Chinese Wavemakers vs branded Wavemakers...

[Abyss]

My tank is 9ft x 2.5ft x 2.5ft.

I currently have a SunSun 5000 L/H Wavemaker at one end. I feel this is essential for flow and surface agitation.

However, after under 1 year of use, it began to sound like a tank. Upon doing a deep clean, I noticed the ceramic shaft was broken.

Now, what I want to know...are the branded Wavemakers worth it? My local store has a 5000L/H Hydor Koralia 3rd Gen for £63. Are these quieter, more reliable and just generally better?

For the price of a replacement shaft (£8) in my SunSun, I might as well buy a new Wavemaker (£15). This is already my 2nd unit after the first one totally crapped out after a year (and again, sounded like a tank). So I'm beginning to think they're not worth it...but then, I could by at least 4 of these for the price of a branded unit.

What's your opinion? Tank is in the living room, so noise is an important issue.

Thank you.

 

[Abyss]

Also, would I be better with a Powerhead? The main purpose is to promote circulation and oxygen.

 

[Rocksor]

Also, would I be better with a Powerhead? The main purpose is to promote circulation and oxygen.

I say powerhead with airline tubing (e.g. aquaclear powerhead). It would promote circulation, agitate the water's surface, and the added air bubbles will oxygenate the tank even more than a wavemaker that simply disturbs the water's surface.

 

[esoxlucius]

I'd like to think that branded more expensive aquarium gear is going to be more reliable than the cheaper equivalent. Due to the fact that most of the electrical stuff in our tanks is pretty much on 24/7 then reliability is a must.

I realise that even the top end stuff can fail too but by buying a better quality product from the get go i'd like to think i've minimised the risk of failure. It's served me right so far, I haven't had any catastrophic failures leading to tank wipe outs and such.

 

[Gourami Swami]

Honestly I think the Chinese products are fine, possibly less reliable but for the value you can often buy 3 or 4 of the cheaper products for the price of one more expensive one. I've had koralia for years and find they run reliably but get very noisy after a while. I've had a Jebao wavemaker for about 6months now and it is much quieter, comes with full control system which works well, and hasn't given out on me yet. And it was less than half the price of a koralia. I'll be going with jebao in the future.
Though, those MP10s look amazing, just a lot of $$$
I also think you would be fine with a powerhead, just preference

 

[TwoHedWlf]

My tank is 9ft x 2.5ft x 2.5ft.

I currently have a SunSun 5000 L/H Wavemaker at one end. I feel this is essential for flow and surface agitation.

However, after under 1 year of use, it began to sound like a tank. Upon doing a deep clean, I noticed the ceramic shaft was broken.

Now, what I want to know...are the branded Wavemakers worth it? My local store has a 5000L/H Hydor Koralia 3rd Gen for £63. Are these quieter, more reliable and just generally better?

Huh, I always thought Hydor was a cheap chinese brand too. All the hydor stuff I've seen and bought had pretty poor reviews for reliability. But, it's been a while.

 

[Wharf]

imho I would say powerhead for the sheer fact that you can mod it and use it as a swiss army knife of sorts. You can use it to polish temporarily (with easy diy mod), use it as a focused stream in a certain area, as stated above etc. A wavemaker is a novelty, but not truly necessary for FW. I mean you can go out and buy an Apex controller and Echotech vortechs...but I think that money could be more wisely invested in other areas. Do you want more of a focused stream or do you want to push more of the column? I believe if you are pointing it toward the surface a circulation pump loses some of its specificity...and a powerhead might be better. It is however you envision your tank. Imho opinion I would do branded; however, Koralia has changed over that last 20 years or so...they have good years and off years it seems.

There will be people that praise Jebao pumps, especially for their pricing. Imho once again...you get what you pay for. You may get a workhorse, you may get something that works for a week, or you may get an electrical disaster. I find the quality control on the cheaper Chinese pumps are hit and miss. My personal experience with Jebao wavemakers has been subpar at best, others report that they have done amazing and love them. I am only referring to my experience in keeping SW reefs with these pumps.

 

[duanes]

Any pump shaft can be broken by a single grain of sand, it it gets stuck, in the wrong position.
All pumps, power heads, or wave makers do the samp thing, and work on the same principal.
But I prefer attaching a venturi tube to the outflow from my sumps pump, it concentrates flow, and aerates.
In that way I can protect the pump (its shaft and impeller)by surrounding intake with mechanical filtration material, "lessening" the chance some foreign object can get in, and effect or shut down performance.
Below a venturi tube attached to an outflow shooting across a 6 ft tank.

Venturis have no moving parts, but occasional need reaming out, to clear the small aperture .
Below a small venturi tube attached to a protein skimmer

Some powerhead have built in venturis, like the one below

Below an old spa jet venturi I used on a large freshwater protein skimmer.

It also doesn't always simply break the shaft, a simple grain of something can get in, causing the shaft to wobble wearing the entire impeller assembly.

in the shot above the wobble carved a fig 8 in the housing destroying a Mag Drive pump.
and below a snail got caught , wrecking the entire volute.

 

[Abyss]

Thank you for all that information.

Been very helpful.

Definitely some things to think about now I have a good few opinions.

 

[twentyleagues]

For what it's worth I have 4 hydor korila pumps a mini a1 and 2 2s I've had them since I did salt water they still work at 10+ years. I replaced a shaft on 1 and I've had to fix the "stick" that come off the mounting for them to slide on to on all of them. By fix I mean I used jbweld. But they still work.