anyone using the Hydor Koralias powerheads?

[greystreet41]

AC had some...thinking about picking a few up. Curious if anyone else has/likes them.

KORALIA 1 400 gph 3.5 W
KORALIA 2 600 gph 4.5 W
KORALIA 3 850 gph 6.5 W
KORALIA 4 1200 gph 8.5 W

comparison...
Hydor Koralia 1200 / 1200GPH / ?? Controllable
vs
Tunze NanoStream 6045 / 1200GPH / Not Controllable
Tunze NanoStream 6055 / 1450GPH / Controllable

[mamagoose45]

Casey, we just got a few of them not too long ago. I have no doubt Brian will chime in with all of the technical mumbojumbo about them, but they seem to be doing a nice job so far.

[fishdoc11]

Here is a good thread for you Casey:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=983152&perpage=25&pagenumber=1
Chris

[DMBillies]

After seeing Chris' talk about SPS, noticing that it appeared everyone had quite a bit more flow than we do in our 90, noticing the prices of the Koralias, and getting some credit at EBay, we decided to buy a couple. We replaced some maxijets and now have 2 of the Koralia 4's in the 90 along with a PCX40 on a closed loop and an Eheim 1262 return pump. Best I can figure, that gives me about 40-50x assuming some head loss. I'm still planning to put penductors on the closed loop to get that up even higher. Oh wait... I'm supposed to be talking about the Koralias...

Plus sides:
-----Relatively cheap compared to the competition. I haven't had them long enough to know longevity and whether that price tag is a reflection of their quality, but they seem to be built pretty well. The "technology" is really nothing new and shouldn't cost more to produce, so as long as Hydor isn't cutting too many corners I don't think there will be many performance issues.
-----Definitely spreads flow out more than a traditional powerhead. I found that the flow doesn't necessarily come out as perfectly round cone from the propeller but instead more of an oval shape cone (if you put your hand in front of the pump there is more flow to each side than there is to the top and the bottom). I'm not sure why that is, but I imagine it has something to do with the design of the prop.
-----Relatively low watts (8.5w for 1200gph). I am now not even close to having temp problems since I replaced the maxijets (each using 20w for 295gph...ridiculously inefficient even more so then I realized until I typed this up) and they do pretty much match a tunze for watts used per gallon (Tunze 6060 = 11w for 1,585gph).
-----Magnet/suction cup and mount. It comes with a magnetic suction cup mount that I think works very well (uses a magnet and suction cup to keep the thing where you put it). It also has ball mount that is very easily adjustable in many different directions. For a lot of pumps you'd pay an extra $20 to get a magnetic mount.
-----More attractive. This may sound stupid, but I think they look way better than a Tunze and if I have to have a big pump in my tank I want something that looks alright.

Downsides:
-----At this point, they don't have a controller that I know of but I can't imagine this will be far off. You probably could something that would work but it might take some DIYing. They are not however recommended for start/stop wavemakers. Bottom line...I couldn't really run a Koralia 4 in my tank without bouncing it off of the glass anyway and with just subtle variablility in the flow of these things and having the pumps opposing each other from opposite sides, I feel like I get some pretty random flow... at the very least better than a standard powerhead.
-----Relatively unproven. They are new and it's scary to try new things. At the same time, I could buy a few of these before reaching the price of a tunze...
-----As with any big pump you need to put them pretty far from the surface because the agitation can pull air into the pump and/or stir bubbles into the water column from the surface. This just means that I had to put the pumps farther down into the tank (and farther into easy view) than I would have liked to. However, I don't see that as avoidable.

Bottom line... I've never had a Tunze but now having a couple of these I don't think I could ever justify the price tag to myself. In any case, they blow a standard powerhead out of the water on almost any level that they can be compared... so long as they hold up in the long run.

[Tennsquire]

I've been running a couple of 2's for a few mos. now. I did have to send them back because the early ones had an electrical problem that was tripping my GFI. The newer ones are fine, and put out a lot of flow for the money. FYI, people have been running these one SEIO controllers, which ramp the power between 50 and 100% vs. shutting them off completely. They're neat pumps; I have one in a QT tank, and two more in the back of the 75 reef to ensure no dead spots. Now that there's like 4000+ gph of flow on a multicontroller, I think the Hydors are going in another tank.

[greystreet41]

wow, lot of info...thanks everyone.

[streetracinsrt]

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp18553/si2346562/cl0/hydorkoralia41200gph
They are $48.99 here with free shipping on orders over $50 cheaper than what I paid

[Fanof49ASU]

I just saw that Emerald Bay was carrying them. I didn't check the price though, nor the sizes.....they may have been the #2 and #3.

[greystreet41]

they were 64.99 prior to club discount at AC (the 4s)..I'm sure they're similar at ebay...close enough to online prices to not order them online and get them locally---which isn't always the case of course.

[danieljames]

I still think modding a 6025 is a better option. About ten more bucks for the tunze, but you get the magnet mount and the legendary customer service.

[NeveSSL]

FWIW: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1150767

Brandon

[loyalty]

i ended up getting a 2 and a 3, and i'm pretty happy. oh and they seem to be sticking to my glass just fine