Hydor Koralia Super-Mod
 

I just received a shipment of the new Hydor Koralia 4's tonight... and couldn't leave well enough alone.

Basic Koralia 4 impression: Cool looking pump, awesome swiveling magnet mount, very wide flow - wider than a MJ mod, about the flow of a "medium" MJ (ie. octura 1435). I don't understand why they made it so big... it's bigger than a MJ by a little bit, but the core pump stuck inside that cool housing is shaped like a MJ but MUCH smaller.

Time to play.

First thing I tried was swapping the stock impeller (puny magnet, decent sized and pitched prop stock) for a MJ 1200 magnet with an Octura 1440 on there. All I can say is WOW. Pushes easily double what the stock impeller does, and seems to push considerably more than the MJ 1200 that the impeller/prop came out of (though the improvement over the MJ may not be real... have to bag test it). There is plenty of room in the shroud for a much bigger prop, I just don't have any on hand to try right now.

I plugged it into a kill-a-watt and it is pulling 15 watts. The MJ 1200 with the same impeller pulled 20.

The hydor shroud is big enough to run a slightly shortened MJ mod impeller. The shaft size is the same as the MJ, so the MJ impeller fits perfectly. The only thing I would do to use this every day is add a stop for the propeller. For some reason the hydor doesn't seem to need one, but with the bigger prop it doesn't always turn the correct direction.

This thing flows like a full size tunze stream but looks slick and is only slightly larger than a MJ. Plus it's only $50!

Disclaimer: your mileage may vary, if it burns the house down it's not my fault, have fun :).

How much are the pumps?

awesome man, post some pics!

wow

SWEET!!!!!!! Let's see some pics ken

[IMG]http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/716472191643056pics.gif [/IMG]

[url]http://www.hydor.it/inglese/koralia.htm[/url]

Where would you order them from?

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9026292#post9026292 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BruiseAndy [/i]
[B][url]http://www.hydor.it/inglese/koralia.htm[/url] [/B][/QUOTE]

LOL...OMG we know what the pump looks like. We are asking for pics of the mod

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9026816#post9026816 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by N-A-S-O [/i]
[B]LOL...OMG we know what the pump looks like. We are asking for pics of the mod [/B][/QUOTE]
Doubt everyone who reads this thread knows what these pumps look like

Stock koralia 4 from front:
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/57176DSC01225.JPG"/>

Modified koralia 4 from front:
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/57176DSC01226.JPG"/>

Impellers side by side:
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/57176DSC01227.JPG"/>

From the front:
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/57176DSC01228.JPG"/>

Stock impeller:
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/57176DSC01235.JPG"/>

Modified:
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/57176DSC01236.JPG"/>

Koralia 4 next to Maxi-Jet (remember there is no mount on the MJ... the sure-grip magnet mounts I use for MJs are HUGE).

Stock impeller:
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/57176DSC01237.JPG"/>

And the pump bodies side by side (koralia on left, MJ on right).
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/57176DSC01238.JPG"/>

Chuck: Doc Fosters has them in stock... the place that claimed they would get them first (forget the name) was full of it... I pre-ordered with them and they didn't come through - I cancelled and went with doc fosters.

there we go ...thx Ken

Kroe,

I don't need that much flow... but how easy was it to remove the Hydor impeller and replace it with the octura prop?

Cheers,
John H.

It doesn't get any easier since I have MJ 1200s with octura props lying around...

If you were to do it from scratch, it would require a MJ 1200 magnet, a piece of carbon fiber tube (or rigid airline tubing), and an octura 1440 (I bet a dumas 3004 would work too). If you have ever modded a maxi-jet before you could either use your existing MJ impeller or make a new one from these parts in your sleep. The one thing left is getting it to start the right direction every time. I imagine this would just require a stopper like everyone uses for maxi-jet mods.

I am not going to find out though because I have four of these in a 92 corner... I don't need or want a single pump to put out more than 1200 gph. If I did I am sure I would have a final version of this souped up koralia running in my tank in less than 30 minutes. I just messed with this one for fun. It has already been restored to stock and put back where it belongs in my tank ;).

Cool Thanks.

How are these on a wavemaker? Are they like MJ's or Seio's? Any trouble starting up? Not talking about the moded ones just the stock version...

I haven't turned them on and off a whole lot, but for some reason they seem to start the correct direction every time stock... I don't really get it. There is no stopper built in...

With the modified impeller they start the wrong direction usually, but when you start them out of the water and then put them in they run the correct direction. I think if you make a stopper like people do for MJ mods the modified impeller will switch to run the correct direction.

Personally I don't see the value of wavemakers... so it's not a concern for me. I point all my pumps at each other and the result is widespread random turbulence (which is what we are going for).

I crash mine into the front of the glass. I am currently running 2 seio 620's on my 75 that is chock full or coral and live rock. I had 3 other powerheads in there that I pulled about 3 months ago. I ned just a bot more flow and want to try to stick to only 2 powerheads so it is not all gorped up....

Not sure which on I should get? hmmm

nice but arent the tunze nanos better

With all the mods and comparisons has anyone compared the rpms between pumps? With this current mod, it is the same impeller, but yet claim it has 'twice' the water movement. It would be interesting to see how the rpms compare between them, and other pumps for that matter.

Anyone have an accurate means to test this? New thread on testing it out?

The rpms should be the same or the pump wouldnt work. Its AC after all.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9028848#post9028848 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mmd [/i]
[B]nice but arent the tunze nanos better [/B][/QUOTE]

It really depends... I have both a Tunze 6025 and 2 of Koralia 4s.

Flow wise, I think the Koralias are much better. There is almost no directionality (real word?) to the pump since it has an open dome cover over it vs. the Tunze Nanostreams which have a slight cylinder to direct flow.

This really allows you to put these pumps a little closer to your corals than you could the Tunzes. I felt build quality was slightly lower or on par with the Tunze nanostreams. The koralias are a bit larger though (the 4s are slightly larger than a 12 oz. soda can) and they are less maneuverable than the nanostreams.

As for why they always start up in the correct direction without a prop stop... I'm pretty sure I know why this occurs and to be truthful, they don't actually start up in the right direction everytime. What happens is that the whole impeller prop assembly is one piece and it slides smoothly along the shaft. The shaft is actually much longer than the impeller prop assembly (roughly an inch longer), so what happens is that when it spins in the wrong direction, the force of the prop pulls the whole assembly out of its ferromagnetic cavity (where the impeller normally resides) and then of course loses its outward thrust and is pulled back into the cavity by the the magnetic force and starts in the right direction (of course, this doesn't always happen the first time so you'll get some start up racket, but I would say it lasts less than 1 second). Of course, sometimes it does start up perfectly in the right direction and you hear almost no sound on start up except for a faint click. (So, technically starting up correctly in the right direction is still 50/50, but it always ends up in the right direction due to the above process)

If people wanted to, they could get the same results with the maxijet mod if they used the same principle. Just make the prop housing much longer and let the impeller prop assembly slide easily along the shaft.

The koralias also have a kind of plastic washer attached to the bottom of the impeller and it sits on an elevated piece of plastic or another washer (possibly ceramic) in the impeller cavity. It's very slick so it may be teflon coated to decrease resistance.

I think they are great pumps and actually probably better than the Tunze nanostreams in terms of type of flow (much wider stream). Pumps are quiet once running and the suction cup mount is a really amazing idea as it prevents slippage and actually reduces the need for a stronger magnet to hold these pumps up.

Cheers,
John