Which affordable wave maker should I get

[ORReefer]

This is a great question! I'm not sure I know the answer to which "affordable wave maker". but so far (a little less than 6 months) my Jebao CP-90, which is very affordable, is working great but I have no delusions that it will last as long as the pumps it tries to emulate. I also ordered a Jabao SOW-8 and SOW-20 to replace other pumps that have died during this current situation. Both got sent back as they kept stopping and/or getting stuck. Quality control is a major issue for Jebao. In my experience buying from them is a gamble. Get a good one... yay, get a bad one... bummer - especially if it's outside of the return period of the retailer you purchased from! I look forward to seeing what others here think are better "affordable wave maker" pumps. Continue reading for some of my thoughts on the ethics (as mentioned by other posters) of buying Jebao...

I'm not a lawyer but here's my two dollars (this is too long for 2 cents). I do not feel great about buying the CP-90 Jebao (see next paragraph for why I did). I don't feel that it's an exact duplicate of a Maxspect, Red Sea or Ice Cap gyre pump. But it's my understanding that it is pretty close to the Maxspect with not many changes/innovations from the original, beyond price (thus my not feeling good about the purchase). As stated above, that lower price comes at the cost of quality of materials, construction, and lack of good quality control. However, I do wonder if it would be possible for Maxspect to produce a similar lower cost product? I'm not suggesting they produce a shoddy product but rather a more affordable "good quality" gyer (as opposed to excellent quality). Not everyone in this hobby is in a position to spend several hundred dollars for essential equipment.

I wanted to buy a Maxspect/Red Sea gyre pump (the Ice Cap was the closest to my budget but the cost was still to high). Given my current circumstances I wasn't able to spend that kind of money. 1. Low cash availability due to a certain well-known world-wide event. 2. Broken pump with no backups available (times were tough before the current situation otherwise I would have had the needed backup pump on hand). It was tough for me to do it but I was faced with the choice to either get the Jebao gyre, which I could afford, or let the animals and corals in my tank suffer. I had other pumps still running in that tank and was not completely without flow but we could see corals going down hill and other concerning effects on the health of the tank. It's scary how fast things degrade with the loss of one pump. Algae and other unwanted growth were observed with increasing persistence over the course of several weeks as I tried to find a flow solution that would work while I tried to save up money. Eventually things got to the point where I felt I couldn't wait any longer so I bought the Jebao CP-90. I have and do use some of the more traditional pumps/power heads in this tank (Hydor Koralia). However, with those kinds of pumps alone I kept getting algae and other unwanted growth. I felt for my tank, the replacement needed to be a gyer pump in order to protect the health of the animals under my care. When my situation allows I hope to get a pump I can feel better about.

 

[MartinWaite]

In over 35 years of reefkeeping I've had pretty much most wavemakers there is out there ecotech we're the biggest disappointment of them all for the price. I had to replace the wetside due to a snail venturing where it shouldn't have been and within 6 months of buying it I threw the full wavemaker in the bin as the new impeller shaft that's coated in a plastic had broken up as the shift was rusting. You'd think for the excessive cost of these wavemakers they would use decent materials that are suitable for their use. There is several people all had similar problems with their ecotech wavemakers the other thing with them is they aren't directional they only pump straight ahead.
Hydor I've had and they didn't last they were not 24 volt and I was using their wave plug which switches the wavemakers on and off with a timer and AC pumps don't like being knocked on and off so they all ended up in the bin bar one that's laying around in the garage.
Sicce I had 30 years ago and they were a great pump I only gave them away 10 years ago as I wanted something more controllable and smaller and they were getting old but the price of them puts me off.
I've had loads of the cheap and cheerful ones from ebay and they don't last.
Jabao /Jecod I now use they may have some trade impingement issues but if it's that's big of a deal why doesn't the government ban the import of Chinese goods and how come they can make them for less than half or even a third the price of the original manufacturer who in some cases is still making them in China. Maxspect gyre being an example have sold the design on to icecap and Red Sea who manufacture under licence the exact same wavemaker don't get me wrong I like and I prefer the gyre style wavemaker over others they are by nature 2 wavemakers in 1 unit as you can direct either side independently and they cover a larger area of the tank than any other. They can be sited vertically or horizontal depending upon how you want to site them. At the moment I have 4 SW15 (if I remember correctly) in my tank but I plan to replace them with 2 gyre wavemakers soon. The SW15's I got as Jabao were updating the models and I couldn't find any and my old wavemakers were to small for the upgrade. I fully intend to get a pair gyre wavemakers soon but in the mean time I'll stick with 4 multi directional Jabao SW15's I have they have all the flow patterns of any other and don't even look like any other so not sure which copyright they are supposed to have broken.
Tunze is about the only wavemaker I've never owned there isn't many about in the north west of the UK.
I'll be sticking with jabao /jacod I've always gotten good use out of any of their products and not had any problems with them. Quite a few protein skimmers are/were powered by rebadged Jabao /Jacod pumps. At the end of the day the hobby is expensive enough without paying way over the top just to have a name without the scope of other similar cheaper products.

 

[DancingWind]

Jebao pumps are not great if you want to use and coordinate more than 2 in alternating mode.
Battery back up - any dc pump can be easily and cheaply pluged into a diy battery solution customised to your needs. BOM: 1 relay, batteries of your choice, dc connectors matching pump's, battery tender, wire.
As for reliability ... buy 1 from multiple stores to get different batches. I have 5 for almost 1year. 1 died so far. @~55eur per powerhead I'm fine with that.
I bought 2 10000l/h DC return pumps (adjustable in 1% steps) for 200eur. 1 in tank running 24/7 (just need to clean every couple of months), the other is backup/water change.
Say what you want but jebao is good value - especially for a nano where 1-2 small jebaos would be plenty.

As for "stealing technology" .. its a pump ... its a microcontroller controlled pump. There is nothing really that innovative about it. Just more robust to handle saltwater - Otherwise it would be a completely generic product.
Now fancy controllers that drive the pumps will have proprietary software .. but jebao does not steal that.
the only innovative pump that jebao 'stole' is gyre ... and to be honest the only innovative thing about it is to make impeller bigger.

 

[DancingWind]

delete (wrong button)

 

[Bdrizzle]

Coralife makes a nice little wave maker specifically for their biocube 29 or 32. I have it in mine and it's perfect. It was only $33

 

[Snuggs]

Jeboa has done fine by me. bought a pair of PP4 when I first set up my tank to save a little money. Had intended to upgrade when they died. That was 4 years ago. Still going strong! I fact now that I have a second tank I invested in the slw series. Couldn’t be happier

 

[reefiniteasy]

Aqamai KPS is amazing at $120. WiFi controllable from your phone. It’s amazing. I have one in my 16 gallon BioCube.

 

[Amado]

So the way I see it jebao products are needed in this hobby. They are good for someone starting a tank that doesn’t want to spend ecotech money. You can buy a $40 40 gallon breeder Add a jebao pump $60 and a black light($99) and someone can start a salt water tank for reasonable $$. Telling people they need to pay $300 for a ecotech pump and two $400 eco tech light is crazy.

Maxspect gyre licensed the gyre trade mark to ice cap so that they can provide a lower cost gyre. They are both Owned by coralvue

Maxspect also licensed the gyre to Red Sea.
They changed a few things but at the end of the it’s all the same thing.

Apple can sell you a $1000 iPad with all the bells and whistle but they also make a $299 iPad that runs the same program.

Where are the low price ecotech products?

 

[schooncw]

Get the Tunze that you can afford! Quality and small size.

 

[BKLYN651]

Eheim

 

[ORReefer]

Eheim

What model is that?

 

[HaveFishWillTravel]

This is a great question! I'm not sure I know the answer to which "affordable wave maker". but so far (a little less than 6 months) my Jebao CP-90, which is very affordable, is working great but I have no delusions that it will last as long as the pumps it tries to emulate. I also ordered a Jabao SOW-8 and SOW-20 to replace other pumps that have died during this current situation. Both got sent back as they kept stopping and/or getting stuck. Quality control is a major issue for Jebao. In my experience buying from them is a gamble. Get a good one... yay, get a bad one... bummer - especially if it's outside of the return period of the retailer you purchased from! I look forward to seeing what others here think are better "affordable wave maker" pumps. Continue reading for some of my thoughts on the ethics (as mentioned by other posters) of buying Jebao...

I'm not a lawyer but here's my two dollars (this is too long for 2 cents). I do not feel great about buying the CP-90 Jebao (see next paragraph for why I did). I don't feel that it's an exact duplicate of a Maxspect, Red Sea or Ice Cap gyre pump. But it's my understanding that it is pretty close to the Maxspect with not many changes/innovations from the original, beyond price (thus my not feeling good about the purchase). As stated above, that lower price comes at the cost of quality of materials, construction, and lack of good quality control. However, I do wonder if it would be possible for Maxspect to produce a similar lower cost product? I'm not suggesting they produce a shoddy product but rather a more affordable "good quality" gyer (as opposed to excellent quality). Not everyone in this hobby is in a position to spend several hundred dollars for essential equipment.

I wanted to buy a Maxspect/Red Sea gyre pump (the Ice Cap was the closest to my budget but the cost was still to high). Given my current circumstances I wasn't able to spend that kind of money. 1. Low cash availability due to a certain well-known world-wide event. 2. Broken pump with no backups available (times were tough before the current situation otherwise I would have had the needed backup pump on hand). It was tough for me to do it but I was faced with the choice to either get the Jebao gyre, which I could afford, or let the animals and corals in my tank suffer. I had other pumps still running in that tank and was not completely without flow but we could see corals going down hill and other concerning effects on the health of the tank. It's scary how fast things degrade with the loss of one pump. Algae and other unwanted growth were observed with increasing persistence over the course of several weeks as I tried to find a flow solution that would work while I tried to save up money. Eventually things got to the point where I felt I couldn't wait any longer so I bought the Jebao CP-90. I have and do use some of the more traditional pumps/power heads in this tank (Hydor Koralia). However, with those kinds of pumps alone I kept getting algae and other unwanted growth. I felt for my tank, the replacement needed to be a gyer pump in order to protect the health of the animals under my care. When my situation allows I hope to get a pump I can feel better about.

I think that was a great analysis. You acquired the pump that did the job it needed to do at the time, given the circumstances. Maybe, not your optimal situation, but what you did was absolutely the right thing to do. You put the animals lives first. IMHO, that is what is of utmost importance. Thank you for sharing the situation. There are a lot of us out here in similar situations. We can all dream of a totally ECOTech driven tank, but it’s not reality for most and seriously not preferred by many.

 

[WilliamBowman]

For the price, Jebao is unbeatable. The wavemakers in my local fish store are about $150/pump and $150/controller, this one is a fraction of the cost and works fantastic

 

[Anchor]

Sicce Voyageur Nanostream pumps.. $35 each for 530 gph and one Sicce wave surfer controller at about $90. so for about 160 you get 2 pumps with a really long warranty (3 to 5 years) Reputable, reliable, not expensive and suitable to your tank size. No bigger than the Jebao. I have had a few Jebao pumps.. they work or they dont.. You get to be the one to find out. Not like anyone is going to back a failure with those. Cheap junk in my experience.

 

[Anchor]

Here is the controller info.. Has 2 plug ins for pumps and knob controls.. I pulled this off BRS See the line in Red!..

• Simulates real ocean currents
• Easy to program for trouble free operation without computers or power controllers
• Create multiple currents from different directions
• Feeding Mode - temporarily suspend flow for 4 minutes during feeding time
• Night Mode - 8 hour program to simulate less water movement typical of night currents
• Alternate or Synchronous flow mode
• Compatible with any recirculation and stream pump up to 100 watts total for each of the two outlets
• Waterproof cable connection for added safety
• 3 Year Warranty

If 530 is too big, they also make a 270 GPH pump model. And they run around 3 watts?

 

[ORReefer]

Sicce Voyageur Nanostream pumps.. $35 each for 530 gph and one Sicce wave surfer controller at about $90. so for about 160 you get 2 pumps with a really long warranty (3 to 5 years) Reputable, reliable, not expensive and suitable to your tank size. No bigger than the Jebao. I have had a few Jebao pumps.. they work or they dont.. You get to be the one to find out. Not like anyone is going to back a failure with those. Cheap junk in my experience.

I've looked at the Sicce Voyager pumps as a potential replacements for my Hydor Koralia pumps but it looks like the Voyager pumps are significantly larger than the Hydors. Does anyone have experience with both that can give a size comparison. I am interested in a quality pump with good flow but also don't want by such large pumps that they detract from the view. One thing I really like about the gyre pumps is they are pretty low profile.

 

[Anchor]

I've looked at the Sicce Voyager pumps as a potential replacements for my Hydor Koralia pumps but it looks like the Voyager pumps are significantly larger than the Hydors. Does anyone have experience with both that can give a size comparison. I am interested in a quality pump with good flow but also don't want by such large pumps that they detract from the view. One thing I really like about the gyre pumps is they are pretty low profile.

Have had hydors and Jebao.. The Nano is sligthly smaller.. Are you considering he only needs them for a 29 gallon cube?

In fact a single one would work good here..

 

[ORReefer]

Have had hydors and Jebao.. The Nano is sligthly smaller.. Are you considering he only needs them for a 29 gallon cube?

Sorry, I was thinking about my tank (55g). But yes if those pumps are as large as I think they are he should consider how the Sicce Voyager pumps will affect the view.

 

[Anchor]

Sorry, I was thinking about my tank (55g). But yes if those pumps are as large as I think they are he should consider how the Sicce Voyager pumps will affect the view.

Yes, in general the Sicce are bigger than most choices, this is one that I have personal knowledge of.. There really is no discernable size difference from my experience.

I dont wanna hijack this guys post though.. Maybe start a post of your own on that very question.. maybe give a budget limit..

 

[Anchor]

Found this one on Amazon. cannot vouch for quality though.. Small pump with a set up similar to the Nero. but really small. WIder flow patter I am thinking.