Quarter Interval Timed Koralia?

[DACJ]

I have decided to buy a new power head for my RSM250 seeing that one side of the current is weak and I got lots of rocks inside so decided to put an extra flow there, yet to find out that I bought 1 size over what I actually needed....so the water flow is a little big too strong now.

What I did then was to put the koralia on a power center and have it adjusted to 15 min on, 15 min off, from 10:00 and off at 21:00, so the live stock would have a break every now and then....

Now, my real question, is the power head going to last ? or I am just asking for trouble by doing this? I am pretty sure they weren't built to be used like that.... Any ideas?

[spit.fire]

Originally Posted by DACJ

I have decided to buy a new power head for my RSM250 seeing that one side of the current is weak and I got lots of rocks inside so decided to put an extra flow there, yet to find out that I bought 1 size over what I actually needed....so the water flow is a little big too strong now.

What I did then was to put the koralia on a power center and have it adjusted to 15 min on, 15 min off, from 10:00 and off at 21:00, so the live stock would have a break every now and then....

Now, my real question, is the power head going to last ? or I am just asking for trouble by doing this? I am pretty sure they weren't built to be used like that.... Any ideas?

Korilias won't stand up to frequent on off, if they cycle on off enough I find they'll start spinning backwards, dc pumps are the way to go for that IMO
(Tunze, ecotech, wp series)

Lots of flow isn't really a bad thing either
I was running an mp10 on a 18x18 cube and felt I needed more so I added in 2 korilia nanos ontop of it

[windcoast reefs]

Originally Posted by DACJ

I have decided to buy a new power head for my RSM250 seeing that one side of the current is weak and I got lots of rocks inside so decided to put an extra flow there, yet to find out that I bought 1 size over what I actually needed....so the water flow is a little big too strong now.

What I did then was to put the koralia on a power center and have it adjusted to 15 min on, 15 min off, from 10:00 and off at 21:00, so the live stock would have a break every now and then....

Now, my real question, is the power head going to last ? or I am just asking for trouble by doing this? I am pretty sure they weren't built to be used like that.... Any ideas?

I tried doing that when I had koralias, and now I don't have koralias!

I found that they have a loud clicking noise, and it only lasted a few months after I started doing that.

[daniella3d]

Use some scissor and cut off a bit of the propeller to make it more round. This will lower the flow and won't be hard on the pump, and you won't have to shut it down on interval.

I did this with mine as it was too strong for my nano. Those impeller cost around 7$ to replace so no big deal, but do it gradually and do a test each time you trim a little bit because if you over do it, the flow will be too weak.

[DACJ]

thanks all! After all the comments, I toned down to an hour interval for now before I have a chance to do more with it =P Gonna see whether to invest a different one or just trim it...so many options that never came in to thought!

[intarsiabox]

I had the Koralia Evolutions on a tank for 2 years on a timer and never had any issues, completely silent as well. Hydor even makes their own brand of timer for these powerheads to do just what you are asking about. The older models from years ago may have had issues with timers but I never used them in this manner so I can't comment.

[SoloSK71]

The newer models run fine on timers. Hydor says down to 5 seconds is good.

Charles

[PoonTang]

I was running the evo models on on a timer at 10 second on/off intervals. They last for about a year before the little rubber button on the front cage breaks off. The good thing to is if you contact hydor and complain they will send you out some new parts. I have been doing this for 3 years now with 3 of them.

[DACJ]

Well, upon monitoring for half a day...sort of....I've come to the end decision of leaving it on all the time and see how it goes.
I guess if I had a wave maker for every 10 seconds would be fine...but my 15 min , 30 min or even 60 min gap actually gave me a ill stomach...I saw my sixline wrasse swimming inside the power head around the blades...now one can only imagine what would happen if it got powered on at that moment...but ya, i will try to leave it on for a week and see, if not ideal i guess i will just remove it or buy a 1 or 2 .

[spit.fire]

I wish I would have thought of that when I was trying to get the six line out of my tank