[Jaws]

I've got a couple vortechs and a third one on the way. I have to say I love the powerhead but am concerned about a few other things. The Tunzes are kind of an all in one application where they come with a controller, you can angle the flow, etc. The only thing they don't have is a battery backup which i'm sure isn't far away. The problem I have with the vortech is the accessorizing you have to do. The pumps are great but if you want a battery backup then it's $200 to run one pump. If you try running two pumps off of it then I think you'll only get around 18 hours out of it. $200 is a rediculous amount of money to spend on a battery backup that only runs one pump. Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know, you need the battery backups in order to run the controller too. The controller is going to cost at least a few hundred dollars as well I would imagine. I've heard they're coming out with internal housing that can angle the flow better too but that's going to come at an extra cost as well. So lets say you wanted to run 4 vortechs with 4 battery backups and one controller, and lets say the controller is around $400. That's minimum $400 for each vortech, $200 for each battery backup, and $400 for the controller. That's $2800 plus tax. Now don't get me wrong, I see the advantage in the Vortech and I love mine but that's an insane amount of money to do the job that two Tunze waveboxes can do for less than half the price. I'm going to stick with the vortechs and eventually head down the contoller road but I'll tell you that I'm going to be a lot more critical of these devices if I'm going to spend that kind of money on them and I can tell you that I have to send two of mine back because of internal knocking, the housing inside the tank continuously rotating, and the external motor and internal housing not lining up properly and causing problems. I don't feel like I've got my money's worth yet.