Tunze or vortech pump

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by fkshiu

I love my Tunzes, but I don't think you can go wrong with either the fixed gen2 vortechs or tunzes. It's more a matter of style.

You can aim tunzes (almost anywhere with the Stream 2s coming out), but not vortechs.

Vortechs are lower profile than tunzes.

You don't need to aim Vortechs. The damn output stream is like 20", haha.

[Patrick1]

I just picked up 4 Tunze 4055's because they work with my Profilux. Also to grind Albert a little.

The Hydor stuff looks really good too and has a controller now.

[i have crabs]

im lovin my vortec's since i got the new gen 2 wetsides, i havent had a single issue yet where as the old ones gave me minor problems from the start, i havent got the update for the wave drivers but will sooner or later.

[mike31154]

No experience with Tunze but I've been running a VorTech MP40W on my 75 since April of this year with no issues. It's certainly audible at full speed but unless you're a real quiet freak, most daily ambient sounds will drown it out. Not for those with tanks in their bedroom I guess, but having the electrics outside of the tank is a huge plus to me and a fair trade-off for some motor noise. For those with smaller tanks there will be less noise since you'll likely be running it at a lower power setting. Excellent flow, when I removed it last week, 3 AquaClear powerheads couldn't come close to replacing the VorTech's water movement.

Mine has the original magnet and I haven't flashed the firmware with the Gen 2 update. Tried to do so while visiting J&L in Vancouver several weeks ago, but the folks in there at the time had no clue what I was talking about. Prior to re-installing I decided to dismantle the wet side for inspection & clean up. For having run 24/7 for six months it looked very good, just a light dusting of rust on the magnet which was easily wiped off. Reassembled, installed and ran as smooth as before.

Now for the not so good news. I ordered the new plastic magnet kit directly from EcoTech in early July. Just under US 20 bucks including shipping & handling which is quite reasonable IMO. Trouble is, the first shipment never arrived. I emailed them after a few weeks wondering what's up and after another week or so they were kind enough to expedite another kit at no extra charge. The second kit finally arrived last week but the magnet had evidently been attracted to some machinery at Canada Post and had a chunk chafed out of it! Canada Post repackaged it complete with a letter of apology for the damage. I suspect the first shipment met a similar fate and disappeared into a black hole at a postal processing facility. I emailed EcoTech with my saga and suggested they need to shield the magnet somehow to prevent this kind of damage at the mail sorting facility. The kit had been packaged in a padded envelope with the components inside protected with additional bubble wrap. Not bad, but evidently insufficient to keep the magnet from getting stuck on a rotating, metallic conveyor part or something.
So now it's Tuesday and I'm waiting hear from EcoTech as to the next step...

[Stones]

I ordered two gen 2 magnet kits directly from ecotech as well, but didn't run into the canada post problems as you have. Both magnets came packaged the same as yours but unscathed from shipping damage.

I'll also add that since swapping out the old magnets with the gen 2 kit, noise generation has decreased significantly and lining up the wet face with the external driver no longer takes brain surgeon like precsion. With the gen 1 magnets, I used to spend upwards of an hour trying to get the pumps to stop making vibrational noises...