PUMPS
I talked with several people at RAP about power heads and pumps. I wanted pumps that would sync together at a reasonable price. I talked with the rep from Current USA. I was surprised when he told me the price. He recommend me to buy them from saltwateraquarium.com. First I would like to say that is a great place to buy from. Great people, great service, and great prices. They even give a military discount. I am still unsure about my opinion of the Current pumps. There has been a lot of confusion between the sales rep, dealers, and tech support. I ended up talking with one of the developers. This is what happened with me and what I have found out. Some good some not so good.
This is the new loop system. The concept is that lights, power heads, and return pumps are all wired together and can be controlled with one remote. Every package also say Bluetooth controllable. I have a kessil AP700 light so I did not need another light. I wanted pumps to work together. Each group of components connect to a hub and the hubs connect together. Up to three power heads can connect to the blue hub. They sell a kit that has one power head, power head contreoller, IR receiver, blue hub, and type I remote. There are three power head sizes. 660, 1050, and 2100 GPM. They also have three return pumps; 1050, 1900, and 3170 GPM. I bought the 1050 power head kit along with two additional power heads and a 1900 return pump.
I connected everything. Things did not work so I called tech support. You can connect three power heads but only two can be synced. Mine would not sync. The problem was you have to hold the button for 3 seconds. They said I must have got one of the first ones. They have identified the error in the instructions and changed them. Easy fix. The second problem I was having was that when I pushed the feed button the power heads drop to 20% but the return pump continues at full power. Tech support could not figure out the problem but transferred to one of the developers. Long story short the powerheads controller doesn't control the return pump. You have to have a light controller to control the return pump for feed mode. Or it can be controlled with an app by Bluetooth. Problem is the Bluetooth adapter has not been released. Current sent me a light controller, light hub, and light remote free of charge. With these additional pieces now when I push feed the powerheads turn off and the return pump drops to 20% power. It is all working how it is suppose to now. The third problem I has having was the return pump shutting off and back on if the control knob got bumped on the grey hub. I called back and was told they were going to send me a new hub. Two weeks later I had not received it. I sent them an email. I got a reply that they were sending a new 3170 pump and hub to replace my 1900 pump. Now my pumps are working together and the feed mode works. The one short coming of the system when doing water changes the only way to shut the return pump off to unplug it. Once unplugged and plugged back in the return pump cycles off and on when in feed mode. Everything has to be shut down and restarted. All and all for what I paid the system work great. If I had to pay for the extra parts to make it all work I would have to do some caparison to see how good of a deal it was. This is a new product line and there are some bugs but Current has stood behind their product and have done everything they could to get the system working for me. I did buy another set of powerheads for my other tank. When one of the pumps kick on it vibrates the tank. It is working but I am considering sending it back and getting another.
The 1050gpm powerhead from current is half the size of a 1050gpm hydra power head. With the light controller the system work good and the price is very reasonable. Once they release the app and bluetooth adapter along with getting a few bugs worked out with QA I think these will be a good option.
