Kessil

Gyres: recommendations and LF one (buy, borrow)

richiev

Supporting Member
The icecap 3k I have had a rubber bushing break and it's not working. For the time being I turned it off and turned up my mp40 on the other side of the tank. The replacement bushing should arrive early next week.

In the meantime I'm debating just buying a different one. The icecap is fine, but the hum is not the quietest given it's in my living room.

Anyone have one they recommend and/or want to get rid of? Tank is a Reefer 500 peninsula.

The ReefWave 45 seems to have a lot of good recommendations from people, but I can't tell why in detail versus people saying theirs is good. I'm imagining the LFS have them though. The maxspect 300 series seem also to have similar reviews. Both of those seem to be quiet which is important to me.

I almost bought a jebao, but some reviews imply they're loud. I also don't love the jebao controllers, and the WiFi one I refuse to buy because it has colored impellers and I want equipment to be as hidden as possible and not drawing attention to itself. I like my jebao stuff generally though, and it's very cheap.
 
The icecap 3k I have had a rubber bushing break and it's not working. For the time being I turned it off and turned up my mp40 on the other side of the tank. The replacement bushing should arrive early next week.

In the meantime I'm debating just buying a different one. The icecap is fine, but the hum is not the quietest given it's in my living room.

Anyone have one they recommend and/or want to get rid of? Tank is a Reefer 500 peninsula.

The ReefWave 45 seems to have a lot of good recommendations from people, but I can't tell why in detail versus people saying theirs is good. I'm imagining the LFS have them though. The maxspect 300 series seem also to have similar reviews. Both of those seem to be quiet which is important to me.

I almost bought a jebao, but some reviews imply they're loud. I also don't love the jebao controllers, and the WiFi one I refuse to buy because it has colored impellers and I want equipment to be as hidden as possible and not drawing attention to itself. I like my jebao stuff generally though, and it's very cheap.
The older Jebao cross flows, such as the SCP, have black impellers. I have the older as well as the newer cross flows; I will say that the newer ones are quieter but older ones only had noticeable humming at high speeds.
 
The icecap 3k I have had a rubber bushing break and it's not working. For the time being I turned it off and turned up my mp40 on the other side of the tank. The replacement bushing should arrive early next week.

In the meantime I'm debating just buying a different one. The icecap is fine, but the hum is not the quietest given it's in my living room.

Anyone have one they recommend and/or want to get rid of? Tank is a Reefer 500 peninsula.

The ReefWave 45 seems to have a lot of good recommendations from people, but I can't tell why in detail versus people saying theirs is good. I'm imagining the LFS have them though. The maxspect 300 series seem also to have similar reviews. Both of those seem to be quiet which is important to me.

I almost bought a jebao, but some reviews imply they're loud. I also don't love the jebao controllers, and the WiFi one I refuse to buy because it has colored impellers and I want equipment to be as hidden as possible and not drawing attention to itself. I like my jebao stuff generally though, and it's very cheap.
My jebao scp-120 are dead silent.

They are also complete overkill for a 4' 100g tank.
 
I have 4 of the Maxspect XF350 gyre pumps, that I swap out using two at a time. I am running them on the Hydros WaveEngine (which is great) so can't speak to their stock controller, which I hear is bad.

The pumps move a LOT of water - I am using one on each end of a 72x30x24 tank and it's way more than enough. They are very quiet.

Both the performance and the noise get significantly worse after about 3 months of use, as they like to get cleaned pretty frequently. Definitely more work than cleaning an MP40 wetside, but it's really not the worst process once you are used to it! Out of the 4 pumps, I did have one magnet swell prematurely and go bad. Replaced under warranty - otherwise they've been pretty trouble-free and are a great way to get good gyre-like flow without a ton of pumps.
 
Vortechs.
I have tried most of the Gyre's and have been disappointed with them regarding their long-term viability (never at first.) I've also used several other cheaper powerheads and had good luck with traditional designs, but I prefer the Vortechs because they last for many years and have no cords in the tank.
 
Thanks for the inputs folks. I ended up stopping by Aquatic Collection who had a ReefWave 45 and I bought it. Expensive, but this thing is incredibly quiet. Shockingly so. App setup was straightforward too.

I'm going to keep an eye out for a used Maxspect 3XX which I might throw in my frag tank. The icecap 3k I also might throw in there, but I might relegate that one to water mixing station duty. Seems like a gyre would be absolutely wonderful for that purpose.
 
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