why are sea swirls so expensive?

[shaunmcm]

and are they worth it?? anyone have a used one for sale??

[MtnDewMan]

I think they are worth it personally ... I like the random water movement. Why are they expensive? Because they can be? They are a patented device, so the supply and demand is driving the price. Aquarium products such as this are not "mass produced" like other products such as tape recorders, etc ... just not a demand for them, therefore they can get premium prices.

[shaunmcm]

how flexible are they in attaching to the tank? i am considering running my main line into the sea swirl. are these things easy to mount and reliable when it comes to that sort of high flow ? i would think there would be some sort of kick back that would require a very solid mounting device. do they mount to all sorts of tank configurations?

[MtnDewMan]

They attach to the lip of the acrylic tank with nylon screws. They are held in place pretty well. You can use PVC to hook them up to your plumbing, I use flex hose so that they have some flex to them for when they do move the water. I have yet to have one dislodge out of place during operation.

Check out http://www.sea-swirl.com/ for more info ...

[skylsdale]

Someone on here managed to make their own DIY SeaSwirl that looked just as good (if not better!) than the commercial models. He was going to post plans and materials, but I think the thread was closed or deleted do to some pressure from Sea-Swirl. Anyone else remember this, or am I losing it?

[shaunmcm]

I'll probably go ahead and buy one. I can get a bit over 100 bucks for my tsunami and maxi jet 1200s that i currently use. Really what this is intended to do is remove the risk of back flow out of my tank in case of a power outage. My tank is drilled at the bottom for return flow. If I have return flow at top of tank using a sea swirl then i can close up the hole at the bottom and don't have to worry about the back flow "stopper" thing from failing. and believe me, these things seem to fail 10% of the time i turn the power off on my return pump. 200 bucks for the sea swirl (minus what i get for the tsunami) is cheap when compared to dumping 100 gallons of salt water on my living room floor. i live in constant fear of this with the hole drilled at the bottom.

[mogurnda]

I am sold on them. They take up a bit of room on the back, but mine has been absolutely trouble free. There are DIY plans for using sprinklers and such, but my time is too tight right now, and I have made the mistake of going cheap too many times:mad:

As I said, they are bulky, and it's a little clumsy having the input on the top rather than the bottom, but they are better than any alternative I know of.

[Mushroom Boy]

Originally posted by shaunmcm:
why are sea swirls so expensive?

Two words: They Rock! :D :D :D

[shaunmcm]

installed it ! everyone seems psyched to have the added flow. hey, anyone have problems with the "U" shaped attachment coming loose and falling off during operation? The reason i ask is i didn't mount the unit to my tank, so it sits freely on there. this was suggested by two members, but i wanted to make sure that thing is known to stay on. i have this vision of the unit coming free and spraying return water all over till the sump goes dry.