Do you like the abyzz or panta rhei pump more?
It's going to depend on the size of the tank. 600g or less and the Abyzz is too strong. 400g and Up the Panta Rhei is a much more gentle flow.
Both pumps are crazy powerful, and even in a 750g unless you want them highly visible, which I don't, they need room to allow them to do their job. In a 10' tank the Abyzz at 70% Power pushes so hard that after it hits the far wall, goes around the 4' width, and then turns around and comes back down 10' to where the pump is - 24' of water movement - will lay the polyps of a Hammer, Duncan, Gorg right over.
To try to keep the pumps less visible I have them on the back walls of the tank facing forward. So they only go 4' and then hit a wall. Not the ideal setup, but I just don't want them hanging on the front sides of the tank.
The mounting system on the Abyzz is far superior and stronger. The Abyzz uses a big pancake magnet. The Panta Rhei used 3 small round magnets - that are independent. Without 2 people, and even then, it's impossible to mount the Panta Rhei without the magnets flying around and inevitably pinching your flesh.
The Abyzz has a 'strainer' built as part of the pump casing. The Panta Rhei has an open design. I've run Tunze Streams and stream 3's for over a decade without prop gaurds or cages and never seen a chopped fish. The Panta Rhei is like a fish dice-o-matic. Which means you need to buy the basket cage - which makes it quite a big physically larger than even the Abyzz.
Both have complex controllers and neither one is super intuitive. It takes some fiddling to get things they want you want. I am able to navigate the Abyzz faster and with more ease.
By the time you add the Magnet holder - a $180 part (which is $3 in plastic) which holds the 3 magnets so they don't crush your skin or go into the hemisphere everytime you try to move the pump. And the $350 basket strainer, then I think the price on the 2 is pretty darn close.
Both are silent up till about 90%. Then the Panta makes a slight bit more noise - I am super sensitive to noise. Most people don't hear either pump - but I do. In my tank in flow mode neither pump can run full flow at 100% - they are too strong and I have too many LPS an tentacles just start floating around the tank.
In wave mode I can run the Abyzz up to 100% in the pulse. If I run the Panta to 100% when pulsing you can hear the pump whirring.
I have not used the reverse feature of the Panta Rhei.
I am doing some pump testing and have (2) of both pumps at the moment for a project. I have all the pumps on timers. They don't run constantly and they are all on a different sequence. So the flow may be 0 pumps or 3 at any given time. Both pumps have a feature to start in a "Pause" Position that requires you to manually start the pump. Both pumps have the option to automatically start the pump when the controller turns on. The Panta Rheis, both of them randomly revert back to the 'Push Button To Start' default. We have 2 different firmwarese and 2 different vers of the controller software and both do the same thing. Which means every few days I have to look and see if the pump is running.
If you have a 400g + tank then either pump is a good choice. If you have over 1200g then the Abyzz are definitely the better choice - They move more water farther. If you have a smaller sized tank Below 650g then the Panta may be a better choice.
Oh and the Abyzz has a hideous neon orange power cord going to the pump. Impossible to hide. So I bought off
Amazon some black silicone tubing, slit it with a razor and slipped it over the orange to make it less noticeable.
Comparing either of these pumps to something like a Jebao, Tunze Stream (not Tunze Master Stream) or an Eco Tech is like comparing sailboats and offshore power boats -- they are a totally different class of machine and are not equals in any manner.
Dave B
