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Juwel Bioflow 3.0 Compact

Some nice tanks there! I put my koralia in the back corner opposite the filter but angled so that it pointed towards the front and the substrate and put my CO2 diffuser underneath it. It meant it was a little less obvious than at the front but still moved the water just as well.
 
Antipofish said:
Hi Ed
I thought the Vortech had functions that would overcome the linear flow it produces ? I read about one that was specifically for waste transport for example. And surely if it reaches everywhere for corals, it will distribute CO2 equally well ? The reason I was thinking about the Vortech was its small footprint in the tank. I felt it was far less visible than a Korallia. I hate stuff in the tank as it is and my thoughts were "Well it may as well be small and flash" lol. So don't you believe the varying wave functions etc would generate enough distribution ?
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The vortech is small and flash and has lots of great functions but none of them can overcome the fact that the vortech can't be angled. For a reef tank where you want very high flow (50x the tank's volume) this isn't a big deal but at only 10x volume it would be more noticeable IMO. Also all the different modes give great options for a reef tank about varying flow rates and pulses but it still just shoves water in one direction and then cuts that flow off. My MP10es is on an 18" cube tank and when I upgrade it to a slightly larger cube I'm going to add another one running on the other back wall (it's in a corner) in anti-synch and then I think I'll be getting the most out of all the different functions.

Don't get me wrong the vortech will easily move enough water but it won't take water from the top of the tank and direct it down towards the substrate which a koralia, tunze or similar will do easily and in a planted tank this is a big advantage IMO if you sit a koralia near the top above you CO2 diffuser angled towards the substrate, blowing the CO2 rich water towards the low growing plants on the substrate.

The waste transport mode you talked about (nutrient transport mode) is just a mode where it alternates from a short pulse mode (wave) and longer blasts to keep the water swirling around. It works fine but it doesn't magically lift debris as well as it might. If was done with two vortechs working against each other (anti-synch) I reckon it would again work much better.

All the other functions on it too are all great but I don't think they'll add to what a koralia or tunze could do in a planted tank without any controller. In a reef tank I'd go with a vortech every day!
 
Ed Seeley said:
The vortech is small and flash and has lots of great functions but none of them can overcome the fact that the vortech can't be angled. For a reef tank where you want very high flow (50x the tank's volume) this isn't a big deal but at only 10x volume it would be more noticeable IMO. Also all the different modes give great options for a reef tank about varying flow rates and pulses but it still just shoves water in one direction and then cuts that flow off. My MP10es is on an 18" cube tank and when I upgrade it to a slightly larger cube I'm going to add another one running on the other back wall (it's in a corner) in anti-synch and then I think I'll be getting the most out of all the different functions.

Don't get me wrong the vortech will easily move enough water but it won't take water from the top of the tank and direct it down towards the substrate which a koralia, tunze or similar will do easily and in a planted tank this is a big advantage IMO if you sit a koralia near the top above you CO2 diffuser angled towards the substrate, blowing the CO2 rich water towards the low growing plants on the substrate.

The waste transport mode you talked about (nutrient transport mode) is just a mode where it alternates from a short pulse mode (wave) and longer blasts to keep the water swirling around. It works fine but it doesn't magically lift debris as well as it might. If was done with two vortechs working against each other (anti-synch) I reckon it would again work much better.

All the other functions on it too are all great but I don't think they'll add to what a koralia or tunze could do in a planted tank without any controller. In a reef tank I'd go with a vortech every day!
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OK Cool. One of the main points you made Ed is that a Korallia will take water from the top and send it to the bottom. What if my CO2 is being provided at the bottom of the tank already by the diffuser > By putting the Vortech (or whatever pump) near the bottom too, then would that circulate the CO2 around the bottom of the tank ? It would rise naturally and if the Vortech was working in opposition to (say a Juwel internal) the other filter then you would get a circular flow with rising CO2 ?

I do agree that its a shame the Vortech is not able to adjust its plane.
 
Antipofish said:
OK Cool. One of the main points you made Ed is that a Korallia will take water from the top and send it to the bottom. What if my CO2 is being provided at the bottom of the tank already by the diffuser > By putting the Vortech (or whatever pump) near the bottom too, then would that circulate the CO2 around the bottom of the tank ? It would rise naturally and if the Vortech was working in opposition to (say a Juwel internal) the other filter then you would get a circular flow with rising CO2 ?

I do agree that its a shame the Vortech is not able to adjust its plane.
Click to expand...

Assuming your CO2 is coming out of the diffuser as small bubbles then those bubbles need to be in contact with the water column for as long as possible to diffuse into the water. I did this by letting them rise up in the water column as far as possible and then positioning the koralia to push them back down towards the substrate giving them extra time to diffuse again. It's not the only way to do it but it worked for me.

With picking up the bubbles lower down you will get exactly the pattern you suggest which will work fine, I just liked to let them rise further first as I felt more CO2 would diffuse and the remaining bubbles would decrease in size as they rose (due to the CO2 diffusing into the water) and then be easier to push around the tank by the water flow, but that was really just my preference.
 
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