Waveline was at the Global Pet Expo showing off their line of skimmers and DC powered pump, the DC-5000, which offers 1320gph in a small form factor.  Why are we excited about this pump?  First off, it’s a DC pump, meaning we can expect better efficiency and less heat (only 40W running at full speed).  The pump itself is completely cool to the touch, meaning less heat going directly into the tank.

The other great thing about DC pumps is that they can easily be outfitted with a controller (pictured above), and the addition of a controller to the pump offers many different benefits.  For example, instead of dialing back the pump with a plumbing valve (which only adds backpressure to the pump and heat to the tank) you can directly control the flow rate out of the pump.  Also, you can create a “feed mode”, basically turning off the pump for 20 minutes.  When connected to your skimmer, this will turn off the skimmer for 10 minutes, or you can use the controls to dial in the skimmer to the exact level of skimmate that you want.  The pumps are interchangeable with the line of Waveline skimmers, so you can buy the pump now and upgrade to a larger skimmer later when you have a bigger tank.

Finally, and I think this is really cool, you can plumb this into a closed loop system and then control the flow like a vortech.  So you can have your return pumps running different modes like pulse, lagoon, etc with NO powerheads or wavemakers directly in the tank itself.  The idea of an affordable pump with a controller is a great opportunity for the hobbyist to come up with all sorts of new aquarium designs.  The pump will be available in the coming months.