Bye Bye MP40's, hello Tunze!

[HefeWeizen]

I pulled the trigger and bought two tunze 6095's. I may add a controller later. Not a rush now that the units come with their own limited controller. They will be the sole water movers in my 125(72x18x22) tank. The tank is mainly softies, a few LPS, and some monti caps.


My 2 MP40's are gen 2's and have been in service about 7-8 years each. I have replaced the wet sides as well. About 2 years ago one of them would shut down at slower speeds, no error message, just shut off. Keeping the speed up stopped this, however, reef crest mode was out of the question. Lagoon mode it was. Recently the other one does the same. Now both are in lagoon mode. During that time I also ran an early model Tunze stream along with them. The Tunze ran for about ten years with one impeller change during that time. A few moths ago the motor seized up and was removed.

The reliability, cost, direction ability, and ease of maintenance is why I am going Tunze for replacements. I was going to get a MP40QD($350), but opted for 2 Tunze 6095($320).

I will say I am a bit disappointed in the vortechs. I think they should have lasted longer without issues(and one of the originals was broken out of the box). My Tunze lasted ten years, and would have lasted longer had I kept up with maintenance.

I know that the MP40QD moves more water than the old ones and will move a little more that the two tunzes, but the ability to control the two pumps individually and to be able to aim them are huge pluses. That and I can add more if necessary in the future.

Wish me luck.

 

[MIKE NY]

Good luck with them Dan. Everyone jumped on the MPs because they don't take up much space and are powerfull, but Tunze has been in business for many years for a reason.

 

[HefeWeizen]

You are right Mike. Tunze is well established and has proved itself to me. One impeller replacement in 10 years that ran me $35, not $95. They aren't bad pumps and they sure create some flow and undertow. But after adding a new wet side to each the 2 pumps ran me about $1,000.00. Two Tunze 6105's with the upgraded controller would run about $650-700 and two new mp40QD's would run me $700.

I'm doing two 6095's, less GPH, but enough for what I need, and is only running me $320. A no brainer if you ask me.

 

[lnevo]

I have to say though, I upgraded my driver and wetsides to the QD. They are so much cooler running and quieter. It's amazing.

I read an article the other day about pizza. One of the things they mentioned was how efficient pizza chefs are when flipping pizza dough. Someone studied this motion and developed motors to behave similar. I feel like this is the best analogy to how the new pumps work. Rather than sending a straight signal to spin it pulses like a pizza chef, running cooler and quieter. Sorry for going off-track, but I thought it was pretty interesting and a cool correlation.

 

[HefeWeizen]

I agree that the new QD looks great and runs better and quieter. However, the unidirectional output is annoying. Especially as my rock work evolves. No matter how much better they made it they will need a replacement wet side at some point. I also believe that the older models had bearing issues, which is probably why mine are acting up now.