability.
You can demonstrate flow by dropping food in the tank, or pouring in Purple Up or some type of alkalinity booster, but the tank will get cloudy.
Last Saturday, our club hosted Next Wave 2006. 175 hobbyists showed up to be taught by Julian Sprung(author and owner of Two Little Fishies), Robert Fenner (author and owner of WetWebMedia), Jorge Gomezjurado (owner of dracomarine.com), and Anthony Calfo (author and aqua-culturist). The day went very well, and everyone had a good time. As president of the DFWMAS, it was very important to me that everyone get the most out of it. Based on the smiling faces and positive feedback that has come in, the Board of Directors can feel confident in saying "Mission accomplished!" :)
Julian's talk about DSBs was very interesting to me, considering how back in the 80s, he was firmly against them. He explained how flow (wave motion) over the sandbed actively filters the water, and had slides and a brief video documenting how the flow moves through the sand.
Robert talked about fish health, and gave good suggestions when it comes to shopping for that next fish. He went into disease, and helped us understand how important it is that we observe them closely.
Jorge talked about seahorses, indicating that they aren't nearly as frail or difficult as many have feared for years. His company raises them from fry, in several colors. He pointed out that they can handle plenty of flow, that feeding once a day will suffice, and that they can be in a reef-like tank as long as they don't have to compete to eat. So Casper's home is perfectly fine, being surrounded by zoanthids and LR.
Anthony cut an anemone in half, as we all watched and winced. Seeing how easy it was to cut stony corals on a wet-saw makes me want to get one as well.
The raffle that evening was great, with lots of winners. I bought Julian's new book "The Reef Aquarium Vol III" at the conference, and look forward to reading it.
For those of you tuning in, the latest podcast at www.reefcast.com should be out sometime today (1/31). If you've not done so yet, you can subscribe at iTunes.com and new podcasts will automatically be downloaded to your computer or iPod.
Three new corals were added to the 280g reef:
Yellow Scroll
Unknown
Candy Cane
Julian's talk about DSBs was very interesting to me, considering how back in the 80s, he was firmly against them. He explained how flow (wave motion) over the sandbed actively filters the water, and had slides and a brief video documenting how the flow moves through the sand.
Robert talked about fish health, and gave good suggestions when it comes to shopping for that next fish. He went into disease, and helped us understand how important it is that we observe them closely.
Jorge talked about seahorses, indicating that they aren't nearly as frail or difficult as many have feared for years. His company raises them from fry, in several colors. He pointed out that they can handle plenty of flow, that feeding once a day will suffice, and that they can be in a reef-like tank as long as they don't have to compete to eat. So Casper's home is perfectly fine, being surrounded by zoanthids and LR.
Anthony cut an anemone in half, as we all watched and winced. Seeing how easy it was to cut stony corals on a wet-saw makes me want to get one as well.
The raffle that evening was great, with lots of winners. I bought Julian's new book "The Reef Aquarium Vol III" at the conference, and look forward to reading it.
For those of you tuning in, the latest podcast at www.reefcast.com should be out sometime today (1/31). If you've not done so yet, you can subscribe at iTunes.com and new podcasts will automatically be downloaded to your computer or iPod.
Three new corals were added to the 280g reef:
Yellow Scroll
Unknown
Candy Cane
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Evan and I are currently working on a reef keeping podcast. Simply, it is a pre-recorded internet 'radio' show. Each podcast is saved as an .mp3 file, which you can play from your computer, your ipod or other mp3 player, or even from some cellphones that can receive files from itunes.com
The site is www.reefcast.com
We should have the first podcast up by Sunday night if at all possible, and the goal is to produce one episode each week. Product reviews, interviews, funny stuff and more are all on our list of upcoming topics. We also hope to do podcasts from MACNA if at all possible, this September.
So check it out, and let us know what you think. Evan is DFWMAS club member, and known by Quiksilver on RC. Please spread the word if you like it, so others can find it and listen too. :)
Four pictures from tonight:
Acan
My new blue Tort.
The Dendrophyllia is growing a baby polyp.
The Tyree frag is growing colorfully. I've posted pictures of this piece previously. I may have to move it to keep a hammer from stinging it soon.
Acan
My new blue Tort.
The Dendrophyllia is growing a baby polyp.
The Tyree frag is growing colorfully. I've posted pictures of this piece previously. I may have to move it to keep a hammer from stinging it soon.
Monday, January 09, 2006
A close call...
When I got back in town, I found the Golden Eel in my son's tank on the wrong side of the tank's partitian, over by the clownfish where I don't want it. I moved the partitian over, so it would swim back to its side and all was well.
Tonight I fed the tank and my son just ran up to me telling me the eel was on the floor! I had to pull it out from under his dresser (that the tank is on) and he was covered in dog hair - an area you can't clean without removing the furniture.
I took the eel to the kitchen to rinse off all I could and let me tell you that holding an eel in one hand and trying to get tap water near tank temps is tough when you worry about its need for saltwater to breathe and live. After I was able to clean off about 85% of it, it twisted to get out of my hand which was a tad scary as I've been bit before.
Fortunately it just put up with my ministrations, and I put it back in the tank. Within 5 seconds it swam to the bottom to recover from its adventure.
UPDATE 24 hours later...
The eel did not survive. :(
When I got back in town, I found the Golden Eel in my son's tank on the wrong side of the tank's partitian, over by the clownfish where I don't want it. I moved the partitian over, so it would swim back to its side and all was well.
Tonight I fed the tank and my son just ran up to me telling me the eel was on the floor! I had to pull it out from under his dresser (that the tank is on) and he was covered in dog hair - an area you can't clean without removing the furniture.
I took the eel to the kitchen to rinse off all I could and let me tell you that holding an eel in one hand and trying to get tap water near tank temps is tough when you worry about its need for saltwater to breathe and live. After I was able to clean off about 85% of it, it twisted to get out of my hand which was a tad scary as I've been bit before.
Fortunately it just put up with my ministrations, and I put it back in the tank. Within 5 seconds it swam to the bottom to recover from its adventure.
UPDATE 24 hours later...
The eel did not survive. :(
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Ding Dong.
Finally. The UPS delivery I've been waiting for for weeks. I ordered a Kill-O-watt device on Dec 14, and never heard from the company again. I emailed them thrice, and still no reply. I got a statement on Saturday showing they got my money though.
So I opened it up, and plugged in some stuff to see what I could see. I didn't test the MH because I didn't want to power them off and then back on again. I'll test those in the future.
Euro-Reef Skimmer with two Sedra 5000 pumps. Their rating: 50w each, or 100w total. Kill-O-watt: 81w
IceCap 430 ballast powering two 6' 160w actinic bulbs. Kill-O-watt: 187w
Little Giant Model OPWG-46 return pump. Kill-O-watt: 141w
Two Tunze 6100 Streams, rated at 45w each. Kill-O-watt: 33w (low) / 45w (high) & 37w (low) / 51w (high)
Calcium Reactor's Mag 7 circulation pump, rated at 70w. Kill-O-watt: 47w
MaxiJet 1200 (pumping water into Calcium Reactor), rated at 20w. Kill-O-watt: 14w
Two Refugium 19w 5100K bulbs. Kill-O-watt: 20w & 21w
Two IceCap 4" fans, rated for 12 volts. Kill-O-watt: 11w
That is pretty much it. I need to test the heaters and the MH bulbs. Interesting numbers, don't you think? I was surprised how much less the VHO lighting measured. Maybe it is more to fire them up when they are cold.
Finally. The UPS delivery I've been waiting for for weeks. I ordered a Kill-O-watt device on Dec 14, and never heard from the company again. I emailed them thrice, and still no reply. I got a statement on Saturday showing they got my money though.
So I opened it up, and plugged in some stuff to see what I could see. I didn't test the MH because I didn't want to power them off and then back on again. I'll test those in the future.
Euro-Reef Skimmer with two Sedra 5000 pumps. Their rating: 50w each, or 100w total. Kill-O-watt: 81w
IceCap 430 ballast powering two 6' 160w actinic bulbs. Kill-O-watt: 187w
Little Giant Model OPWG-46 return pump. Kill-O-watt: 141w
Two Tunze 6100 Streams, rated at 45w each. Kill-O-watt: 33w (low) / 45w (high) & 37w (low) / 51w (high)
Calcium Reactor's Mag 7 circulation pump, rated at 70w. Kill-O-watt: 47w
MaxiJet 1200 (pumping water into Calcium Reactor), rated at 20w. Kill-O-watt: 14w
Two Refugium 19w 5100K bulbs. Kill-O-watt: 20w & 21w
Two IceCap 4" fans, rated for 12 volts. Kill-O-watt: 11w
That is pretty much it. I need to test the heaters and the MH bulbs. Interesting numbers, don't you think? I was surprised how much less the VHO lighting measured. Maybe it is more to fire them up when they are cold.
