I recently purchased the new Vortech MP60 by Ecotech Marine. In the past I have typically run Tunze pumps, in my case, the old 6100's.
I bought the pump for my new custom rimless aquarium (48x30x24). I wanted to keep the clean look, so I decided against having wires in the tank. I considered the MP40's but decided against them due to all the maintenance issues people were having. In short, I wanted the MP60 because of the improved design and the prospect of only needing a single pump in my entire aquarium (aside from the return).
I'll skip all the jazz about the packaging, presentation, instructions, etc and get to the point, the flow.
I placed the MP60 on the right panel of the tank, dead center (or so). The top of the propeller housing is about 8 inches from the top rim of the aquarium.
The tank has a 2" sandbed, using reef floor special grade sand. Rocks are BRS eco-rock, none of the rockwork is above the halfway point in the aquarium.
At full power constant mode the pump will gently move bits of sand from the far end of the aquarium all the way to beneath the pump. The sand slowly skips across the sandbed...so no sandstorm. The undertow is extremely powerful with this pump.
At 30% power the pump easily keeps acropora corals on the sandbed happy, the polyps gently move around. This is true for almost any area in the aquarium. There are absolutely no dead spots. I suspect that this is due to the extremely wide flow.
Even at this low power I had a tricky time find a spot for my new dendro polyps, I had to place them on the very far end of the aquarium, otherwise they "danced" around a bit more violently than I would like. When it comes time to crank the pump up (when all my sps are moved in) I plan on hiding the dendros in a small cave facing away from the pumps flow.
I think this pump is a huge improvement over my tunze pumps. With the tunze pumps, I had such a difficult time getting the flow just right, it was simply too direct/linear. The MP60 is a totally different story, it literally creates a wall of gentle water moving across the entire aquarium, that's the best way that I can describe it.
In short, the pump is insanely powerful, it creates the type of flow where "less is more".
The only bad part is the pump is noisy!
I bought the pump for my new custom rimless aquarium (48x30x24). I wanted to keep the clean look, so I decided against having wires in the tank. I considered the MP40's but decided against them due to all the maintenance issues people were having. In short, I wanted the MP60 because of the improved design and the prospect of only needing a single pump in my entire aquarium (aside from the return).
I'll skip all the jazz about the packaging, presentation, instructions, etc and get to the point, the flow.
I placed the MP60 on the right panel of the tank, dead center (or so). The top of the propeller housing is about 8 inches from the top rim of the aquarium.
The tank has a 2" sandbed, using reef floor special grade sand. Rocks are BRS eco-rock, none of the rockwork is above the halfway point in the aquarium.
At full power constant mode the pump will gently move bits of sand from the far end of the aquarium all the way to beneath the pump. The sand slowly skips across the sandbed...so no sandstorm. The undertow is extremely powerful with this pump.
At 30% power the pump easily keeps acropora corals on the sandbed happy, the polyps gently move around. This is true for almost any area in the aquarium. There are absolutely no dead spots. I suspect that this is due to the extremely wide flow.
Even at this low power I had a tricky time find a spot for my new dendro polyps, I had to place them on the very far end of the aquarium, otherwise they "danced" around a bit more violently than I would like. When it comes time to crank the pump up (when all my sps are moved in) I plan on hiding the dendros in a small cave facing away from the pumps flow.
I think this pump is a huge improvement over my tunze pumps. With the tunze pumps, I had such a difficult time getting the flow just right, it was simply too direct/linear. The MP60 is a totally different story, it literally creates a wall of gentle water moving across the entire aquarium, that's the best way that I can describe it.
In short, the pump is insanely powerful, it creates the type of flow where "less is more".
The only bad part is the pump is noisy!
