dbeaty78
Community Member
Recently I bought 4 of the hydor 1500gph powerhead and the smart wave. Bad choice. I had read good and bad reviews on it but a few more good than bad about an small clicking noise when they switch. Well when I received them all it felt like christmas just to unbox them and hook them up. I cut them on and it sounded like chainsaws when they switched back and forth when they were starting up. I went about a week and decided to just go ahead and make a good investment and let me just say WOW I am glad I did and it also felt like christmas when they arrived. I bought two of the vortech mp40w's. These things are great and move plenty of water with many options and controls. The hydors didn't look like they were even hardly moving any water. I called BRS and they said they couldn't give me my money back or let me swap them because they had been put in water and this was the same day I received them and was advised to call hydor. I called hydor and told them this is not what they advertised on their site and they had completely misadvertised these things saying they were a cheaper quiet alternate to the high dollar wave makers. The guy from hydor said he would send me new motors but they were made to make that noise when the propellerhead starts up in the wrong direction to make them spin the right way because they were hitting the little rubber stopper to make them spin in the right direction. He advised it would make a clicking noise and I corrected him telling him it was not just a little clicking noise it sounded like chainsaws every time they switch. His advise was to make it so they dont switch but every couple hours so I didn't have to hear it as much and I told him that defeats the whole purpose in what I wanted to do and also what the product is supposed to do. So these vortechs are great and will kick up all kind of crap in your aquarium to be picked up by your skimmer. I highly advise investing in the vortechs because they are well worth the money. I did try switching out the motors like he said and it did not make any difference in the hydors. So if any of you are thinking of buying the smart wave save your money up and invest in the vortechs. The vortechs even at less than half speed are moving more water then 2 of the hydor powerheads. And there was a guy on here who stated I was headed for failure with my tank with the set up I was doing I just wanted to let whoever that was know that my tank is doing great. I now have button polyps, Green star polyps, and Zoanthids. As for livestock I have quite a few blue and red leg crabs a little zebra crab an arrow crab and two of the large lefty crabs. That arrow crab has my worm situation under control now he is a true boss. I have some turbo snails, astro snails, and nacirrius snails. I also have a sperpent star and noticed last night a smaller one inside a piece of my like rock and also a couple of other regular star fish that came from some where I dunno on the back glass of my tank. For fish I have a mandarin goby, lawnmower blemmy which has cleaned all the long hair algae up, 2 regular clowns, 2 black and white clowns and a niger trigger oh yea and a snow flake eel that was hidden in a piece of live rock when I purchased it. I also have a regular black long spine sea urchin and also a long spined sea urchin with a weird looking bright colored eyeball looking thing in the middle of his back. I have also just added some new lights to the system which were reefbrite xho daylight and a reefbrite atinic xho leds and a cheap three strip led system I started out with when I first started my tank. I also now have all my lights on timers which daylight runs from 1pm to 8 pm and my atinics run from 11 am until 11 pm. The 2 reefbrite strips are also great led lights I have the highest rated strips which I think has 36 XHO LEDS per strip and the other cheaper lights have three strips of daylights that sit int he back of the aquarium becuase they provide enough light for my highest rocks in my tank with the actinic strip in the middle and the reefbrite daylight xho leds up front because they penetrate to the bottom really good and so do my atinics. I also upgraded to a coralife 220 skimmer because I was about out of money for what I could do right now and it was one of the larger skimmers I could find with a smaller footprint for the money I had left to spend for now but it is doing a great job and is pulling out some really dark chunky material compared to the coralife 125 I was running. I also added 1000 copepods it was two different kinds I cant remember what they were but I put them all in at night while fish were sleeping and I have noticed quite a few running around on my rocks and is keeping my goby eating well. I also added some chaeto algae and some bubble algae to my refugium with the 20 lbs of live sand and 10 lbs of dry rock that is now live rock I already had and it is also doing well and helping keep my nitrates down really low. So for the guy who said I was setting up for failure and would not succeed or make it through my first few months I am doing quite well on about my fourth month now and am a reef junky I guess. I am working on making an auto top off system as I now just have a covered bucket of water with hole in it and a pump in the bottom I just hit a switch for now and let it refill my sump until I can get time to create and set up my auto top off system. I also have about 60 lbs of live rock and 60 lbs of dry rock that I believe is close to being live rock it is changing color weekly it seems like it was turning brown and is now turning green and from what I have been told and read that is the process for it becoming live rock and the next step is it turning purple from what I have also read and been told. I do see little creatures other than my copepods living in my dry rock. My live rock does have some coralline algae on it so I have been told it will spread eventually. I am dosing with purple up twice a week and sea chem step one and two. Step one I believe is to raise alkalinity and step two is to raise calcium levels. I have also swapped over and started using the reef crystal salt instead of the regular salt. Anyone have any tips on anything I have stated. I am always open to advice being new to this hobby.
First, listen to positive people and blow of people like that. Whoever it was couldn't have been an "expert" in the beginning himself. That being said, there is an enormous amount to learn also. Do things slowly and in small steps. Record everything so when something happens your can figure out what caused it. Read all the articles you can on reef chemistry as they are supurb on this forum! 
