constant flow vs pulse flow

pluse or continuous flow

  • Total voters
    72
butcherman

butcherman

Moderator
Joined
7 Sep 2009
Posts
11,844
Reaction score
332
Location
Kempton Park
With all the flow pumps on the market, I still wonder which is better having a pump blasting at full power, or ramping it's speed up and down or pulsing if you will.

I have my own view as I have recently had to fight off a plague of cyno, gha and some bryopis.

Please vote and discuss the topic, i'd love to see others views.
 
Not sure how to describe the flow we use. Very different to the species and bio type.

Constant flow from one direction that slightly varies in intensity for a hour or two then the reverse. IMO for SPS. The flow needs to be intense.





But that is for SPS.
 
Nemos Janitor said:
But that is for SPS.
Click to expand...

My tank was getting all sorts of issues, I tried more constant direct flow but this did not help.

Only after turning the pumps to a "pulse" mode effectively slowing flowas pumps slow down to a near stop every few split seconds, did my issues decrease.

So it would seem to me but I could be wrong, that the same flow rating pumps, but on a pulse mode are better that running the pumps at full speed.
 
I have 2 seieos providing a constant flow, and 1 vortec on pulse mode.
With a softie tank, I found that my rics did not appreciate the pulsing, but the hairy mushrooms & pins did.

The vortec was on short pulse, creating a wave motion.
I later changed this to Lagoonal.

I cannot say that I have noticed any change in my algae growth, but that being said, my system have been neglected the last month or 2...And I cannot attribute any changes to any one change in specific.
 
long pulse. 4 minutes into one direction.
Then turn around, other directions

So its a constant on a long pulse...
 
with a vortech on nutrient export mode, or eco-smart, you need to setup and configure all the other options/colours as the exo-smart modes use a combination of those with there settings.

best flow pumps i have owned
 
Mmmmm just quite difficult to set up these vortech pumps as the instruction manual id very basic. ..
 
Last edited by a moderator:
i disagree, glass is a poor heat conductor and no heat transfer, @carlosdeandrade and myself run a few and no temp issues at all
 
Last edited by a moderator:
butcherman said:
One thing I notice about the Vortec, They get hot, and this heat seems to transfer into the tank water also. Tank is normally between 25 and 26, last 3 days its sitting between 26 and 27
Click to expand...

That's strange. I just placed my hand on the inside of the glass where my mp60 sits, its not hot, just slightly warm. Have you got it on the right spacer setting Steven?
 
cool, see you this week :)
 
Well, I will try. You know, back and all.....
 
butcherman said:
One thing I notice about the Vortec, They get hot, and this heat seems to transfer into the tank water also. Tank is normally between 25 and 26, last 3 days its sitting between 26 and 27
Click to expand...

Yeah, they do get quite hot sometimes, but a LOT less heat is transfered to the water compared to a DC all wet setup. (tunze's create the same heat, but all that heat gets transferred directly to the water, so you dont notice how hot they actually are...)

(& the last 3 days were extremely hot!)

My tank temp has definitely decreased since using vortechs compared to all wet flow pumps...
 
Last edited:
butcherman said:
Definatly some interesting results in the poll
Click to expand...
Not really much to choose, as not all of us run the pumps specified in your poll. Should have left the pump types out and just state pulse, random flow, directional flow etc.
As matter of interest, I am also running Sun Suns on pulse as well as Seio
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom