The Tunze Stream 3 is the company’s most efficient and reliable pump to date by introducing a number of new improvements to their propeller pump design and technology. The Stream 3 is unlike any pump currently on the market both in its form and in its function, and it culminates into an incredibly efficient and reliable pump that Tunze claims will “never break”.
The reason for Tunze’s exceedingly high level of confidence in the Stream 3 is that it uses a completely new magnetic levitation technology to prevent the entire length of the pump’s rotor from touching the sides of the stator. Precisely aligned magnets has eliminated all contact between the pump’s primary moving part, with the only contact surface being constructed of a diamond-hard zirconium oxide bearing.
The extra long body of the Stream 3 also makes it quite slender so that it can be placed behind rockwork and aquascapes with an available deflector to ‘curve’ water flow up and over or around the aquascape, much like the nanostream 6020 and 6040. However unlike those Nano-Stream pumps, the Stream 3 is actually quite a beast, cranking out a respectable 15,000 liters per hour, or 3962 gph.
Despite its powerful flow rate, the Stream 3 is not just kind-of silent, it is completely silent. With virtually no moving surfaces touching, the Stream 3 doesn’t just have no rubbing of the impeller inside the pump body, there is also no vibration to transfer to the tank glass either, making this pump one of the most living-room-approved water pumps ever introduced to the aquarium hobby.
The lack of contact between the pumps’ moving parts also makes it quite efficient as it draws just 50 watts of power total when running at its maximum flow speed. Of course the Tunze Stream 3 is a good card carrying DC controllable water pump and is adjustable down to 660 gallons per hour, and it is externally controllable by 3rd party and its own new Smart Controller 7000.
Tunze is so confident in its new pump design that is has introduced a five year warranty on the Stream 3 pump, which it thinks will be of great value to owners. There is a built in LED micro-indicator which has two tiny red diodes to help diagnose any kind of problems, and another row of blue LEDs which will be turned on to display the ‘life’ of the pump in binary.
Tunze has really taken a quantum leap in the design of the Tunze Stream 3 pump and we’re pretty confident that users will enjoy a very long and trouble free experience with this next generation of Tunze Stream propeller pumps. The only thing that may throw off some potential buyers at first is the unconventional form factor and orientation of the Stream 3 for some display aquarium application.
However you will still be able to mount the pump ‘axially’ in applications where the pump is well hidden, and for this an accessory Stream 3 Rock will also be available to further camouflage the pump within the aquarium display. It’s exciting to see some truly big leaps in design and technology in the aquarium space with the new Stream 3 pump from Tunze, which will cost an estimated $345 when it is released later this year.
