Stir Plate Question

Hey all-- thanks to AFAJ Brew Guy's Harddrive magnets (thanks again, man) and suggestion to put a metal washer on the fan so I could center the magnet, my stir plate is finally making a whirlpool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HIYOOOOO!!!!!

Here's my question: How much of an actual whirlpool does there need to be? I dropped in a few drops of food coloring and it sucked it down the funnel and dispersed it evenly throughout the 2000ml flask pretty quickly...but the whirlpool itself is pretty small. Every once and a while a little air funnel will travel about an inch to an inch and a half below the water surface...but never even close to a quarter of the way down the erlenmeyer -- is that expected?

Thanks again to everyone -- I'm stoked to use this puppy w/ my yeast!

It's not necessary to create a vortex in the flask. Simply keeping the wort moving/stirred is enough. This keeps the yeast in suspension and exposes the wort to the surface where the gas exchange can occur (CO2 Out/O2 In). Doesn't need to be a tornado in there.

Sweet -- I'm stoked to use this puppy. You guys use No Foam in your starters?