The Panta Rhei Hydro Wizard is a new flow device which is more of a stealth water jet than an average propeller water pump. The Hydro Wizard is the first carbon fiber reinforced pump we’ve heard of for the aquarium hobby and when you’re pumping 50,000 gallons per hour, you need that kind of strength to bear the intense forces. It’s not just the sheer volume of water it pushes but the Hydro Wizard can pulse from 0-100% ‘instantaneously’ to produce huge wave effects. The Hydro Wizard controller can do just about any pattern of flow you desire which is easily reprogrammed by hot swapping an SD card from the Hydro Wizard’s controller.
What’s most impressive about the Hydro wizard is not how much flow it produces, or how versatile it is, but how little energy it consumes while doing so. The Hydro Wizard consumes just under 350 watts so it delivers somewhere around 140 gph per watt. For public aquariums that normally use pumps pulling tens of amps of current, replacing conventional pumps with the Hydro Wizard could translate into huge energy savings in the long run. By Panta Rhei’s accounting you’d need a pump using ten times more energy to match the output of the Hydro Wizard which is a savings of about 30,000 Kwh per year.
The Hydro Wizard with all it’s bells and whistles will set you (or more likely your local public aquarium) back 3600 Euros, or about $4800 before shipping. But fear not ye home aquarium reefers and reefettes because the Hydro Wizard exists in a smaller, more manageable version, the Hydro Wizard Medium. The Hydro Wizard Medium will push 12,000 gph while only consuming 90 watts, and it will become available in the fall for around $700-800.
Anyone wishing to purchase or learn more about the Hydro Wizard pumps are encouraged to contact Oliver Lucanus via email: (fish at belowwater dot com). More pictures and a video of the Hydro Wizard after the break.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”385″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi60Z5fEJ6o[/youtube]
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