Hydor Koralia Full Review
Posted January 19th, 2007 by Ryan
After receiving the Hydor Koralia in the other day I have had ample time to review these units. I’ll go over them thoughly after the jump along with a host of pictures.
Hydor Koralia is the first besides Tunze to market a propeller type design to the Aquarium Industry. Tunze owns a lot of the market share right now, but that might change soon.
Hydor Koralia’s come in 4 flavors: 1, 2, 3, and 4. Simple enough. Hydor Koralia excel at mainly one major thing: cost. At 1/4 of the price of the lowest Tunze, these pumps can be bought very inexpensively.
Open feeling the units in my hands, these are cheaply made. And have a very basic design, I am cautious that these in fact might break in my hands as I place them into my tank.
Hydor Koralia’s magnets don’t hold very well on the 4 series, they hold, but I would be worried that they might fall off if they were on any thicker glass. (I am running them on a 75 gallon)
The actual prop design is very clever, in fact the reason they are so cheap is mainly because of how the prop design integrates in with the “motor”. These move water, especially the 3 and 4 series. The 1 series I would compare to a Rio 1200 pump in my honest opinion. You can move them in a lot of directions once mounted inside the tank, you don’t have full range though as how the magnets connect to the pumps. However, you do have more range than a Tunze Stream, but not more than a Tunze Nanostream.
So far I have tested on the Reef Keeper 2 with great success on the wave-maker mode. This is what runs my main tank gadgets. I am assuming that this will work with other controllers on the market. Hydor Koralia was noisy when first starting up, just an fyi.
Unlike tunze which install can be a bit of a headache unless you buy the magnet holder, these Hydor Koralia pumps are very simple to install. Take in out of the box, place it against your glass inside your tank and then apply the magnet to the other side of the glass, plug in and your done!
Overall I like these units, they are a great option for those working within a budget. They are a great option instead of moding a Rio pump, however, I own a Tunze, and this is no Tunze. So if you currently have Tunze’s rest assured that for the time being your not going to have to upgrade.
For the rest of you, leap up for joy that finally someone made a pump like Tunze for 1/4 the cost. I know I am.
See the Pumps in action!
Hydor Koralia Video Here (Requires the Latest Version of Flash)
These look quite interesting, Im about to upgrade my pumps, I don’t know whether to go for the Tunze or these now!
Thanks for the video and review but can you use a tripod next time? Vid was nearly unwatchable due to the movement.
Do they make any startup noise when used on a wavemaker
Yes, they do make a startup noise.
Any issues yet with running them off your controller? How quickly does the wave maker mode cycle it on and off?
I just got No.3. It is very noisy when startup. I don’t think it would fit for any controller.
What I mean in the above comment is that it will generate startup noise which is no good for frequence on&off controller.
The different prop colors = which model?
(red = model#1? blue =model#2???)
How does the Hydor Koralia 3 @850gph match up to the Seio 820’s? I know they are cheaper and use less wattage however I’m talking about quality, water movement, noise and overall durability?
I bought a #4 for my 90 gallon reef tank seems to be doing ok. Not very noisy at all more noise from my sump.
I bought the Koralia 2 to increase turbulence from my return jets. It’s great. The price was right, too.
[...] Powerhead Question You can look here for a full review with video: Reef Builders Blog about saltwater fish, Marine Hobby & Aquarium » Blog Archive » Hydor Koralia… __________________ 75 Gallon AGA 250 Watt Dual MH’s with T5 Actnics 20 Gallon Sump with Mag drive [...]
i bought 2 about 2 months ago and have nothing but good things to say. i know tunze is an industry leader, but at 1/4 the price i say give me my koralias. again im very pleased with them.
[...] these have been in development for a few years and are Tunze’s response to the Vortech and Hydor Koralia’s. Tunze has already released the nanostreams in 6045 and 6025 flavors. The 6025 Tunze nanostream [...]
2 #1’s and 1 #3. 4 months in. 29 gallon tank with 15 lb 6 month rock and 45 lb 2 year rock. 1 red urchin. Tunze 9002 skimmer, Eheim 2215 filter (filter pad and charcoal only, changed every 2 or so months). 1 2′ atinic T5 and 2 2′ 18k T5. Tank 1 year old. Since installing koralia stuff has been growing, really growing. So much fun just watching rock do its’ thing. koralias’ on timers. Will be adding own AC control once PLC is up and running. Should have wave making capability with speed control in about 2 months. Then things will rock. AR AR.
I am running 2 of the largest ones they make. These things are great! no heat, quiet, and they get the job done! One flaw, if using it as a wave maker, as I am, you need to put a piece of air line tubing on the prop shaft to keep the prop back. Or they are quite noisy on start up. These are going to put tunze to shame. “In my opinion” Happy reef keeping! Patrick, sw Florida
[...] its product line with the expansion of its very own calcium reactors, protein skimmers and very own prop powered pump. Adding to the hydor line is their wavemaker 2, which is due out in about one month. The first [...]
Bought Hydor Koralia 1 and 2. Replaced 4 Rio 600’s, which wasn’t hard to do.
The few corals I have in my 38 gallon tall tank with 68 lbs of live rock have really flourished. The flow has really stimulated growth in my tank.
I definitely would be interested in a wave maker by Hydor if they would ever get one out!!!
Timer for feeding would really be helpful. These Koralia really throw the food around. Now that the Coral has started to grow now it’s time for the fish to have a chance to eat and grow…