Making waves

[wkada]

My new MP40w arrived on the doorstep today. All I can say is wow! It is currently running and I'll be experimenting over the weekend. Will be able to take out 2-3 of the other powerheads. It is very quiet, even running full bore. Don't know if I got a good deal: 419.95 at Reefgeek.com (no tax, free shipping, great customer service). The cheapest I've seen them used is around 350. No regrets so far, but its only been running 2 hrs.

[CoryDude]

Ebay's your best best for finding one under $400.

Either way, I was a little hesitant spending so much on a powerhead. But everyone is right, the flow control options are awesome, and I like the clean look of my tank without multiple powerheads.

[Robb_in_Austin]

There are a few Vortechs up for sale on RC. Might have to search back a few pages to see them all though.

[camaroracer214]

have you looked into a gyre setup? basically it's just water circulating in a circular path. i haven't used one personally, but i've seen a few in action and they do a great job.

as for waves...i'm not a big fan of seeing the fish just pulse back and forth. again, personal preference, but i think it just doesn't look all that good.

another thing you have to think about (and i'm being paranoid) is the volume of water that will be pulsing back and forth, and what it could do on the structural stability of the tank/stand. i've seen some pretty crappy stands in my time (i never owned them thank goodness). there was one in particular that i remember. it was a stand for a 75 gallon tank that put together like a puzzle piece. but the kicker here was that it didn't use ANY screws/nails/glue/tape/whatever to hold it all together. when the tank wasn't on the stand, it just wobbled back and forth. very scary.

but doing some math...a gallon of saltwater weighs like 8 lbs. so, if you have that tank a rocking, you have some serious weight being thrown around. just too nerve racking for me.

but going with what ace said...a wave like action can certainly suspend the detritus. i would suggest that people change their flow patterns in their tanks every once in a while to get the detritus out of the rockwork and into the water column for filtering. even on a wave tank, detritus will find a way to settle somewhere.

[ReefCube]

did you buy anything yet?

[Gseclipse02]

group buy on MP40's

[Kristy]

did you buy anything yet?

Ha! That's funny.... no, that would be a little impulsive for $800+ on powerheads. We like to take our time to deliberate on big purchases, make sure we are serious about it and then look around for good deals. Let me know if you see one because we'd be interested! So far it kind of reminds me of looking at Apple products - all locked in at about the same price.

Might do it soon if we found the right deal. Might take a couple more months and celebrate paying off our vehicles by splurgining on these.

[Kristy]

Thanks once again for all the helpful comments and answers!

wkada - Give us a follow up in a week or two and let us know if you are completely happy with your purchase. Have fun!

Robb in Austin and corydude, thanks for the tips. We'll check RC and ebay both, but cannot decide if we want to buy used and pay almost as much, you know? Kind of makes more sense to me to buy new unless we're going to get a GREAT deal.

gseclipse - any savings on a group buy other than the shipping cost? Can probably find these for free or very low shipping from a number of places.

camaroracer214 - thanks for the info about the gyre circulation... I'll read more about it. That sounds like it would satisfy my goals really well, but my husband is really liking the idea of a wave effect. I know what you mean about some of the rickety stands out there, but thankfully we have a really solid one, that was actually one of the main reasons we bought this 210g tank because of the great cabinetry of the stand and hood. (Props to Ace, who made the hood, and to unknown cabinet maker on the stand?)

[ReefCube]

there are many group buys out there on these things and you can even find them used on RC

[Robb_in_Austin]

There are(were?) a few new/unused ones on RC over the last 2-3 days. I scored one for $350 shipped.