Instead of popping for a second one spend the extra dooh on the battery back up. They are now designed in house rather than by IceCap and are said to be more efficient and have longer run times.
FWIW, one of my fellow angel/reefer buddies lost over $9,000 in fish due to five VT batt back-ups failing at the same time. He had 6 VTs, all on batt back-ups, and only one turned on... unfortunately this one was located at the bottom of the tank so it didn't oxygenate the water enough. He lost power on Christmas Eve ('09), and woke up to many of his prized fish and several corals dead. Had a generator and everything but didn't wake up when the power went out - but... why should you when you have Vortech's "fail-safe" in place? Not to fail safe, eh? He did everything right, cycled them once a month and all.
I hate to bring this kind of thing up as I was planning on using VT's (as I had in the past) again on batt back-ups, but have no interest now. This guy is top of his game when it comes to the hobby and I highly trust and respect everything he says. Such a downer
After speaking with multiple other people we're leaning towards the notion that the pumps themselves had re-start-up issues, rather then the batt back-up actually having issues. Ecotech offered to "test" the batt back-ups when he contacted them, but they seem to be missing the point that what's done is done and their "fail-safe" ultimately failed in the worst manner possible.
He's still working to resolve this with Ecotech/Ice Cap, but things aren't looking too bright at the moment... depending how things pan out you'll likely see a thread in their forum on RC with pictures of dead Meridethi Angels, Conspiculatus Angel, Wrought Iron Butterfly and much more He has since implemented a whole house power generator that kicks on as soon as the power goes out - and switched back to Tunzes to avoid re-start-up issues.
I've been an avid fan of VT's since the day they came out, but with this let down to a long time friend, and it such an incredibly horrid manner I will no longer be.
When I started this hobby 1.5 years ago I used maxijets. Because of their narrow flow and high power consumption, I was looking for an alternative after 8 months into the hobby, I did lot of reading and talking to people and determined that
Vortechs are extremely good when then work, but there are issues with the wetside. The customer service of vortech makes up for the not so robust (in my mind) product.
After paying approx $400 dollars, I dont think its a good idea to be dealing with these many issues. - Again I would like to say that I have always heard from people that when the product works there is nothing like it.
After 8 months into the hobby I decided to try a simple tunze 6045, I have been happy with the product for what it does.
I bought two more tunzes couple of months ago and I should say I happy with the product.
Originally Posted by ReeferRob
He has since implemented a whole house power generator that kicks on as soon as the power goes out - and switched back to Tunzes to avoid re-start-up issues.
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