20 Best Dosing Pump Reef Tank (2023 Updated)

This doesn’t a quality product that could prevent siphon effect. No matter what you do, how much you calibrate, how long you try to make it work; it will either do back or forward siphon effect, one will cause not dosing at all, the other one will dose the entire container; choose your treat.

Do not buy, this made me lose 4 hours from my life, and will cause another 1 hour to pack and return. This product can’t and shouldn’t pass a QA.

I’ve been using this dosing pump for a year, I did have a problem with it and turned out the PSU was the fault apart from that it’s been good. To have this dosing daily it needs to be set to 0 days and it’s been fine since I have received the replacement PSU for this dosing pump, I would recommend this to anyone as you don’t need a app to set it up.

I have added a picture to show you how I have my dosing pump setup.

Wish I brought 1 years ago. A couple for issues but easily sorted. I use for dosing Fertiliser, and liquid Co2. Giving 3 doses. First dose 1 hour after lights come on, then at 2 hour intervals. Plants seem to be doing much better like this.

Instead of a 1 hit dose, and I don’t have to there to do it. First issue was air being pulled into the tubes by pump. Fixed with 4 small zip ties, where tubes connect to pump. Second issue, was liquid flowing back into containers.

Fixed with 4mm sprung windscreen washer Non-return valve. (a very tight fit). No need for zip ties, just a cup of hot water.

Good quality low price budget dosing pump set up. So far this pump set up has proven reliable. I dose liquid fertilisers and liquid carbon daily into a freshwater tropical aquarium. And for this it’s proven invaluable.

The unit is lightweight and as can be seen from the photo I have used Velcro strips to secure it to the top of the aquarium cupboard. All in all I am very happy with the pump setup.

I bought this as a replacement for the Fluval Flex 57 litre, being as it’s the same pump. The flow is good, but the pp does suffer from vibration, which leads to noise. I wanted to have the tank in my bedroom, well it’s far too noisy for this, so it’s gone into the spares box.

Still waiting for it to come have emailed but yet to get a reply

Great replacement and was easy to swap out for the existing one that wasn’t functioning correctly.

I just installed a pair on a 30 gallon 3ft “quarantine tank” in a guest room. I had used the tank for quarantine for stocking my 250 gallon DP. I have not lost a fish in 8 years and have had no new residents in the QT.

So my wife suggested setting up a little tank. I was surprised at how small these pumps are but using the sicce wave surfer the pumps produce a nice water movement. Any larger tank would require bigger pumps.

If you need a lot of movement for SPS coral I would order something bigger. The quality is obvious, the cords are long about 8 feet and having gone through a lot of cheap powerheads I have a good feeling about these.

The pumps are almost silent but they do make a clicking noise when they cycle on and off. I will likely set them to constant run if any guests are bothered. But I gave them a five and am happy with the purchase.

Sicce makes quality stuff and they come with a three year warranty.

I have two of these pumps hooked up to a Wave Surfer in my Biocube 32. They are small pumps and create a good amount of flow for LPS in this size of aquarium. However, they do make some noise when cycling “on” every five minutes and one of them keeps working loose on its mount.

The mount presses into the rear of the pump body. The mount also contains the shaft that the propeller spins on. As the mount gets jarred by the pump cycling on and off, it slowly works itself away from the mount, creating excessive noise.

It is to the point now where I need to press the pump body back in place daily. That being said, the other pump doesn’t give me as much difficulty. The magnets are plenty strong for my application.

I wasn’t always as good about pump maintenance as I’ve become in the last year. However, this pump keeps on going. In pervious years I’d open it up to calcium coated magnets, etc. But just clean it up with critic acid once in a while and it returns to band new performance and it’s silent.

I run it at the same speed all the time (return pump), but this pump has a lot of useful features for the money. Having the power draw displayed on the control unit is very useful. Power draw starts fluctuating on a really dirty pump, you get this gross information without “feeling” the flow, etc.

It also has many different useful modes. Nothing better for the money, or even close that I’ve seen.

Small but mighty! Originally said it doesnt push water like it says it does, however I discovered I had dwarf cerith snails lodged in my return line barb elbow slowing down the flow. After replacing the barb with a larger one I had to turn the flow down to keep from over flowing the display section.

If you are looking for a small pump with a lot of power look no further!.

Pretty much what the reviewer said, Everything was going fine, and then I get this error code e5, completely shutting off the pump and making it useless. All I did was unplug it, plug it back in and the display screen failed (doesnt show anything) and the pump is not working.

The AC Adapter even shows the green light letting you know its powering something. Its been LESS THAN a month. I had to order a new one ASAP through Amazon just now (Expedited Shipping) as BRS did not have it in stock.

So over all Im kind of disappointed. Im hoping it will turn on later tonight When I plug it in again, but I had to order one right away just in case. I may try finding another Return Pump with flow valves that have better rotation to them.

Im currently running two Powerheads in my Fusion 20G hoping that they will create enough water movement and gas exchange until Monday. Ill probably do a slight water change tomorrow as well.

I upgraded my Cube 10 pump to the SICCE Syncra Nano after receiving my Cube 10. The Cube 10 pump was extremely loud all the time. It sounded like it was grinding rocks no matter how I positioned it and made sure there were no air bubbles or contact with the sides.

After contacting support they recommended this pump so I ordered the Syncra Nano and the problem was solved! It is super quiet, I can’t even hear the pump. It has a variable flow adjustment and is very powerful for such a little pump.

The pump that came with the Cube 10 was variable but even on the highest setting, it was not creating enough flow for my planted tank. The Syncra Nano adjustment is very easy with a dial knob and once adjusted the flow is excellent.

If you are buying a Cube 10, upgrade the pump immediately to this little workhorse. You won’t be disappointed. I would also recommend that Waterbox consider scrapping the SICCE pump that comes with the Cube 10 and instead include this pump and maybe up the cost of the Cube 10 slightly to offset the cost.

I bought a 50gallon all-in-one to start my reefing adventure. It’s been a slow start since I’m following BRS’s 5 minute guides as an outline. One thing I just wasn’t sure about was the racket coming from the return pumps that came with my tank.

I was working on cable routing and water lines and disconnected them one by one and noticed how freaking quiet the room was. I had grown accustomed to the noise! I decided to read up and see what people recommended for small pumps sized for my aquarium’s needs and pulled the trigger on these Sicce ones.

Fantastic. Night and day. I hope they stay this way. Cheers and thanks for the advice folk!.

Great adjustability and almost completely silent which is a must is our living area only a few feet from where we sit to watch tv and read. I did not dream a pump with this kind of flow capability could be near silent.

Have bought several Sicce pumps for different applications since my first one I got from waterbox. What a great combination.

So I dropped my Versa in my sump setting up a new Red Sea S1000 this weekend and as everyone knows there is an issue of some sort with Ecotech manufacturing these pumps so I bought a Reef Dose 2. I initially bought a Versa bc I have Ecotech lights and pumps and had read the reviews in here being so horrible with the reef dose.

I just finished setting it up and happy to report I did not experience any major issues. Honestly the set up was easier and the software is also easier than the Ecotech Mobius app. I did have an issue when I connect to the doser my phone wants to keep connecting to my home network.

Once I figured that out it went smoothly. I would recommend forgetting your home network before you set this is up to avoid that issue. I cant comment on its longevity yet but set up was a breeze for me.

I picked on of these up from Coralvue as soon as they were released. I installed it to feed my Korallin Biodenitrator which does not even need a pump to function if you choose to set up a gravity feed off of the circulation pump as I did for over 4 years.

So, why would I spend the money for this pump then? If you have any experience with nitrate reactors, then you will know that the flow rate control on a nitrate reactor is the biggest drawback to this otherwise amazing maintenance reducing nutrient solution.

Usually you are trying to dial in a drip rate with some kind of valve, pinch or mini-ball, both of which are not exactly precise tools, or maintain a very specific ORP (-100 to -250 with -170 being ideal) inside the reactor.

You think you have your reactor dialed in and then your parameters get out of range and you discover that your effluent has become clogged with salt creep or some other debris. This can be very frustrating and lead many to abandon the cause in favor of additional water changes or other consumable options like biopellets.

With this pump, I have been able to dial in the flow rate that suits my system and have the knowledge that the flow rate is true to measure. I also no longer have any effluent clogging issues due to the pump being installed on the inlet side of the reactor.

This setup allows for any salt build up or debris to be cleared by pressure as the pump will feed at a continuous rate regardless of any other conditions that would otherwise cause issues with other feed methods.

I was also able to calibrate this pump to compensate for the head pressure of my installation. I measured for the calibration at the point of discharge about 36″ above the pump and adjust the calibration by measuring the output at that point.

So I know that the display correctly represents the output at my specific head pressure placed on the pump output. This is worlds better then constantly guessing with other simple valves, yet at a price that is well justified when compared the the pharmaceutical pump options that others have used to solve these same issues.

This solution brings a whole new meaning to having your equipment “dialed in”. I am most impressed, and would recommend this product.

I have had the pump now for over 6 months on my calcium reactor. The pump works like a champ (and is very consistent), but recently the hose developed a very small leak due to a small hole due to wear.

I would have given it 5 stars if it had lasted a little longer. Luckily replacement parts are readily available and were only $6. Make sure to buy replacement parts so you have them on hand just in case.

Great addition to my reef tank. Is very silent and small. I was having trouble with alk stability when teeing off a manifold to feed the Calc reactor. So I went ahead and bought this. I set it up to pull water out from my ca-reactor at 75ml/min.

Alk level barely moves from test to test after dialing it down. Has been running for two months now.

I tried two of the down low behind my rock work to get some flow there. It seemed like one or the other had stopped working almost every time I checked on them. They were more than a month old and were not dirty.

I would fish them out of the tank, fiddle with them a little and they would run for a few days and stop again. I started looking around the forums and this is not uncommon evidently. The inherent flaw in them is that the motor is so small and week that they can’t overcome even the least amount of detritus or a grain of sand.

I don’t take the time to do a lot of reviews but wanted to step up and help someone else from throwing away their money on these pumps.

Recently purchasing 2 small pumps for a nano, the tunze 6020 was one of my choices. Having 3 pumps in a 10 gallon tank required careful consideration of the power consumption (I don’t have a chiller).

Using only 4 watts is this pumps primary selling point. The flow pattern is dispersed and as others have stated is not deflected quite enough. The pump does put out more noise than I expected as well (even with the rubber isolation feet supplied it is louder than my skimmer).

One thing to note is that upon startup, the impeller may begin turning the wrong direction (yup its AC with a true impeller. not a like a centrifugal pump), and the pump was designed to correct the rotation with small bumpers that stop the impeller and bounce it back in the counter direction.

This process creates a noticeable chattering sound when it occurs at startup. would definitely not recommend this pump to be used with any sort of wave maker.

Pros: – quiet (like any DC pump) – nice flow control (like any DC pump) – float switch – good customer service from CoralVue Cons: – difficult to clean — volute plate on front is difficult to remove and even harder to reinstall – Not very reliable, mine has failed 3x in a year.

Just stops working. Two failures were under warranty and CoralVue was good to deal with; responsive and quick. (Went through BRS for connection to CoralVue rep which might have helped). But it’s still a pain to have to send off return pump for repair — I had to buy a spare in the meanwhile.

Now that it’s failed a 3rd time not under warranty I’m looking for a different DC pump to replace it. – Expensive to start with and even more so considering that it can’t be trusted after a year.

I’ve only had this pump installed in my Red Sea Reefer 450 for about a month now, but so far, it has met and surpassed expectations. I bought it to replace a barely 3 month old Jebao pump with stainless steel screws that were already rusting out.

This pump is has got the flow I expect, and it’s dead silent. It’s white color makes it much easier to see and evaluate while sitting in the sump as compared to black or grey pumps. The VarioS controller works great.

The float switch is a nice extra that you can use in various ways. I use it as a low level shutoff switch in my sump, so that the pump shuts off before sucking air. This can be helpful during water changes and other situations that would otherwise blow air in the display tank.

Also fantastic is the variable speed input on the VarioS controller which makes the pump Apex ready. When operating under Apex control, only the speed function on the controller is overridden, meaning you can still turn the float switch on and off, do 15 and 60 min feed modes, and so on manually if you choose.

Personally, I prefer using the Apex feed mode function, where I’ve tuned the pump profile to push just enough to hold the water stationary in the return pipe, neither circulating forward nor draining back.

This is also useful for doing water changes without ever turning off your return pump. One potentially serious issue Apex owners need to consider: If you plug a variable output from the Apex into the controller, the controller now depends entirely on that 0-10V signal to set the pump speed.

If your Apex reboots for any reason, the return pump will be OFF during that minute or two. If your Apex were to be seriously buggered and could not reboot, the pump would stay off. Even if you plug the return pump into an Energy Bar outlet and set Fallback ON in programming, it won’t work because the absence of the variable out signal keeps the pump off.

To avoid this unlikely but potentially catastrophic event, I plan on unplugging the Apex cable from the VarioS controller whenever I’m away from home overnight or longer; I want the pump to fallback to full speed operation if the Apex fails and I’m not home.

I also recommend turning the float switch off when not home, for the same reason.

I bought two of these for my 20 gallon saltwater tank. For the price they are made of cheep material. The power head has a large distracting suction cup with a latch on it. The latch is supposed to allow you to disengage the suction cup.

The latch gets stuck and the first time I tried moving it, it broke. The power head has a small ball that goes into the suction cup rig but upon adjustment it breaks leaving the ball in the suction cup.

This is the second that has broken on me. NOT worth the effort, time, or money.

I bought this for a 29 gallon fresh water aquarium for circulation at the bottom of the tank for some wood shrimp. It’s fairly compact so I was able to camouflage it with some plants. The shrimp love it, they don’t often leave the current.

I also have a plecostomus that likes to swim up to it and then ride the current backwards. Works great for the price.

Although they say this can be used for a 30 gal tank, not so much if you have a sand substrate. The power is great for making waves and circulation, but unless you have a gravel bottom, it will blow your substrate everywhere.

I would recommend for a tank at least 40g or larger. Not the quietest either, but not unbearable, I switched to the Hydor Koralia Nano.

i bought this for believe it or not my 55 GAL reef tank for just that extra circulation along my back wall. i put it where i wanted and decided to trade it out with my bigger one i have in the front product works great! wish my petco by my house still sold them i would buy another!.

I live in the Pacific NW and every year there are power outages, some lasting a short time and others lasting hours. I have four Ecotech battery back ups, two which are on the 600g main display & two on both of my frag tanks.

With the kind of investment I have with my systems it would be catastrophic if I lost power for a lengthy time. Its piece of mind whether you need it or not. Ecotechs quality is top notch!.

Works perfectly, but just keep in mind that if you are using a controller, there is no way to turn the powerhead off unless you have an special module like WXM or Reeflink (that would require your wireless power head).

The reason is most of these controllers turn on / off the switch to control the on or off of the powerhead (some of us like to turn off powerheads when feeding fish or spot feeding corals). If you have this battery without the modules you need to turn off manually otherwise the battery will keep the powerhead on.

Actually not a big deal, but if you want full control with your controller keep this in mind (like when you are feeding with an automatic feeder, you won’t be able to turn off the pump if you are not in home).

I have had this skytech boat for almost a year now and have used it. Super durable water cooled amazing boat. Even had it crash into my friends a few times and the hull had no signs of wear. Bought some extra batteries and haven’t looked back.

If youre looking for fireplace this is the one you should get. I made a box for it and Ill install my tv on top of it, it looks good we are very happy with it.

Surprisingly fast and easy to maneuver. Definitely need the extra batteries.

good design, it works. material quality is cheap, metal to thin but the price is right.

Best toy I’ve gotten in the past 55 years. Easy and fun to use, loads of fun.

So have been waiting for these to be in stock for months and months constantly checking to see if perhaps they are back, of course on the notification list as well. Check as usual today and see that the price has gone from 659.

00 to 799. 00. I have tried to preorder even pay in advance – talked to Ecotech directly nope no options. Pretty disappointed that they 1. Arent available 2. Just went up $150 dollars. Come on. I understand that prices gradually go up but that is a 21.

21% increase. Ecotech is hitting hard with moves like this – create demand by not upping production then Jack the price. Might be going another direction for dosing. I guess the one versa pump I have will fly solo.

Enough is enough. The one star is for the failure of Ecotech as a company not the product itself.

I have had a couple tank crashes (and quite a few close calls) due to bad dosing pumps, all from different, and well-respected, manufacturers. This thing simply doesn’t fail, doesn’t leak overtime (mine has been running the same, original heads for 2 years now) and doesn’t lose accuracy.

It is super freaking strong too! I had it dosing from a 50 liter heavy-duty container, and one day I accidentally left the it completely sealed (no air could come in), and the DOS shrunk this thing up like it was nothing, and managed to get all the water out.

Had to throw the container away because it simply wouldn’t go back to its original shape!.

I have everything Apex. I love my Apex. Everything else Neptune makes is sub par. Very cheaply made. I have opened many of the items, as I have spare DOS, Cor20s, ATK parts from the many failed items I have.

The lastest DOS I purchased to replace a DOS that failed because I dripped some water on it (a little extra effort would have been nice in construction to prevent water damage, as these are obviously used around water)_failed out of the box.

I now have 2 broken DOS, one working while I wait for them to be repaired. Good thing is when (not if) the next DOS failure occurs I have plenty of backups. I have a shelf of Neptune spares now for when they fail, COR20s, DOS, ATK optical sensors (which they acknowledge they failed on when I had this discussion at MACNA with one of the guys in their booth), PMUP.

I would have a Trident backup too if I could get one, less than a year in that has failed too. I wish now that I had never “upgraded” all my parts to Neptune products.

I bought it for the auto water change feature and it has worked flawlessly. I have my water in my basement so it pumps up one floor and over about 30ft. I ran an longer USB cable and put the unit in the basement.

My only complaint is the unit has connectors for the DDR and are different from the other connectors used by Neptune. They should have optical sensors that could be used in those inputs. They should also take note of what Kamoer is doing in their app and allow for input of the tanks volume and subtract when it is used.

I feel pretty sure Neptune thought of this but didnt want to give the costumer other options. Not good engineering if it was not thought about. Other wise it would be 5 stars.