Opinions wanted on Wavemaster Pro and Hydor Koralia Powerheads

[purza_00]

Anyone heard of or using the wavemaster pro or koralia powerheads as cheaper alternatives to getting better flow in a small setup (58g) or (24g nano)?

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...+113923+113937

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...004+22788+2035

[purza_00]

Don't know if this is legal or not, but I just found this review in the lighting, filtration, and other equipment section. So I thought I could share it here.

jobob
Registered Member

Registered: Jun 2005
Location: wilkes-barre,pa
Occupation: student
Posts: 79


Hydor Koralia Review
I just got my new Koralia 3 pump today and if your anything like me you know I had to take it apart to see how it works. I have a tunze nanostream 6045, and my plans were to use the tunze on one side and the koralia on the other. I wanted two tunzes but I cant find another one, so I got the koralia.
The pump is a little bigger than the nanostream, but only a little bit. I do like that you can take the whole pump apart and replace only the broken piece if something should break. So if the ball joint should gets lose you can take it apart and replace the O-ring to fix it. The koralia is kinda cheaply made, even the prop feels a little thin, but for $40 what could you expect. I think that Hydor could have made the pump a little smaller, especially the shroud. I like the nanostream's shroud better. The magnet, well its no where near as strong as tunze's, or sure grips magnet. If you take off the suction cups the magnet is alittle stronger. I had it on the back glass on my 55g and you have to hold ithe magnet while you pivot the pump, until the suction cup sticks. So the suction cups do work, but Im wondering in 6 months will they get stiff like all other suction cups? Thankfully I am using it on the side glass where its alittle thinner. By no means will the pump fall on the back glass, it does hold it there, but to pivot you have to hold it. I kinda wish the magnet was stronger, but Im sure it would have cost more. Hopefully the magnet is stronger on the 4 pump since it bigger and will be used on bigger tanks. The one good thing about the magnets is that they are much easier to move than tunze's.
So my final word is that they are a nice pump, cheap, and move alot of water. For the price they are great, but if you got the money I like the nanostream better. Although, you can buy 2 koralias for the price of one nanostream, so if you only have $100 I would get 2 koralias instead of one tunze. Two pumps are better than one. So I think more people will be using the koralia due to the price.

Hobby Experience: i have 2yrs doing reef tanks and 8months with seahorses..
Current Tanks: i have a 55gal reef with a 10gal sump,10gal fuge,with metal halides and about 80lbs live rock in display tank. I also have a 29gal sps tank..
Interests: reef tanks, DIY

[TellyFish]

....

I am wondering the same thing. I dont think anyone has tried it yet.

[captbunzo]

I'd skip the "wavemaster pro". I think turning your pumps off half the time is a huge waste of potential flow. Rather, go for ample DIFFUSE flow. I think the Hydors are worth the try. Just aim for 20x - 30x diffuse flow.

So for a 24g nano, that'd be 480 - 720 GPH. And for the 58g, that'd be 1160 - 1740 GPH.

Other options for small tanks and diffuse flow include SEIO and Tunze Nano Stream powerheads.

[kpk]

Im with Paul alot of solid diffused flow is never going to make the same pattern therefore it should be like creating waves etc.

You may want to look into the size of these though. On SWF.com I saw a pic and 4 was huge!

[djc1026]

I believe the 2 & 3 are like 2.5" in diameter and stick out about 5.5" and the 4 is like 2.75" by 5.75".

I have 30x turnover constant and turn my MJMod on several times a day, which boosts the turnover rate to over 50x while it's on. It's just too strong for some of the softies to be on all of the time. Oh the challenges of a mixed reef

Dave

[purza_00]

Thanks i'm considering a tunze nano for the 24g because of the length. With the 58g, i'm really unsure because I think I want to get oversized components for my eventual upgrade. Considering a 120g at this time.

I appreciate the thoughts on the wavemaster. I was thinking the continuous flow wouldn't allow for varied directional flow on individual corals or give them a break from a constant flow.

So for a 24g nano, that'd be 480 - 720 GPH. And for the 58g, that'd be 1160 - 1740 GPH.

[captbunzo]

Yeppers...

And it isn't really necessary to vary flow direction or give corals a break when the flow is diffuse, non laminar, non firehose-like flow.

[purza_00]

Cool. Thats $100 that I don't have to spend elsewhere.