NA

[LDH]

Dear Ecotech,

Please provide protective front coverings for your power heads. I should not have to worry about my fish being blended to death. I always check my power heads before turning them on but it literally swam in between the time I checked and turned it back on.

This poor fish did not deserve to die a terrible death like it did. Please help stop the killing by at least providing an optional front covering or redesign the entire pump screen with smaller openings (and please ditch the foam covers that clog up in less than a week).

I understand it would be hard to keep very small fish out even with a cover, but this was by no means a tiny or even small fish. This makes me sick and i'd hope it would to you too as the manufacture.

Anyone that has lost a fish to a Vortech please post here so we can show the magnitude of the problem.

Dang that really sucks I’m sorry

 

[MTBake]

Too bad ecotech doesn't respond to their sponsor forum. I switched these long ago! Along with everything Ecotech. They only seem to care about the money, imo.

 

[CMO]

Too bad ecotech doesn't respond to their sponsor forum. I switched these long ago! Along with everything Ecotech. They only seem to care about the money, imo.

Agree. We as hobbyists need to demand companies in the industry care equally about the lives of the animals as they do profits. Between all the low cost diseased fish going around these days and products that clearly don't respect the lives of the animals we keep I'm becoming disenchanted with the hobby. Hopefully we as hobbyists can demand change by purchasing fish and products from responsible companies that advertise animal safety as #1 priority. I already have the vortechs and found a solution with the after market screens to ensure safety in the future so I will stick with them, but will not purchase any further products until this is addressed.

 

[MTBake]

Agree. We as hobbyists need to demand companies in the industry care equally about the lives of the animals as they do profits. Between all the low cost diseased fish going around these days and products that clearly don't respect the lives of the animals we keep I'm becoming disenchanted with the hobby. Hopefully we as hobbyists can demand change by purchasing fish and products from responsible companies that advertise animal safety as #1 priority. I already have the vortechs and found a solution with the after market screens to ensure safety in the future so I will stick with them, but will not purchase any further products until this is addressed.

The fact they refuse to address their consumers on a public forum just blows my mind! I will not support a company that does business this way and honestly hope other hobbyists see this trend and refuse to support these companies in the future. It really is all about customer involvement, imo.

 

[gcarroll]

Here we go again! Lynch mob forming.

You can't tell me that it is not completely obvious that a fish could swim in that opening if the pump is off. As a hobbyist, we need to accept that we alone make the choices of equipment! Now that the OP has had this happen to him, I hope that the sharing of this experience has shed some light that this can happen. Rather than blaming Ecotech, understand that this is a reality of using this and other pumps with wide outputs.

 

[MTBake]

Here we go again! Lynch mob forming.

You can't tell me that it is not completely obvious that a fish could swim in that opening if the pump is off. As a hobbyist, we need to accept that we alone make the choices of equipment! Now that the OP has had this happen to him, I hope that the sharing of this experience has shed some light that this can happen.

Not out to 'lynch mob' any company or person at all. Just wish they(Ecotech) would respond in their sponsor forum. Even if only once a month. Shows courtesy to their customers, imho. There's loads of people that read stuff like this but don't respond. They form their own opinion, one way or another. Responding to incidents like this on a public forum shows they care and want to improve

I will say that Ecotech does respond well over the phone or through email. I like the responses I've received there. I just question, why spend money on a sponsorship on a forum and not participate in your own forum.

And that's all I have to say about that

 

[CMO]

Here we go again! Lynch mob forming.
You can't tell me that it is not completely obvious that a fish could swim in that opening if the pump is off. As a hobbyist, we need to accept that we alone make the choices of equipment! Now that the OP has had this happen to him, I hope that the sharing of this experience has shed some light that this can happen. Rather than blaming Ecotech, understand that this is a reality of using this and other pumps with wide outputs.

Yes i was aware the possibility existed and did everything reasonable to try and prevent it from happening on a daily basis. The problem is that what happened to me is nearly unavoidable if you keep fish like Blenny's that will try to get in the power head at every opportunity. Absent having two people, one to guard the power head while one turns it on what is the answer here (the amount of time between checking the power head and turning it on was literally like 10-20 seconds)? Seems like a pretty easy fix that aftermarket providers have already addressed.

I just don't see how as an aquarium product manufacture you wouldn't provide better screening to prevent this kind of thing. You can see in this thread already that my incident is not isolated. This is not a lynch mob - just trying to encourage a company to alter their design to better respect the marine life.

 

[Dpate]

Why are the powerheads programmed to go off at any time?

 

[CMO]

Why are the powerheads programmed to go off at any time?

Because there is yet another design flaw with the foam side covers. I tried to just reduce the speed during feed mode but a lot of food gets sucked into the foam filter pads when doing that. Again, this could also be fixed by a redesign, or the 3rd part anemone covers that are available.

But also for maintenance on occasion which is enough to kill a few blennies in the long run...

 

[Dpate]

I don’t understand the need to turn off or slow them down
For feeding. I think most fish are used to chasing down food.

 

[CMO]

I don’t understand the need to turn off or slow them down
For feeding. I think most fish are used to chasing down food.

Once again. A good amount of food gets sucked into the foam pads that cover the side of the pump if you leave them on. Also, when feeding corals you need to turn off the pumps. Or for maintenance. Many many reasons.

 

[Dpate]

I would agree the foam pads are worthless, when I used them ( for two days max ) they clogged very quickly. I would however disagree that they need to be turned off at coral feeding time.

 

[gcarroll]

Yes i was aware the possibility existed and did everything reasonable to try and prevent it from happening on a daily basis. The problem is that what happened to me is nearly unavoidable if you keep fish like Blenny's that will try to get in the power head at every opportunity. Absent having two people, one to guard the power head while one turns it on what is the answer here (the amount of time between checking the power head and turning it on was literally like 10-20 seconds)? Seems like a pretty easy fix that aftermarket providers have already addressed.

I just don't see how as an aquarium product manufacture you wouldn't provide better screening to prevent this kind of thing. You can see in this thread already that my incident is not isolated. This is not a lynch mob - just trying to encourage a company to alter their design to better respect the marine life.

I understand where you are coming from. But knowing that you had this type of fish, you decided to use that pump. Or, knowing that you had this type of pump, you added that fish. You could have chosen a Tunze which comes with a grill on the outlet. Problem is, few if any choose to use it as it cuts down on flow just like those foam filters on the MP40. I do commend you though for using the foam filters as it is very seldom that you will ever see a MP pump in a tank with them on. It does suck that it happened but every product on the market has some sort of side effect or weakness. For propeller pumps, you have identified one of them.

 

[Rakie]

Once again. A good amount of food gets sucked into the foam pads that cover the side of the pump if you leave them on. Also, when feeding corals you need to turn off the pumps. Or for maintenance. Many many reasons.

Nobody uses the foam pads for a reason. The food that gets stuck on the foam? It just gets shot out of the pump when you aren't using the foam. The foam is bad -- don't use it.

 

[gcarroll]

I just question, why spend money on a sponsorship on a forum and not participate in your own forum.

And that's all I have to say about that

Because Ecotech Marine believes in supporting forums like this because they are of a benefit to the hobby! But when I read a post like this...

The fact they refuse to address their consumers on a public forum just blows my mind! I will not support a company that does business this way and honestly hope other hobbyists see this trend and refuse to support these companies in the future. It really is all about customer involvement, imo.

It shows me that some reading this post need to take responsibility for the choices they make.

 

[Dpate]

Nobody uses the foam pads for a reason. The food that gets stuck on the foam? It just gets shot out of the pump when you aren't using the foam. The foam is bad -- don't use it.

+++++++

 

[CMO]

I understand where you are coming from. But knowing that you had this type of fish, you decided to use that pump. Or, knowing that you had this type of pump, you added that fish. You could have chosen a Tunze which comes with a grill on the outlet. Problem is, few if any choose to use it as it cuts down on flow just like those foam filters on the MP40. I do commend you though for using the foam filters as it is very seldom that you will ever see a MP pump in a tank with them on. It does suck that it happened but every product on the market has some sort of side effect or weakness. For propeller pumps, you have identified one of them.

Yeah, I'll certainly take partial responsibility for using these pumps with the Blennies. But at the same time, I would consider myself a bit of a noob that didn't really know any better at the time of purchase. I'd hate to think that killing fish is a right of passage to learn the hobby. If I had to do it over again I'd go with gyres or other pump like the Tunze. I have two gyres in the tank as well and like them quite a bit. And as far as I can tell there's no risk of blending fish like this with the gyres.

 

[CMO]

Nobody uses the foam pads for a reason. The food that gets stuck on the foam? It just gets shot out of the pump when you aren't using the foam. The foam is bad -- don't use it.

Umm. If I didn't have the foam pads on I'd have a whole lot more than one dead fish. Are you serious? Do any of you saying these things have Blennies? They would not last a week without the side pads. My baby madarine would have been chopped to bits long ago as well.

Because Ecotech Marine believes in supporting forums like this because they are of a benefit to the hobby! But when I read a post like this...
It shows me that some reading this post need to take responsibility for the choices they make.

So your saying all new hobbyists learning the ropes should have to learn by inadvertently killing fish? Now that I know better, of course it's on me if I let another fish die by a Vortec. But as you can see, that will not be happening again.

 

[Dpate]

No, new reefers should research equipment before using. A simple search would have alerted you to this possibility.
Before moving to the apex wav pumps I ran mp-10s for years & never lost a fish to them

 

[CMO]

No, new reefers should research equipment before using. A simple search would have alerted you to this possibility.
Before moving to the apex wav pumps I ran mp-10s for years & never lost a fish to them

Well given the amount of things that can go wrong in this hobby that is just unrealistic. I'm one of the most anal people out there when it comes to research and my tank has redundancy in nearly every possible way to avoid failure that can put the fish's lives at risk. Clearly this will continue to happen absent change. Can you put your ego aside and show some care for the fish at stake here? This is not about my being right or wrong. Fish are dying by these devises in a manner that can easily be resolved.

And if that's the case, you clearly didn't have the fish I do or they'd all be dead.