The Reef Tide and Reef Tide Compact are two new pump models from Tropical Marine Centre which tick a lot of boxes. The Reef Tide pumps are both DC controllable propeller pumps and they have the same motor and specifications.
But TMC’s clever move was to differentiate the two pumps based on their form factor; the Reef Tide pump is very adjustable in terms of angle, while the Reef Tide Compact has a selection of heads for a direct stream or chunky turbulent flow and is great to hide on the side of a weir box or at the back of the tank as it’s vertically mounted.
The estimated retail price for both pumps is £79.99, they are controllable from 1,500 to 6,000 liters per hour and if that’s all they did it would already be a pretty sweet offer. But what we’re really digging about the Reef Tide pumps is a custom controller with four programmable flow modes including a setting to select the wave frequency.
The Reef Tide should be a great choice for reefers who care less about having a low profile pump in the tank and really want to be able to control the direction of the outflow. Meanwhile the Reef Tide Compact takes inspiration from the Tunze NanoStream with the motor and propeller parallel to the glass, using a deflector to guide water out in an arc over the reef scape. The Reef Tide should be the choice for aquarists with SPS corals and zoanthids, while the Reef Tide Compact is more suited to shrooms, soft corals and fleshy LPS corals.
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