Koralia 3's

[AK77]

Hi Guys,

Today my Hydor Koralia 3's arrived. So I thought I'd do a little review on them for those who are interested in these powerheads.

The first thing I noticed about these was the incredibly low power consumption versus the output of these babies. The Hydor 3's consume a mere 5.5w and produce a flow rate of 3200 LPH which is impressive to say the least. Below are the flow rates and power consumption of the other models.

Koralia 1 - 1500 LPH - 4.5w
Koralia 2 - 2300 LPH - 4.5w
Koralia 3 - 3200 LPH - 5.5w
Koralia 4 - 4600 LPH - 11w

I assembled the units, which is literally a case of pushing the red mounting pin inside the back of the powerhead and you are ready to go. I love the ease of positioning of them and the fact that the magnets either side of the glass hold them in place. No more pulling 4 suckers off to try and reposition like my old powerhead.

With the pumps placed and angled, I fired them up. I was really amazed at how silent these things are. My previous powerhead was a Haliea HX4500, which was 2500LPH but caned the juice at 70w. To the touch, the output doesn't feel that strong, but it is a very wide stream and I can see tiny particles being pushed from one side of the tank to the other, so there is little doubt over the flow capabilities. The Xenia seem to appreciate them, as the current isn't as strong, yet they are swaying about beautifully in the tank and are fully extended.

The Koralias are also nice looking and are a huge improvement on the Haliea I had before. Well worth the £35 each, delivered.

With the addition of these pumps, my flow rate in the 180L is about 7200 LPH including the overflow/return from the sump.

I've upped a few pics to have a look at.

And a shot of my Irian Jaya Clownfish

 

[shibby]

you seem to have a diffferent design to my hydor 3!!


and those clowns are nearly black and white a little more paint and your be there

 

[AK77]

Hi Shibby,

Hmm, how different? Did you not put the flow director on the end of them?

Yeah, they are taking their damn sweet time about going black!!

 

[pengy666]

Thats a very DSB you got there? you got a sump?

EDIT


Ah yes you have a sump

why you got such a dsb in your main tank?

 

[AK77]

Yup. I'll be adding a nice DSB in the sump too most likely.

 

[pengy666]

??? Why havent you got one already???

I suppose its no matter? but I wouldnt have not had DSB in sump?

good info about the PH tho!

 

[AK77]

lol I ran out of sand and I keep forgetting to pick up a bag when I go to the LFS. I'm instantly drawn to the tanks to see what goodies they have. I always get home and then remember I forgot something I wanted

 

[SkiFletch]

Dude your tank's looking awesome, nice work. Those Koralias rock huh?

 

[thefirethief]

Beautiful tank man! These powerheads are perfect although I run the koralia 1 on my 30gal and its ideal however a few weeks down the line its started making a rattling noise which I used to be able to get rid of if I moved the unit a bit or turned it off then back on. Its now constantly rattling but it doesn't seem to be a problem that is in all the units as I've never read any other complaints about it. I've contacted the place I bought it from and they've not got back to me so its irratated phone call time tomorrow.

 

[SkiFletch]

Huh, yeah imbalanced impellers is not a common problem... Did you take the impeller out to look for stuff stuck in/around the magnet? Might just be a bit of sand stuck in there.

 

[AK77]

Thanks Ski. Its been a hectic and annoying experience but, its getting there, slowly but surely. I'm still waiting on the second replacement overflow box from Cleartides.

The algae is finally under control thanks to the snails (which have all but died) and running active carbon and phosphate remover. I'm going to get a couple of Florida fighting conch and maybe a chalk goby or another sand sifting one to help with the hair algae that keeps appearing on the substrate. I got a power gravel cleaner today too and vaccumed the top 1/2" to remove detritus and algae build up.

I still think my LR sucks ass to be honest. There is no coralline on it at all. I'm guessing the guy who original bought the LR got it from my LFS. Their rock is plain white and totally boring and £14 per kg! I'm planning on getting another 5kg of LR online, which is better coloured and to help kickstart the coralline growth.

I've got a couple of frags of Xenia, which seem to be doing really well, so I'll be expanding the corals soon.

Yeah the K3's rock! I am really pleased with them. I just hope mine don't start making a noise, but will let you know if they do.

Couldn't have done it without you guys help though, so a big thanks for all the advise and shared knowledge.

Thanks again,

AK

 

[SkiFletch]

Glad I could help, and I'm sure everyone else is too

As for the Coraline, remember, all the seeding in the world won't help unless you have good chemistry. Coraline likes/requires the following:

High lighting (which you have)
High minerals (calc >420ppm, alk >10dKH, mg>1250ppm, higher than normal values)
LOW, and I mean LOW phosphates. Remember it grows via calcification and calcification suffers with phosphates above 0.03ppm
Low dissolved organics. I dont know if I've ever seen a tank with lots of coraline that either did not have a skimmer, or was not waterchanged frequently.

Personally, I found that when I started really increasing my mineral levels (calc/alk/mg) I had a nice boom of coraline on my rocks. Also got another bloom when I added my ozone and decreased my dissolved organics greatly. I'm not reccomending ozone as a requirement, but since I had a high fish load (prior to the ich) the ozone really helped the skimmer do its thing and keep the DOC's down.

 

[AK77]

Hi Ski,

I only have like a few centimeters of coralline, that arrived on two tiny fragments of rock I purchased. I think my nitrates and phosphates were too high for it to seed. As my tank was quite old and the previous owner kept it as FOWLR, phosphates weren't really a concern and so I should imagine were pretty high. The nitrates were bad enough. Hopefully vaccuming the substrate weekly and maybe upping my water changes a bit more might help.

I'm running active charcoal which really seemed to help with the nitrates, but adds to the phosphates. I'm running a pouch of renaphos at the moment, but will be getting some GFO soon.

I'm interested in the ozone though. I shall have to investigate to see if #1 I can afford it, #2 the pros and cons.

Thanks again guys

 

[pengy666]

AK do you not live in somerset? or is that just the impression I got?

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Tank looks great! Where did you get the MH's from btw? They look just about pefect for what I had in mind (from the looks of it they clip on the back of the tank?)