Jebao SOW-8 Wave Maker Flow Pump with Controller for Marine Reef Aquarium

My favorite budget wave maker so far

Update: June 2021:Both my SOW-4 units are still working fine. They are perfectly silent. No issues. I run one at 3 blue dots and other at 4 blue dots, because any more and they become too powerful for my 75 gallon freshwater DT with 9 Discus fish in it. I am ordering a SOW-3 today for moving media sump.Old review:I bought their SOW-8 version for my 60 gallon tall freshwater tank. It needs a wavemaker because of the tall design,water gets pretty stagnant and algae grows. SOW-8 is way, WAY too powerful. It uprooted plants, water almost blew over the tank edge if I pointed in the wrong direction. Even at the slowest setting SOW-8 is too much. I am returning SOW-8 and got a SOW-4. That works perfectly.BTW, the SOW-8 was very silent. I also tested the wireless pairing feature between the SOW-8 and SOW-4. Works perfectly. My only gripe is that the light sensor is built into the controller. It should be on a wire instead. This way, I have to keep the controller out where light from my LED can fall on it.Everything is controllable, speed, wavemaking pulses, night time speed is controllable separately.......night time disables fancy stuff.....just simple steady stream. I love these!

It’s just about the perfect size for my 40 gallon saltwater aquarium. I have it running on power setting 3 of 8. When I turn it up to full power it blows some of the crushed coral around. Plenty powerful. In fact I am getting another one just like it to put on the other side.I put this in my aquarium today and was a little concerned because it was kinda loud, but after adjusting the flow and turning it on and off a few times it is now barely noticeable. Maybe it had an air bubble in it, I don’t know. Now it’s working exactly as I had hoped.But here’s the problem. On the wire coming out of the control module there is a threaded nut that screws onto the connecter from the powerhead after you plug them together. The nut is on backwards and there is no way to get it off and turn it around. I’ve tried.I am reluctantly sending it back and ordering another one. Hoping the replacement works like this one without the connector problem.Update: I received my SOW-8 and now I have two on opposite sides of my 40 breeder. They both work great but I think I have a bit too much flow for my torches and “flowy” corals even on the lowest setting. I’m using the sine mode that slowly goes up then slowly goes down. I think I can work around this by moving some corals and aiming the wave makers at some rocks or more towards the surface. Maybe. Right now I have them about 1/4 of the way down the tank and aimed towards the surface in the middle. I don’t have them blowing directly on the corals.I also bought an SOW-4 thinking that it might be the perfect size for me. It’s not. The highest setting on the SOW- 4 is probably two or three steps lower than the lowest setting on the SOW-8.So, flow rate on the 4 is about where I want to be but no way to turn it up further to stir up the tank occasionally plus I’m not a fan of running it at max. The one I got was making rattling sounds also. Turning it up only made it worse. I’m sending it back and going to try a different one. I think it’s the luck of the draw whether they rattle or not. One of my SOW-8’s rattled for a short time also but it worked itself out.I wished they made an SOW-6 with flow rates somewhere between the 4 and the 8.Edit: After one year with two of these in my 40 breeder reef tank, they’ve worked great and are the perfect size for my tank. They would probably work very well on a 4’ long tank also. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy again.

Perfect as described. Without noise at all. Suited for 240L tank.

After setting it up, this thing has quite a punch. At Max, it throws around my fish. I put this inside a 4ft long tank (68gallons). I'm running it at ~60% for 30min every other hour to keep flow on the bottom of my tank moving so no fish poop gets to settle. So far so good. I wrapped it in filter media mesh so that my shrimp and fish don't get caught and get sucked in (or else they will become sushi). The magnet is super strong but, when this thing powers up, it shifts about 1mm and my tank has 12mm glass. Overall good purchase, price seems slightly high compared to other models I researched but I wanted something small and some of the other units out there are a bit larger.

Product works very well. I at first ordered a pump too big for my 60 gallon and then ended up with this one. I have two of these pumps syncd to each other in a 60 gallon tank from Petco. These pumps work very well. There has been a couple times when I press the feed button that they do not both shutoff. If that happens I unplug the power cord, feed the tank and then just plug it right back in 10min later. That rarely ever happens anymore. Very budget friendly option compared to the AI Nero 3/5.Easy programming on the display and easily pushes water on a lower setting. The high setting is almost too much but thats okay because if you upgrade to a bigger tank these can make the transition and not have to buy bigger pumps.

My tetras love swimming in this setting. The wave maker acts as a wave alternates strong pumps and small pumps continuously. Pretty powerful and thick for my 60 gallon so I suggest keeping your plants anchored well. Or else it can look like a hurricane in your tank. Super super quite, but if you are kept in a very very quite room you can hear a very faint buzz sound having your ears close to the pump. Its that quite.I wish there was a sponge on it so debris wouldn't get in it but thats an easy fix. It makes me paranoid for my long fin fishes when they come swim close to it. Destroys dead spots for sure. And little on the thicc size. Great product overall

I can hear a faint pulsing sound when in wave mode. Not bad though, and gets drowned out by louder things anyways.I have a 48x14x19 tank and it moves the water around nicely. I have to be careful not to slow the wave timing down too much otherwise it looks like it will push waves out of the tank. I've been going back and forth between fast speed quick timing waves and constant flow, not sure which I like best.The 24vdc wall wort transformer is fairly big, but it uses a barrel connector to connect to the controller so alternate 24vdc sources can easily be used. It comes with a 1.5A power supply, but I've yet to see it draw more than 1A via an ammeter.Edit -- I've had 2 of these going for a little over 3 years as of Jan 2024. The pair has been running in the alternating mode at about 80% flow rate. The face of the feed/pause button has worn off on the master pumps controller, but other than that they've held up well.

A pesar que la bomba es pequeña, tiene una potencia muy buena.