So I bought a new XF150. Delivered yesterday.
I set it up temporarily in my fairly empty 100G fuge to test it.
Overall, I have mixed feelings. Works great, but a bit noisy.
First: If you want lots of fancy pictures and stats, go here:
http://www.reef2reef.com/blog/reef-review-the-maxspect-riptide-gyre/
I am too lazy to do all that.
### THE GOOD ###
Fancy packaging. Elegant metal box. Not critical, but a nice touch.
Very small and unobtrusive. I really like that. It is long, but that is not
the side you see. You see the end view, which is really tiny.
It is WAY less visible than the big Mag-7 powerheads it may replace.
At full power, it pushes a LOT of water.
Their spec seems quite believable. I am comparing to dual Mag-7,
and while hard to tell, seems about the same, as it should.
It has a very nice wide linear flow!
You can adjust it nicely to right at the water level, and it is a great stream.
I really like that part.
Gyre really works well. Even better than I expected.
I expected a Gyre of course. But it might be slightly better than similar flow of 2 x Mag-7.
I think the wide and shallow top flow makes a difference over two point flows.
But super hard to measure.
Looks very well built. Came with a few extra bushings.
Easy to program. Decent number of modes. Well thought out.
### THE BAD ###
In my opinion, noise level is very disappointing.
To me, anything over the 60% speed level was not acceptable.
Of course, opinions on that will vary like crazy.
At full speed, it is quite audible, from 10 feet + away.
Much noisier than a Tunze or Koralia.
But far less noisy than a skimmer.
It reminded me a bit of my MP10 when it was not aligned quite right.
At half speed, you could barely hear it.
However:
I will run it for a few days. Perhaps it will break in.
I may try different mounting as well.
I need to try it in the main tank in living room as well.
Minor: Power plug falls out of the controller easily. Needs tape.
The Reverse Gyre mode is marginal at best.
This is where it runs backwards, to reverse the flow.
Well, the impellers don't really work right that way.
Minimal flow. Don't bother.
Expensive of course.
Not all that power efficient, at around 100 GPH/Watt.
That is less than half as efficient as a Mag-7.
Magnets are not bad, but not great.
A bit better than a Koralia, but nothing like the big Tunze ones.
Seems ok though at 1/2 inch. Going 3/4 might be a problem.
Unclear if outside bracket can be submerged. The usual workaround is
to make a bracket inside the tank. That also reduces coupled noise.
### TO DO ###
I want to mess around with noise checking a bit more.
I want to measure the real power usage with a meter.
I need to test in my display tank.
### OVERALL ###
I am not going to return it.
Even at half speed, the small size and good flow has its uses.
But it may not replace all my current powerheads.
I set it up temporarily in my fairly empty 100G fuge to test it.
Overall, I have mixed feelings. Works great, but a bit noisy.
First: If you want lots of fancy pictures and stats, go here:
http://www.reef2reef.com/blog/reef-review-the-maxspect-riptide-gyre/
I am too lazy to do all that.
### THE GOOD ###
Fancy packaging. Elegant metal box. Not critical, but a nice touch.
Very small and unobtrusive. I really like that. It is long, but that is not
the side you see. You see the end view, which is really tiny.
It is WAY less visible than the big Mag-7 powerheads it may replace.
At full power, it pushes a LOT of water.
Their spec seems quite believable. I am comparing to dual Mag-7,
and while hard to tell, seems about the same, as it should.
It has a very nice wide linear flow!
You can adjust it nicely to right at the water level, and it is a great stream.
I really like that part.
Gyre really works well. Even better than I expected.
I expected a Gyre of course. But it might be slightly better than similar flow of 2 x Mag-7.
I think the wide and shallow top flow makes a difference over two point flows.
But super hard to measure.
Looks very well built. Came with a few extra bushings.
Easy to program. Decent number of modes. Well thought out.
### THE BAD ###
In my opinion, noise level is very disappointing.
To me, anything over the 60% speed level was not acceptable.
Of course, opinions on that will vary like crazy.
At full speed, it is quite audible, from 10 feet + away.
Much noisier than a Tunze or Koralia.
But far less noisy than a skimmer.
It reminded me a bit of my MP10 when it was not aligned quite right.
At half speed, you could barely hear it.
However:
I will run it for a few days. Perhaps it will break in.
I may try different mounting as well.
I need to try it in the main tank in living room as well.
Minor: Power plug falls out of the controller easily. Needs tape.
The Reverse Gyre mode is marginal at best.
This is where it runs backwards, to reverse the flow.
Well, the impellers don't really work right that way.
Minimal flow. Don't bother.
Expensive of course.
Not all that power efficient, at around 100 GPH/Watt.
That is less than half as efficient as a Mag-7.
Magnets are not bad, but not great.
A bit better than a Koralia, but nothing like the big Tunze ones.
Seems ok though at 1/2 inch. Going 3/4 might be a problem.
Unclear if outside bracket can be submerged. The usual workaround is
to make a bracket inside the tank. That also reduces coupled noise.
### TO DO ###
I want to mess around with noise checking a bit more.
I want to measure the real power usage with a meter.
I need to test in my display tank.
### OVERALL ###
I am not going to return it.
Even at half speed, the small size and good flow has its uses.
But it may not replace all my current powerheads.
