Best return pumps in the industry: Who gets your vote?

Best Return Pump in the Industry

  • Abyzz

  • Blueline

  • Danner Mag Drive

  • Dolphin / Poseidon

  • Ecotech Vectra

  • Eheim

  • Fluval

  • Iwaki

  • Jebao / Jecod

  • Neptune

  • Pan World

  • Red Dragon

  • Reeflo

  • Reef Octopus VarioS

  • Sicce

  • Simplicity

  • Skimz

  • Waterblaster

  • Waveline

  • Other


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jcl123

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I have Vectra and Sicce DC pumps on my tank at the moment, I had Iwaki before, the olive green one which, can’t remember, might be the 70. Yes, my train of thought was similar to yours, when I made the switch, I can run two DC pumps at the same time and still use half the power of one Iwaki, I will say, I really like the Sicce over the Vectra. It has more head pressure, more flow, AND uses less power. And it runs cooler as well. The management software needs some improving, but the pump and controller are better.

Hmm, which model Sicce are you using?

-JCL
 

Bruce Burnett

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I had an Iwaki since the 70's I don't own it now but it is still running. I have had a number of Danner mag drives and never had one fail. Had a Jebao and it stopped working so I put my mag drive back on. I have thought about a Sicce but I will wait until there have been more DC pumps on the market for a few more years. Proven reliability on return pump is more important than having the newest thing around. If you leave home for a week you don't want your return pump to fail especially if it takes 6 or 7 hours driving or a 5 hour plane ride to get home. My mag drive can go a year without cleaning, try that with some of the newer pumps.
 

ksed

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I have Vectra and Sicce DC pumps on my tank at the moment, I had Iwaki before, the olive green one which, can’t remember, might be the 70. Yes, my train of thought was similar to yours, when I made the switch, I can run two DC pumps at the same time and still use half the power of one Iwaki, I will say, I really like the Sicce over the Vectra. It has more head pressure, more flow, AND uses less power. And it runs cooler as well. The management software needs some improving, but the pump and controller are better.

How did you measure the flow as well as the wattage consumed?

Also did you have the M1 or L1
If you had the M1 then the Sicce is rated for more.
 

jasonrusso

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Hello everyone, I just read through this thread and I am on the fence. So I thought I would share my reasoning here.

I voted for Iwaki, that has been my experience

I have been keeping freshwater tanks for decades, and I used to work in a fish store where we used Iwaki and pool pumps, that is mostly what I have experience with. Historically no one ever cared about electrical consumption, heat, or even noise within reason. I used these pumps with Rainbow Lifeguard modules after using Marineland Magnum's for years (still love those things), we even had a Diatom filter with those open motors.

My use case
I have a 135G and I want to go Triton, so I need to hit 1,350GPH+ or so, and my Iwaki 55RLT can't hit that, I would have to step up to the 70RLT. This is in my living room, and testing the 55RLT on a bucket it does not seem that loud, surprisingly so actually. But you would certainly hear it.

Iwaki issues, power consumption
The 55RLT uses 192W, but the 70RLT uses a whopping 336W, approaching double, and this would be somewhere around $30+/month in electricity - likely a fair bit of heat and noise as well. And the thing is, this will sit right below my tank, so maybe only 5' of head, and I will have as few elbows as possible. So I don't really need the pressure that the Iwaki can deliver in this case.

Ecotech Vectra
So, I look at the Ecotech Vectra. Ecotech has a very strong reputation as a company, they seem to have had a few bumps with the M1, not sure about the L1. I do like control and I will have an Apex, but it's $99 for a reeflink and I will also be getting two MP40's, so I am fine getting one. Then I can learn about the automation from different brands, I also hear what some people are saying that keeping it simple on your return pump can be a good thing, as the new Apex seems to be having some bumps as well. I kinda wish Ecotech offered a "no frills" option that was just on/off for a bit less money.

M1 vs. L1
So the M1 looks like it would hit about 1500GPH @ 5', and considering it's not made for pressure I will probably go with an L1 so I have plenty of margin, or maybe even use the spare for reactors and such. Also because those numbers tend to be exaggerated or under ideal conditions.

The L1 will hit 2000+ GPH @ 5' head, and I was thinking I would get one of those Apex flow meters to dial in exactly what I need.

L1 vs. 70RLT
The L1 uses just 130W, and that is full-on, so dialed down to what I need likely will be under 100W. Very quiet apparently, although I do see some mention of heat production (can anyone speak on that?), I do plan to use it external and I always make sure there is airflow around anything that produces heat. All this for about the same or a little more money than a 70RLT.

I have no doubt it would never out-live an Iwaki, but it seems to be a good match for my use case. If I get at least 5-6 years out of it I would be happy, by then something even better might come along, or maybe perfected version of some of the DC pumps. BTW, strictly speaking I don't think these are "DC" pumps, they are just low-voltage. Likely the driver is feeding it various different frequencies or using PWM to deliver different speeds with high torque.

Abyzz
Those Abyzz pumps look really nice. I could afford to buy one, but at triple the price of a Vectra L1 for the lowest model A100 I feel a bit uncomfortable. Yes, the reliability argument is good, certainly you would lose more than $1350 if your main pump failed at a bad time. But I also don't like the possibility of it being t more difficult to get support if you did have a problem... If it were only double the price I would say sure... I dunno. Hell, I could get two Vectra's and run them both for redundancy and still have money left over.

In any case, if I go with the Vectra, I have my 55RLT and a few others lying around that could get me by for a week or so while getting a replacement.

Anyone agree with this reasoning?

-JCL
Why do you need 1350? You only need to 5x flow through the sump. I have a 210 with 2 Eheim 1262s, after the head loss it works very well.
 

paphater

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I just swapped out my laguna max flo with a new jebao dcs 18000 and I'm beyond impressed with noise and power. If I get a couple years out of this pump I couldn't ask for more.
 

ca1ore

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Depends, of course, on how one judges 'best'. For me it's the ability to pump against pressure (basement sump) and reliability (been in the hobby for almost 30 years). Best pump I ever owned was an Iwaki 40 that ran for me continuously for almost 20 years. PanWorld a close second (got one running for 10 years).
 

SteadyC

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I had an Iwaki since the 70's I don't own it now but it is still running. I have had a number of Danner mag drives and never had one fail. Had a Jebao and it stopped working so I put my mag drive back on. I have thought about a Sicce but I will wait until there have been more DC pumps on the market for a few more years. Proven reliability on return pump is more important than having the newest thing around. If you leave home for a week you don't want your return pump to fail especially if it takes 6 or 7 hours driving or a 5 hour plane ride to get home. My mag drive can go a year without cleaning, try that with some of the newer pumps.
I went a year without cleaning the Vectra.
 

SteadyC

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How did you measure the flow as well as the wattage consumed?

Also did you have the M1 or L1
If you had the M1 then the Sicce is rated for more.
I have the M1, still running it in parallel with the Sicce. I test wattage by using the Apex, turn one on and see the amps used, then turn on the other. For flow, for one it’s rated higher, and two I used the bucket test method, put the return line in a bucket, measure time and amount of water.
 

ksed

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I have the M1, still running it in parallel with the Sicce. I test wattage by using the Apex, turn one on and see the amps used, then turn on the other. For flow, for one it’s rated higher, and two I used the bucket test method, put the return line in a bucket, measure time and amount of water.
In all fairness the Vectra is rated at 80W , 2000gph at 21.5h
The Sicce 9 is rated at 95 w, 2500, 23h
The Sicce should definitely have more flow.
 

SteadyC

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In all fairness the Vectra is rated at 80W , 2000gph at 21.5h
The Sicce 9 is rated at 95 w, 2500, 23h
The Sicce should definitely have more flow.
That’s what I said, and why I like it more...
 

ksed

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I have Vectra and Sicce DC pumps on my tank at the moment, I had Iwaki before, the olive green one which, can’t remember, might be the 70. Yes, my train of thought was similar to yours, when I made the switch, I can run two DC pumps at the same time and still use half the power of one Iwaki, I will say, I really like the Sicce over the Vectra. It has more head pressure, more flow, AND uses less power. And it runs cooler as well. The management software needs some improving, but the pump and controller are better.
But here you say it uses less power? Than the Vectra or Iwaki?
 

SteadyC

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But here you say it uses less power? Than the Vectra or Iwaki?
Yup, according to my Apex, and measuring the amps when it is on vs. when the Vectra is on, it is using less power. The power is variable, Power Consumption - 30 - 95W. I’m just reporting what I am actually seeing.
 

SteadyC

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Here’s my proof, amp reading in first pic running only Sicce, 2.8 amps. Second picture, running only the Vectra, 3.1 amps. Heater was also on during both. So these aren’t total amps for just the pumps, but readings when only 1 of the pumps were on. Less power, more flow, more head pressure.

A0DAD2F9-06D7-4953-B214-6A7747024800.jpeg


624BD89F-1105-4F1E-A224-11EBDD29EE4B.jpeg
 

jcl123

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Syncra SDC 9.0 WiFi Controllable Pump (1000-2500GPH) - Sicce

Hmm, these look like very nice pumps, you could be right that it is a bit better than the Vectra's, and certainly Sicce has a much longer track record than Ecotech for making pumps. I guess the only thing that gives me pause is that they basically came out a couple months ago....

But you are using it now and it is good huh? I really wonder what the head loss is compared to an Iwaki, and if that will be any issue at all for me on a return pump. Thinking they might need to be over-sized to compensate.

Thanks for mentioning it, if I am going to try something, I think the Sicce may be a better bet.

And actually, they also have a new AC pump that looks pretty amazing as well.... I was sort of waiting for one of these companies to make a more efficient AC pump. Some of the most efficient motors in the world are AC.... Tesla is using them in their cars.

-JCL
 

jcl123

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I had an Iwaki since the 70's I don't own it now but it is still running. I have had a number of Danner mag drives and never had one fail. Had a Jebao and it stopped working so I put my mag drive back on. I have thought about a Sicce but I will wait until there have been more DC pumps on the market for a few more years. Proven reliability on return pump is more important than having the newest thing around. If you leave home for a week you don't want your return pump to fail especially if it takes 6 or 7 hours driving or a 5 hour plane ride to get home. My mag drive can go a year without cleaning, try that with some of the newer pumps.

Since I have two overflows, one way I could get where I need to go would be to just use two pumps. I would have power to spare, and I could tryout one DC pump, and if I have two pumps, I would have a degree of redundancy without needed to physically swap anything or wait for it to ship.
 

jcl123

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Why do you need 1350? You only need to 5x flow through the sump. I have a 210 with 2 Eheim 1262s, after the head loss it works very well.

The Triton method specifically calls for 10x turnover... 135G tank = 1,350GPH.
https://www.triton.de/en/products-services/triton-method/
I figure I will end up with 1200 - 1500 somewhere depending on which solution I end up with.

Eheim makes good pumps, how much net flow do you suppose you have with those two pumps? If you are targeting 1,000GPH for 5x on a 210G, those are rated for 900GPH each, but they have very low head pressure. Also, they are 80W each, not too bad, but basically about 1/3 the efficiency of some of these other pumps.
 

jasonrusso

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Eheim makes good pumps, how much net flow do you suppose you have with those two pumps? If you are targeting 1,000GPH for 5x on a 210G, those are rated for 900GPH each, but they have very low head pressure. Also, they are 80W each, not too bad, but basically about 1/3 the efficiency of some of these other pumps.

After the head loss through 3/4" flexible tubing I'd guess I'm around 1000gph. I never measured it but everything is working well.

I have one on a upc and it reads about 70 watts. They may be less efficient, but they can be guaranteed to start every time. That can't be said by a DC pump. They are also a fraction of the price of a DC pump and run for years and years.

The DCs may be more efficient but after the initial cost of them, it is probably a wash.
 

SteadyC

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Hmm, these look like very nice pumps, you could be right that it is a bit better than the Vectra's, and certainly Sicce has a much longer track record than Ecotech for making pumps. I guess the only thing that gives me pause is that they basically came out a couple months ago....

But you are using it now and it is good huh? I really wonder what the head loss is compared to an Iwaki, and if that will be any issue at all for me on a return pump. Thinking they might need to be over-sized to compensate.

Thanks for mentioning it, if I am going to try something, I think the Sicce may be a better bet.

And actually, they also have a new AC pump that looks pretty amazing as well.... I was sort of waiting for one of these companies to make a more efficient AC pump. Some of the most efficient motors in the world are AC.... Tesla is using them in their cars.

-JCL
I have had Vectras for 1 year 2 months (ish), I’ve had to send one pump back as it died, and have lost 2 or 3 power supplies. I’ve had the Sicce for 2 months (ish) and I am hopeful it will have a better track record. If you look at the reviews on bulk reef supply for the Vectras, well I’m not the only one with issues with the Vectras. I’m done with investing time and money in the Vectras, moving to Sicce, and if I have to Abyzz.
 

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