Return Pump for 40g breeder

Age_of_Aquarius · Nov 15, 2021

Hello I am trying to decide on a return pump for my soon to be 40g reef tank. My LFS is recommending an Aquatop MaxFlow DC pump and from my own research the slightly pricier Reef octopus varios 2. Which would you go with here?

Quietman · Nov 15, 2021

50/50...probably Varios because I've heard of them and Red Octopus more than Aquatop.

If you want to consider something else, I'd highly recommend going with a Sicce Silent 2.0. It's cheaper and reliable (AC has it over DC on reliability by quite a bit). Typically we don't vary return flow so no need to pay for that feature. My Sicce 2.0 was very quiet with a pad below and soft tubing to connect.

Age_of_Aquarius · Nov 15, 2021

Quietman said:
50/50...probably Varios because I've heard of them and Red Octopus more than Aquatop.

If you want to consider something else, I'd highly recommend going with a Sicce Silent 2.0. It's cheaper and reliable (AC has it over DC on reliability by quite a bit). Typically we don't vary return flow so no need to pay for that feature. My Sicce 2.0 was very quiet with a pad below and soft tubing to connect.

I have heard good things about that pump (Sicca). The only reason I had considered DC was because of the internet telling me DC is much quieter than AC. The tank is going in my living room , so I want the absolute most quiet pump possible. What say you!?

Quietman · Nov 15, 2021

My RSR170 is in my living room, I heard more from the little Eheim CompactON1000 (264 gph) that I use for my RAIN2 ATS and the DC skimmer before that.

When the pumps get larger, the AC hum becomes much more noticeable especially for higher head pumps. And they do require a bit of sound insulation (the pad and soft rubber connector to piping).

Some folks are more sensitive to that 60 cycle hum than others. To me it's just a very faint background noise that I have to concentrate hard to hear over everything else running. I never heard anyone comment on it.

Now to be honest, there is a difference in noise, but it's not volume but more in type. A flow noise versus a soft hum if you will.

A compromise for you might be doing what I ended up doing. I use the Sicce 2.0 as a back up pump now since I retired it from return pump duty last year. I had to get a variable flow pump to support my UV filter (had dinos and needed all the flow to go through that at higher rate that the Sicce couldn't support. Plus with UV there's high flow and low flow to adjustable DC made sense).

The pump I got you might like. It's the Tunze 1703.05 Re-circulation Silence Pump. It's a little tank for a DC pump and comes with Tunze name. Much cheaper than Eco-Tech S2 and comparable to Sicce SDC 3.0 (which wasn't available when got my Tunze).