Frequently Asked Questions

We recommend purchasing HYDROS products from an Authorized Retailer. You can find a complete list of Authorized Retailers by visiting our Where to Buy page and using our store locator. Just type in your city, state, or ZIP code to find a local fish store or online retailer near you.

Besides the notable price difference, HYDROS Control X4 is a larger, more powerful device with all the capabilities of the HYDROS Control X2 plus additional two sense ports to monitor, 0-10V control, and probe ports to track pH, ORP, and more. 

Check out the HYDROS playlist on our YouTube channel [CVtv] to learn more about the CoralVue HYDROS platform. Watch videos that feature HYDROS products from us, our retail partners, press, and more!

The WaveEngine is compatible with pumps from a variety of brands including Abyzz, EcoTech Marine, IceCap, Maxspect, Reef Octopus, Tunze, Jebao, and Waveline. The WaveEngine also has four independent 0-10V outputs for pumps that have a 0-10V port for external control. For a complete list of pump models that have been tested and are known to work well with the WaveEngine, please visit Is My Pump Compatible?.

No, you do not need a HYDROS aquarium controller to use the WaveEngine. If you only want to use the WaveEngine, you only need to purchase the WaveEngine. Later on, if you want to automate more stuff, you could add a HYDROS controller. You can plug the controller into the WaveEngine so they can communicate with each other. The WaveEngine can even power the controller! You won’t have to download or learn a new app; you use the same HYDROS app. The only difference will be more features are unlocked.

Visit the Downloading HYDROS App page in our support section for details on how to download the app to your Android or iOS (Apple) mobile device. A web-based interface for desktop users is under consideration but is not currently in development.

The Control X4 includes a temperature sensor, pH probe, and Power 4 WiFi Power Strip. It is a great option as a standalone controller for a reef aquarium or as part of a larger HYDROS system.

The Control X2 includes a temperature sensor and a Power 4 WiFi Power Strip. It’s a perfect standalone controller for basic saltwater or freshwater tank. You can also use the Control X2 as one part of a larger HYDROS system. For example, you can use it to control an auto top-off or auto water change system.

Something to keep in mind is that all HYDROS devices can be used separately or together. So you can use a Control X4 and a Control X2 together. You can use multiple Control X4 units. You can use a WaveEngine with the Control X2 or Control X4. You can run multiple WaveEngines together. It’s, however, you want to do it!

You can directly connect up to four (4) pumps using the Direct Drive ports.

You can also connect up to four (4) pumps to the 0-10V port by using a single HYDROS Quad Cable.

You can actually control an unlimited amount of VorTech “W” model pumps wirelessly.

In short, you can connect up to 8 pumps with cords and as many pumps as you want wirelessly!

The HYDROS Controls are engineered, assembled and supported in the United States. The controllers are carefully built by dedicated aquarium hobbyists in-house at CoralVue’s headquarters in Slidell, Louisiana with globally sourced materials. Our engineering and support teams are also located throughout the United States including Louisiana, Florida, Illinois and Indiana.

CoralVue has many goals for HYDROS. Goal #1 is to make aquarium automation affordable for everyone. To keep prices low for consumers, we partnered with a third-party manufacturer to utilize existing WiFi power strips that meet our strict quality standards. You might see similar strips sold elsewhere, but please take caution because not all WiFi power strips are created equal. They might look the same on the outside. They may even look the same on the inside. But loose components, scratches, bad soldering jobs, counterfeit branding, and even bogus certifications are difficult to spot with the untrained eye. The engineers and developers on the HYDROS project tested over 60 power outlets that used several different wireless technologies. We selected the one with the most reliable firmware, a verifiable ETL certification, and a low cost to the end-user. For convenience and protection, we offer a 1-year factory warranty with USA-based support along with a custom mounting bracket to safely attach the strips to your stand, wall, or controller board.

We use Flutter, a user interface development system created by Google for use within their own mobile applications. Flutter compiles to native code in both the iOS and Android environment. Flutter allows us to use a common code base for iOS, Android and Web applications. This helps us ensure quality and guarantees that there will always be feature and operational parity between the three platforms. In the past year, Flutter has become one of the two leading choices for mobile development.

For more information about Flutter, check out these two blogs:

What is Flutter? Benefits and Limitations

Top 8 Flutter Advantages and Why You Should Try Flutter on Your Next Project

We have two alternatives in the works for hobbyists that prefer wired outlets. We plan to make a formal announcement about these new HYDROS solutions before the end of the year. We have no intention of replacing WiFi outlets as a power source option in the HYDROS universe. These wired solutions will operate in parallel with the wireless outlets so HYDROS can satisfy the needs of more hobbyists.

The HYDROS product line was developed to provide aquarium automation for everyone. This includes those who have 10-gallon freshwater tanks to those with multi-million dollar marine systems. This is a huge range both in terms of price and technical understanding of the user. Clearly no single product can cover this entire range. This is why we refer to the HYDROS family of products rather than a single product.

Our current controller options are the Control X2, the Control X4, and the Control XS. These products, and others arriving soon, form the core of our Control infrastructure. As the core of a system, it is critical that the following goals are achieved:

• Reliability – It hast to work and keep working
• Scalability – It has to address different sizes of system
• Affordable Entry Level – It must be accessible to the beginner
• Growth – the system must grow with the user

The HYDROS Collective consists of multiple Control devices connected together using a high reliability interconnect bus. This is based on CAN Bus, which is a communication bus used extensively in automobile and factory automation. When two or more HYDROS devices are connected in this way, they are no longer individual devices.

For example, if you take a Control X4 which has two pH/ORP inputs, four Sensor inputs, two Drive ports, four 0-10V inputs and four 0-10V outputs, and connect it to a second Control X4, you now have the equivalent of a “Control X8.” You have doubled the number of each type of port.

What may not be immediately obvious is that all of these ports are equivalent. That is, an output which happens to be connected to device B can just as easily use an input on Device A. The physical device that an input or output is connected to becomes irrelevant, they are all one pool of ins and outs.

The Collective provides two major advantages. One is reliability. If devices fail, the system gracefully degrades without total failure. The other is scalability. If you add new pieces, your old devices are still fully functional.

The HYDROS Smart Network, also known and the Command Bus, is a simple concept borrowed from the IT industry called distributed processing. If you have ever seen a picture of a Google or AWS data center, you will see rows after rows of small servers. The biggest reason for this is fault tolerance. If a server at Google fails, it will not cause much of an issue because one of its thousands of peers will pick up the load. Additionally, the stand-alone computer used in a server farm for Google could also be used as a on its own as a home computer. 

HYDROS Control uses the same concept. Unlike other automation systems that use a central brain, HYDROS uses this “distributed processing” which can eliminate communication problems and maintain control of the aquarium even if  individual devices are removed or shuts down.

CoralVue HYDROS has taken the necessary steps to create a controller with enclosures and connectors that meet the demand of an aquarium environment. HYDROS Controls, by design, have an ingress protection (IP) rating of 65 meaning it’s protected from low pressure water jets from all directions as well as offering a dust-tight enclosure.