Flow issues, aesthetics and power head frustrations
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MtlReef25
Community Member
You could also modify the 6105 with 6255 housings. Did this on my 2 Tunzes 6105 in my 5' tank and the power is impressive!I like Tunze pumps for a lot of reasons, one of them being that I prefer the cords on the inside of he tank. Depending of the placement, especially with a black background, they blend in pretty well.
the inside of the tank.
Forsaken77
Valuable Member
What is the difference between the Turbelle pumps and the Stream Tunze pumps?
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mcarroll
10K Club member
I'm not totally sure, but I think that Turbelle is the brand that all of their pumps fall under, whereas Masterstream, Stream and Nanostream are lines within that brand.
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ShawnSaucier
Well-Known Member
I bit the bullet last night and purchased a WAV system. I had the chance to lay out several power heads that have been discussed on here next to each other and take a look at them.
The Tunze Stream 3: is a beast. I can see the attraction to it and it really pushes a ton of water. It’s a unique design as far as shape, rather long at about 8” once you put the flow deflection tip on. It reminded me of a microphone . The limits that I found were being able to adjust your flow direction. If you placed the pump straight up and down , with the deflection you only have L/R adjustment. Placed on its side was up and down. The deflection tip was a bit finicky and I had visions of the tip coming off in the middle of the night and waking up to Old Faithful or all of my sand and rock pushed into one corner. Control ability, not sure.. I can see how you would set a wave/pulse but without really sitting down for a few hours and playing with it on the Apex or the Tunze Smartcontroller I’m not sure what you can do. I think this would be a great pump for a peninsula style tank that was over 5’. But my OCD and what I could see it looking like in my current system, it wasn’t going to work.
I’ve had Tunze 6105’s on my tank previously. Though a great pump, it’s bulbous size was very distracting to me. I also looked at the nano streams. These could be cool if I used 5 or six of them, but then I would have 5-6 of the power supplies, cables, etc...
The new (Gen2) Maxspect Gyre 250/280 models. Like I had stated before, this had the best flow in my tank when I had the original version. But it was problematic. Now my system has changed a bit since I had that pump. During the time I had a ton of small Cerith snails and looking back I believe that they were the cause to most of the damages done to that pump. Possibly.. But looking at those pumps made me feel like debating on dating “that” ex-girlfriend.
We laid out a few othe options like a secondary return, spray bars and other brands of pumps. With the tank already filled and in place, these were ruled out.
I chose the Apex WAV for a few different reasons. As far as a in tank chorded powerhead, this was the smallest visually, both unit wise and cable diameter. The cable has a bit more flexibility compared to some of the other units and the outer magnet has the lowest profile. If I were to put these on the sides of my tank, like the classic MP40 Set up , visually it’s not annoying. The built in “safety” features are a welcomed thought. We pulled the outer magnet while the system was running 100% and the propeller was still before the unit reached the sand. The same with pulling it out of the water. Cleaning seems pretty easy, the guard snaps on and off rather simply and the impeller was removed and replaced with ease. Next to the Gyre, these seem to be able to be placed the highest to the water line without causing air to be sucked in. Apex claims 2”, in our playing it felt like 3” but that was with a wave. For their size they feel extremely powerful (stated @ 4000gph) and there is only one power supply to run the 3 pumps I purchased. The pumps have 40* of motion on their track mount. You have to adjust your magnets if you want an odd angle as it’s not a 4 way motion. Since I run Apex Fusion already, it will be nice to be able to monitor the functions/stats of the pumps while I am away from home. I purchased the starter pack with 2x pumps and the 1 Link and an additional single pump. With my overflow being left of center ( 5’ tank with overflow 1’ off the left side) I’ll place one pump lower on the right side of the overflow with an angled position slightly up and along the back wall towards the right side of the tank. The second and third pumps will be placed in the upper side corners with the flow set diagonally across the tank. The plan is to get these set up today, so I’ll comment later on how that goes. I’m interested in seeing how versatile the programming can get but I’m sure it will take a bit to get it right.
Checking in later with my results..
The Tunze Stream 3: is a beast. I can see the attraction to it and it really pushes a ton of water. It’s a unique design as far as shape, rather long at about 8” once you put the flow deflection tip on. It reminded me of a microphone . The limits that I found were being able to adjust your flow direction. If you placed the pump straight up and down , with the deflection you only have L/R adjustment. Placed on its side was up and down. The deflection tip was a bit finicky and I had visions of the tip coming off in the middle of the night and waking up to Old Faithful or all of my sand and rock pushed into one corner. Control ability, not sure.. I can see how you would set a wave/pulse but without really sitting down for a few hours and playing with it on the Apex or the Tunze Smartcontroller I’m not sure what you can do. I think this would be a great pump for a peninsula style tank that was over 5’. But my OCD and what I could see it looking like in my current system, it wasn’t going to work.
I’ve had Tunze 6105’s on my tank previously. Though a great pump, it’s bulbous size was very distracting to me. I also looked at the nano streams. These could be cool if I used 5 or six of them, but then I would have 5-6 of the power supplies, cables, etc...
The new (Gen2) Maxspect Gyre 250/280 models. Like I had stated before, this had the best flow in my tank when I had the original version. But it was problematic. Now my system has changed a bit since I had that pump. During the time I had a ton of small Cerith snails and looking back I believe that they were the cause to most of the damages done to that pump. Possibly.. But looking at those pumps made me feel like debating on dating “that” ex-girlfriend.
We laid out a few othe options like a secondary return, spray bars and other brands of pumps. With the tank already filled and in place, these were ruled out.
I chose the Apex WAV for a few different reasons. As far as a in tank chorded powerhead, this was the smallest visually, both unit wise and cable diameter. The cable has a bit more flexibility compared to some of the other units and the outer magnet has the lowest profile. If I were to put these on the sides of my tank, like the classic MP40 Set up , visually it’s not annoying. The built in “safety” features are a welcomed thought. We pulled the outer magnet while the system was running 100% and the propeller was still before the unit reached the sand. The same with pulling it out of the water. Cleaning seems pretty easy, the guard snaps on and off rather simply and the impeller was removed and replaced with ease. Next to the Gyre, these seem to be able to be placed the highest to the water line without causing air to be sucked in. Apex claims 2”, in our playing it felt like 3” but that was with a wave. For their size they feel extremely powerful (stated @ 4000gph) and there is only one power supply to run the 3 pumps I purchased. The pumps have 40* of motion on their track mount. You have to adjust your magnets if you want an odd angle as it’s not a 4 way motion. Since I run Apex Fusion already, it will be nice to be able to monitor the functions/stats of the pumps while I am away from home. I purchased the starter pack with 2x pumps and the 1 Link and an additional single pump. With my overflow being left of center ( 5’ tank with overflow 1’ off the left side) I’ll place one pump lower on the right side of the overflow with an angled position slightly up and along the back wall towards the right side of the tank. The second and third pumps will be placed in the upper side corners with the flow set diagonally across the tank. The plan is to get these set up today, so I’ll comment later on how that goes. I’m interested in seeing how versatile the programming can get but I’m sure it will take a bit to get it right.
Checking in later with my results..
Following along because I am thinking i need different pumps. I currently have 2 gyre 250s second gen and i wont go as far asato say thatti hate them but ... Yeah they are soooo loud even at 50%. So interested to hear how the wavs do
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ShawnSaucier
Well-Known Member
There are a ton of great pumps out there, and I wouldn’t cross out Tunze or Ecotech off your list. I believe all of the hobby level pumps have there pros and cons. I also believe that it is sometimes easier or more common to write a negative review about something, because you’re angry.
I never had noise issues with the Gyre, my issues were broken impellers, stripped impeller rods and sides randomly not working. But when it was working the flow was great. As I stated above, looking back it may have been some of the livestock that played a large issue on the problems I had. Within the first week I had replaced the whole unit because one side had stopped working. The second unit I had monthly shipments of parts rolling in.
The Tunze 6105’s I stared with, visually looked like two Deathstars in my reef. Again, flow was great, but I had just upgraded from a 75g that I had run Ecotechs on, part of me missed the ability to have all of those pre-programmed flow patterns. When I had the failures on these I had decided to try the Gyre. Other than the visual aesthetics and I would guess my lack of knowledge on how to really program these pumps to use there full potential, Tunze is one of the biggest and most popular companies out there. Not sure why mine failed, and so closely together. It just may have been one of those things.
The MP40’s that are currently on the tank, are great pumps but just not working with my situation. Let’s face it, they are almost a staple point for a reef tank today with the flow options and programming that can be done. But again, coming down to my visual OCD, in the classic L/R set up it kills the side viewing, and there is no adjustability other than forward when it comes to flow. The magnets can be a pain when mounting. My glass is 3/4” which is at the limit for MP40’s. Just when you think you have them locked into each other, as you power them up they unlock. It’s taken me 5-6 times to get them to set properly.
The WAV system has had its own good/ bad reviews just like any of the other pumps, except Tunze I’ve never really seen that many bad reviews. What has attracted me to them I stated earlier in my last post. On top of it all, my job pulls me away from home, sometimes up to 3 months at a time. Keeping a reef with this type of schedule is not the easiest. So a lot falls on to my wife during these times. She really does put effort in, which I am thankful for, but it’s not her hobby. Before each trip we have a brief overview of what to do with the tank, what does what and what to do if something goes wrong. With that in mind, if/when there is an issue with these pumps I can have some info to be able to refer to through Fusion. Hopefully this won’t be needed. Also if a pump were to fail, unplugging 1 cable and swapping out the pump would be easier than dealing with all of the power supplies and finicky magnet mounts that need to be precisely placed. In all fairness, for the amount of effort she puts in to something she doesn’t fully understand, which is way more than I could ask for, I have to try and make things a bit simpler to deal with out of respect. On top of the aesthetics and possible flow, this is the biggest factor in making the switch. It sounds silly, but when you have that 3 am phone call while you are on the opposite side of the globe because something has happened, a simple look at the computer assessment and maybe switch of the unit via 1 plug can be worth its weight.
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ShawnSaucier
Well-Known Member
You know it's powerful if you're worried about it pushing your rock around!
It’s an amazing pump. I can say that if your scape is not secure, you could have some issues.
My next build I hope to do a room divider(2 sides) or peninsula style and I could totally see implementing a set of these pumps.
Though my tank is on the smaller side of large (190g) it has the optical illusion of looking small like a 75g. Not sure if this is because of the glass thickness of what, but from the front it gives a shallow front to back feel. I’ve seen similar sized tanks that you definitely can feel the depth. Maybe it’s my aquascape? Anyways, that’s one of the reasons that the larger size doesn’t work for me.
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ShawnSaucier
Well-Known Member
WAVS are being returned, LOL. I'll update in a bit
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ShawnSaucier
Well-Known Member
I’m not going to go into much depth about the product at the moment, but there were some issues from the beginning . After two calls with Neptune Marine customer service, I can’t get these out of my house fast enough. I’m more angry by the treatment from the rep. Than the issues with the units. The owner of the store that I purchased from is allowing me to swap/ return the units with no issue. But he did state he’s had issues as a retailer with a few of their employees.
Neptune makes a great controller, no doubt, but they need to transfer that greatness into some humbleness with their Customer Service. I’ll stop there...
Neptune makes a great controller, no doubt, but they need to transfer that greatness into some humbleness with their Customer Service. I’ll stop there...
Forsaken77
Valuable Member
There is another DC pump I think is worth a look... The Sicce Xstream-E Variable DC Flow Pump. I have a few of the AC versions of this pump and they are amazing. The DC pump goes up to 2,250 gph and isn't even 3 inches in length, width, or height! They are extremely small, with self cleaning impellers, and the cage is almost nonexistent with wide flow angles. The AC versions are very impressive for their size and the DC is the same body.
It's also Apex compatible (with an extra $20 cord) via the 10v port.
The only "maybe" is that it says it accepts 3/4" glass max. So you're on the border. But I can tell you that the AC versions have a piece of rubber that wraps around the dry-side magnet (that you put on yourself) so it either doesn't scratch the glass or is easier to take off.... Whatever it's for... But if you don't use it the magnet is much stronger.
I think it's definitely worth a look, at least as supplementary pumps. They also have a 5 year warranty.
Sonor
Community Member
CA, I was wondering what your tank dimensions are. I'm interested in your use of 2 mp 60's on the tank ends versus 2 mp 40's. Also wondering what speed settings you use. I'm currently using mp 40's.
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ShawnSaucier
Well-Known Member
I’m now up to 4 MP40’s. I have two in the back corners running in Lagoon at 35% and 2 on the sides running tidal swell @ 70%. Not what i really wanted and I still need to do some programming. Tank is 60x30x24 with 3/4” glass
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