Magnetic Stirrers have not yet become widespread in the aquarium hobby but that’s about to change with a new device from ReefGrow. The new magnetic stirrers from ReefGrow are the first basic stirrers that turn on and off, and don’t need any special interface to get them to work right.
Recent years have seen a few different stirrers offered from ARKA, PacificSun and most recently, GHL. But all of these require a proprietary controller to give them a soft-start function to prevent the stirrer bar from losing magnetic control.
The ReefGrow Magnetic Stirrer is different because it is the first stirrer that you can plug and play, and use with any controller or timer. Furthermore, besides the stirrer bar, the ReefGrow stirrer has no other moving parts.
Instead of using a small DC motor, ReefGrow uses a magnetic motor which is solid state, ensuring quiet operation, long life, and reduced heating of the dosing solution to be stirred. This last point of reduced heat may seem like a small point, but nothing good happens to our calcium or food dosing solutions when they are heated, either accelerating precipitation rates or spoiling chilled foods.
Best of all, ReefGrow Magnetic Stirrers are quite affordable at just $65 for a single magnetic stirrer or about $170 to $180 for the triple unit. The flat black enclosure of the stirrers is somewhat boxy in appearance but as long as the stirrers work and do their job well, it will be a welcome addition to our food and chemical dosing setups.
