kyley
Active Member
Someone asked me about my opinion on the two (in another thread) as I'm using both. So I thought I'd share my experience:
At first, I preferred the IceCap 3k gyre (for a lot of flow in a wide path and a much lower cost). The gyre can also be close to coral (as you can see on the right side of my tank) without blasting one piece with too much concentrated flow. But after using it for awhile, the gyre is more challenging to clean, can get really noisy (it's much quieter after I cleaned it), and I don't like that it takes up so much space inside the tank (making it more unsightly and interfering with placements of frag racks on the side).
The MP40 is too much flow focused directly in front of it, so it can't be placed too close to corals. But it's so quiet, such a clean look, and I found it's also using much less power than the gyre (at 80%, the gyre was using 35 watts according to my Apex, while the MP40 is about 18 watts or so at similar power). I'm thinking about replacing the gyre with an MP10 on the right side - or an MP40 and keeping it lower power (but that's a waste of money if I don't need that much flow on that side). The gyre is probably better for the right side of my tank. But since it takes up so much space (and then I could get one WXM to control both MP pumps), it might be better to have two MP pumps. Cheers,
--Kyle
At first, I preferred the IceCap 3k gyre (for a lot of flow in a wide path and a much lower cost). The gyre can also be close to coral (as you can see on the right side of my tank) without blasting one piece with too much concentrated flow. But after using it for awhile, the gyre is more challenging to clean, can get really noisy (it's much quieter after I cleaned it), and I don't like that it takes up so much space inside the tank (making it more unsightly and interfering with placements of frag racks on the side).
The MP40 is too much flow focused directly in front of it, so it can't be placed too close to corals. But it's so quiet, such a clean look, and I found it's also using much less power than the gyre (at 80%, the gyre was using 35 watts according to my Apex, while the MP40 is about 18 watts or so at similar power). I'm thinking about replacing the gyre with an MP10 on the right side - or an MP40 and keeping it lower power (but that's a waste of money if I don't need that much flow on that side). The gyre is probably better for the right side of my tank. But since it takes up so much space (and then I could get one WXM to control both MP pumps), it might be better to have two MP pumps. Cheers,
--Kyle
