Power Heads and Wave Makers

[Wes888]

I've already read about Koralia's K3, K4 are not good for Wave Makers, and reportedly, K2 and all the new ones (K5+) works fine with Wave Makers. Out of curiosity, I got a K2, a K3, and a K5 to try out with a Wave Maker.

Just like other people said, K3 make 4-6 very loud clanking sound when it starts up. Really not suitable to use with Wave Makers.

K2 still has 1 or 2 clanking sound when it starts up, but not as loud. But I still won't put it on wave makers. Just get annoying after awhile.

K5 is completely silent! It uses even less power than K2, K3, K4, but it is very powerful! 1650 gph! When I turn it on, all my little Chromises immediately hide back into the caves.

For my 72 gal tank, seems like I can't use both wave maker and Koralia together. What should I do? Just use a few K2 or K3 always on? Or use the wave maker with other brands?

 

[pokeyprelude]

a wavemaker doesnt have to completely turn off the p/h kooralia have made a system that takes the power down to 30%. this is what has solved the issues of the clanking sound as the pump never stops spinning

 

[Wes888]

But the 2 port Koralia wave maker is almost $300 while the 4 port one is $400 and it has to use their low voltage version of the pump. I got a cheapy wave maker that only allow on and off. Which wave maker do you use/recommend? Thanks.

 

[Bifferwine]

I'd just leave the other powerheads on all the time.

 

[ccCapt]

The only wavemaker you can use on a regular Koralia Nano thru K-4 is the Seio Controller. This controller ramps the power up and down from about 50% to 100%. It does not turn them off/on.
K-5 thru K-8 are made to run on regular on/off wavemakers.

 

[pokeyprelude]

i used to run 4 tunze powerheads on two controllers and had them running oposites so that it created very random flow

 

[yote]

The only wavemaker you can use on a regular Koralia Nano thru K-4 is the Seio Controller. This controller ramps the power up and down from about 50% to 100%. It does not turn them off/on.
K-5 thru K-8 are made to run on regular on/off wavemakers.

Now I know what my next few purchases will be:D

 

[ccCapt]

Yote, if you're talking about the Seio controller, I have been thinking about them for a long time. The bad thing is 1 controller will control 2 powerheads, but both ramp up and down together. They don't alternate...like 1 at 100% and the other at 50%. Both go from 50 to 100 at the same time. And...they aren't cheap.

 

[Rcpilot]

Not sure if this helps but here goes:

I have a MJ1200 on a manual timer. It cycles on 15 minutes........ then off 15 minutes........ then on 15 minutes.......... then off 15 minutes........

It runs like that from 7am until 7pm every day. It is shut off at night so the fish and corals can relax while they sleep.

It's never failed to start. It's never given me any trouble at all. It's been set up like that for about 18 months and still working fine.

 

[yote]

I was actually thinking about a couple of the K5s set up on timers.One on each end of the tank.

 

[Wes888]

With all these timers for lights and pumps, and the power makers, the little space under the tank is running out. After learning about Seio controller from this post, it reminded me that I already have a similar device that can do much more.

16 Channels, on, off, % power level, ramp up, ramp down, with down to millisecond timing custom programming on each channel, however I want it. I can put all my lights, pumps, power head, everything all into this one unit. :D

 

[Wes888]

While testing how well the K2, K3, and two of the K5s that I have work with the ramp up, ramp down, and running at 50% power like the Seio controller does, I found quite a few interesting facts:

K5 - You CANNOT do ramp up and ramp down. If I ramp it up to 100% within 1 second, about half of the time it actually spin backward. If I ramp it down, when the power level gets to 82%, it starts making those clanking noise. And it would just stop if I ramp the power level further down.

Since the K5 is too powerful for my 72 gal tank, I tried to run them at 50%. Here is another interesting thing - If I start it from OFF to 50%, sometimes it doesn't even start. To get around it, for a program like 6 seconds on (at 50% power) and then 6 seconds off, I have to program it to run at 100% for 1 second, then jump down to 50% for the rest of the 5 seconds.

My other K5 can't even run at 50%. It would just stop at 50%. At 55%, half the time it would stop. I have to keep that one running at 60% the lowest.

K3 - It can go down to only 65%. Any lower, it starts clanking. You can forget about using the Seio controller for K3. My guess is that K4 would have similar problem. Just not sure what the % it could go down to.

K2 - It can go all the way down to 2% without clanking. However, the speed decrease is NOT linear. Even at 2%, it feel like it runs just like at full 100% power.

I used the "Test Console" with my 16 channel controller to do the testings.

 

[ccCapt]

You can forget about using the Seio controller for K3. My guess is that K4 would have similar problem.

Just to clarify, that is your opinion based on the unit you have, which is NOT a Seio controller. Many many people use the Seio controller on Koralia Nano's thru 4's with no problems at all.

 

[Wes888]

Voltage is quite absolute. 50% of 110V is 55V. There is no if or but or depend on what device it is on. Since many many people use the Seio on Nano thru 4s with no problem, then Seio has to run it on 65% or 71.5V then. One easy way to verify this is to put a volt-meter on the Seio output to check it out.

But anyway, that's not the point. As long as others have no problem with Seio, it should be fine for the Koralio Nano thru 4 then.

 

[yote]

Wess,What kinda controller is that? Or better yet,got a link to it?

 

[Wes888]

It's Light-O-Rama. I have about 8 of these 16 channel controllers all around my house. I use them for my Christmas Light Shows and Halloween Light Shows.

EDIT: don't let the expensive list price scares you. They have annual sales for these things for about 50% off. They also have the DIY kit without the weather proof case for much much cheaper price.

 

[dcantucson]

Wesley Those lights are really cool. How do you get it to match with the music? Computer program does that I assume? Also does this mean you can make you aquarium lights twinkle on holidays!:D

 

[Wes888]

hehe, that would be an interesting idea. Not sure if my fishes would like that thou. :D

There are a couple of programs allowing you create a grid of controls using GUI. Imagine it's like an Excel spreadsheet. Each column is a time slot and each row is a channel (for a string of lights or water pump or whatever). You can set the time slot to as fast as 1ms or as slow as hours.

For light shows, I have to painstickingly matching the on/off or ramp up ramp down to the music. One beat at a time. The very fast song that I did when I first learning, it took me almost a month to finish a song. Now, it still take a week or 2 to do one song. It depends on how fancy the light show I want to do.

 

[dcantucson]

Wow! The outcome however is very impressive.

 

[project5k]

Yep, and with the LOR units, if you get a "director" then you dont even have to have a pc connected for it to run its cycle.... you program it, fire it off and forget it...
(i'm a computerized christmas light user myself)