Vortech Owners......lagoon and reef crest mode questions
 

I am testing out the reef-crest and lagoon modes on my Vortech MP40w and it doesn't appear to do anything. The stream appears to stay constant. How often is the flow supposed alternate in those cycles? Does the light on the wireless driver stay lit all the time?

I think the light stays on. The reef crest mode does change speeds, you should be able to hear a difference in the motor. These are slow changes. Several others have posted similar questions. There is no alternating flow on reef crest or lagoon, it is just a random variation in speed. Check the Ecotech forum. I think they have a graph that shows how the speed varies with the two modes.

its a slow change in flow but it is changing the cycle is hours long.

driver light is always on in pulse mode it blinks i hate that but i guess it might help some people because the duration of the blink is dependent on the pulse length

i use pulse mode, Wave motion FTW

Thanks for the info guys. The reason I am asking is because I believe there is something wrong with my wireless wave driver. I am having problems in the pulse mode. It tends to stall and stutter when pulsing with the GPH at the max. Check out the vid and let me know what you think. I recieved the pump as an X-mas gift and I am about to send it back to EcoTech to have it serviced..........sucks.

[url]http://youtube.com/watch?v=KEyR-NNiNn8[/url]

Here's a clip of it on the lowest GPH setting set to constant. I can hear this thing from across the room. Is this normal?
[url]http://youtube.com/watch?v=tkpE-OlBBx4[/url]

Thanks for the info guys. The reason I am asking is because I believe there is something wrong with my wireless wave driver. I am having problems in the pulse mode. It tends to stall and stutter when pulsing with the GPH at the max. Check out the vid and let me know what you think. I recieved the pump as an X-mas gift and I am about to send it back to EcoTech to have it serviced..........sucks.

[url]http://youtube.com/watch?v=KEyR-NNiNn8[/url]

Here's a clip of it on the lowest GPH setting set to constant. I can hear this thing from across the room. Is this normal?
[url]http://youtube.com/watch?v=tkpE-OlBBx4[/url]

Check out this thread. It shows the duration and speed (percentage wise) for reef crest and lagoon mode:

[url]http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1229131[/url]

I love the flow of the VT, but the noise is not good. I think mine sounds like yours. Unfortunately this may be normal. I do not use the pulse mode because the noise is not tolerable with my very very quiet tank. This is a huge shortcomming with these pumps. The TUNZEs have their own imperfections. I have deciced tio use both ;). hopefully best of both worlds

your pump is not operating propperly in pulse mode. mine acts differently and my pulse is 100%

I've read a couple of posts about the pumps being noisy. My tank is in the other room, but my house is an open design and I never hear the pumps. Even when I go into that room, I don't hear them. I run them at 100% in reef crest mode. One set to master, the other to sync and the third to anti-sync.

When you send back your pump for service be sure to include the power supply. That light shouldn't be "dimming" upon pulse and I'd bet $$ that you have a bad power supply.

or the power going to the supply is lacking?

i'm disappointed with the wave modes in the wireless controller. i was hoping for something that could give more distinct bursts of strong flow, not just changing 5% over the course of 30 minutes. that way the anti-sync mode can be utilized to it's fullest coolness. and unless you have other flow in the tank to keep things mixing, pulse seems to be more of a novelty than actually useful. just rocking the same water back and forth doesn't really seem very helpful. it looks good on videos and probably sells pumps though.

the noisy pump earlier in the thread- it could just be bad alignment or need some tweaking on the pin spacer (bump it out a notch just to see). or it could be a bad motor bearing. i need to send mine in for repair as it sounds like a bunch of crickets, but i need to arrange something else to replace it till i get it back.

Mine gives off a whirring sound that I would expect given the volume of water being moved around. It's not silent by any means but I don't feel it is excessive. I've played with the alignment, and it doesn't seem to affect things much. I haven't diddled with the pin spacer. In any case it's much quieter than my return pump.

I run mine in reef crest mode, turned a little down (on a 4x2x2 120 gal mixed reef). If run at full speed the sand gets blown around something harsh. The pump is close enough to the surface that it occasionally sucks down air.

Overall, I'm very impressed with this pump; the only thing I'd love is if the single pump could reverse, so you could get real back/forth movement with a single pump.

Dan

Actually, maybe it's time for someone to hack the controller to allow the back/forth movement... hmmm... :)

This is all interesting stuff as the Vortech,s are very new over here in GB.and little is mentioned about controler's etc........

I'm sending the unit in for warranty work today........I will update the post as soon as I get it back.