I have been keeping aquariums for many years now but just recently I decided to give marines a go. I set about collecting all the apparatus required to maintain a successful tank. My first venture into the salty side comprised of a 3 foot aquarium, which was set up on the cheap! I already had a few power heads, these were then swapped for koralias. My original powerheads were hot, inefficient, unreliable and just plain ugly! Like many other marine aquarists I have now upgraded the tank for which a lot more flow was required. After much deliberation I decided that the Wave Polario 22000 L/H model would suit my needs as it is only £20 more than the smaller 15,000L/H model.
Turnover:
I like Small Polyped Stony (SPS) corals and want my tank to eventually be dominated by these. A guideline of 30-40X turnover in flow is often thrown around when considering these corals, with more being better. On full tilt this pump gives my tank 77X. which when you do the math is overkill. The pump itself is adjustable from 5,500L/H – 22,000 L/H.
My initial first impressions:
Wow this thing is big. Whilst unpacking the pump I made a bit of a blunder, I allowed the two sides of the magnet holder to touch. Not good, if you every purchase one of these pumps be careful not to do the same. It took two people and a screwdriver to prize it apart again. Also be very careful not to let the magnets snap back together again as it can cause quite a nasty injury.
Cables:
When I eventually got round to setting the pump up I discovered that there are three lengths of cable in all. Now there's one thing that really annoys me about this pump, the length of electrical cable, they are very short and there's barely enough to reach the plug sockets! Once the controller and transformer were all plugged in the total length of the wire is just over a metre. As the top of my tank stands at nearly five feet, this caused me a few problems - I do feel they could have given the pump longer cables.
Controller:
The pump controller does look a bit cheap and tacky too me. It has a flow dial which gives no indication on how much flow you are getting. A feeding Mode button is included on the controller pad which can be set to either 8 or 16 mins. This in effect kills the flow to give you time to feed your fish and corals.
First impressions of flow:
It doesn’t half shift some water! This one pump has replaced four powerheads and given me double the flow. I sat back and watched the tank for half hour and I couldn’t see a dead spot at all! Detritus was flying around the tank from every rock. Having had the pump operational for a few weeks now, I have noticed a definite increase in growth from the plating Montipora, whose polyps had never been so extended.
Efficiency:
I haven't noticed a marked increase in heat transferral from the unit directly into my aquarium water, the overall temperature of my aquarium has remained pretty stable. Turning the Polario up to its maximum setting uses about 50W of electricity. This is about double the total wattage my four koralias utilised in my previous set up, but I have to say it does shift more than double the water. So it balances itself out.
Downside:
It’s very loud. It whines as the flow switches from side to side. My tank is in a computer room so this makes no difference to me. But if it were in a more inhabited part of the house then no doubt I would have got fed up with it by now.
Overall assessment:
I’m glad I bought the pump. Its performance is miles better than previous pumps.
It was expensive
I'm happy with it and it is now a vital part of my tank
Star Rating: (out of five)
3.5
It loses marks for noisiness, the plasticy feel to the controller and the size, But what it lacks in those departments it more than makes up for in its performance.