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Seachem Tidal 35

Big G

Member
Joined
20 Apr 2020
Messages
174
Location
London&Thanet
Only run this for about an hour so far and it can’t stay where it is so I’ll have to wait until I can set up a test tank. Didn’t use the included Matrix just the sponge.

The good;

It filled up well enough and I couldn’t see any bypass.

The bad;

It rattles. It’s not the plastics in the lid or where its touching the tank. Get’s worse with increased flow. In a longer test and following an inspection of the impeller & housing, this may resolve itself …..we’ll see at some point. It’s a huge disappointment.

It gurgles. From the chute that directs flow down to the base of the basket. Through the basket plastics I can actually see a trapped bubble area beyond the flow control. Again, I might expect this to settle. Another huge disappointment.

The blue tank rest. Doesn’t quite extend far enough to allow the assembly to rest quite plumb on a 5mm glass thickness. Easily resolved but shouldn’t need to be.

Shrimp proofing. Having looked at more solutions than is probably healthy I can’t see one that won’t require either major amounts of silicone sealant or a frequent full removal to clean whatever piece of steel, foam, denier etc. inserted which would then dump some of its capture back in the tank upon removal as its effectively a prefilter. Leaving the impeller housing open at the bottom rather than include at least a inflow pipe like the other versions seems….shortsighted.

Matrix. I seriously doubt that even if were to lay each crouton of it side to side it would cover the surface of the sponge to one crouton thick.


Not being shrimp safe I can forgive and find a passable way to live with eventually. Its my problem, not theirs.
The Matrix bothers me not but is penny pinching.

The other issues- not so much.

It’ll probably be a fair while before I circle back to this. Will update as,when and if I do.

My Oase Filtosmart 60, which is itself a re-jig of the Eden 501, is relatively quiet compared to this although I couldn’t suggest it for a bedroom tank either.

It wasn’t cheap.
It’s meant to be a Fluval/Hagan Aquaclear-beater.
Your mileage may vary.

I’m genuinely surprised and crestfallen how far short of my expectations this is so far.

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Yep, lots of issues and definitely more of a side step(many think backstep) compared to the Aquaclear. I hear the Skimmer barely does anything on the 35 as well(especially with a modified shrimp guard). Sicce should be try again(Version 2.0)imo as it had potential...
 
Hello @Big G Sorry to hear about your issues with the Tidal. For what its worth, I've owned four (4) Tidal 35 for years now (since it came out I believe).... I run all of mine on max flow. No issues. Very reliable, super easy to maintain, no rattles or gurgles - quieter than any HOB I've ever owned (and trust me I've owned a lot junk :lol:). As all HOBs I've ever used, this filter needs to be proper mounted and levelled. Only "bad" thing I can really say about it is that the skimmer is not doing much (regardless of any shrimp guard). I use two in each of my tanks. One tank is shrimp heavy tank. The filter is easy to make shrimp safe with a coarse sponge cut to fit -with only a modest loss of flow. Most filters are not shrimp safe and especially not shrimplet safe anyway (regardless of what the manufacturer may claims) so they often require a mod like that. Given your posts and a couple of similar posts I've seen elsewhere, it's quite possible that the manufacturer have lost their ways on production consistency and QA which can happen to all products, but the design of this filter is sound as far as I am concerned.

Matrix. I seriously doubt that even if were to lay each crouton of it side to side it would cover the surface of the sponge to one crouton thick.
Interesting. All mine came with plenty. Actually removed some from the filters where I sometimes add a bag of Purigen.

Cheers,
Michael
 
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Thanks for replies FnL & Mj,

much appreciated.

As I say, I’ll circle back to this when I have a chance to rig it and run it for a while. It’ll mean another tank unless I take down one I already have and I’m wary of MTS. I have lots of experiments I need another tank for but just not this second.

On the shrimp safe issue, I’m currently thinking in terms of focussing on the impeller housing directly- the bit that unclips from the motor and impeller head. Rather than concentrate on shrimp-proofing the various cavities and access points to the impeller housing, I’m thinking about proofing the pinch point, i.e. the circular housing itself. The door rather than the whole room, if you will. Seems an idea so only one point of access needs cleaning rather than 2 sets of grills and whatever goes below the pump assembly ( as without a cover , this too is a draw point) and the associated careful repositioning. I have some grades of foam and some 1-2mm steel grid to play with…and time. I’m no engineer or product designer but it’s an interesting thought stream to while away the dark hours until the daffodils arrive.

The solution must be something that gives headroom enough that permit service intervals up to a month apart.

I’ll post pictures of what I mean and whatnot in due course.

All the best and thank you again

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Thanks for replies FnL & Mj,

much appreciated.

As I say, I’ll circle back to this when I have a chance to rig it and run it for a while. It’ll mean another tank unless I take down one I already have and I’m wary of MTS. I have lots of experiments I need another tank for but just not this second.

On the shrimp safe issue, I’m currently thinking in terms of focussing on the impeller housing directly- the bit that unclips from the motor and impeller head. Rather than concentrate on shrimp-proofing the various cavities and access points to the impeller housing, I’m thinking about proofing the pinch point, i.e. the circular housing itself. The door rather than the whole room, if you will. Seems an idea so only one point of access needs cleaning rather than 2 sets of grills and whatever goes below the pump assembly ( as without a cover , this too is a draw point) and the associated careful repositioning. I have some grades of foam and some 1-2mm steel grid to play with…and time. I’m no engineer or product designer but it’s an interesting thought stream to while away the dark hours until the daffodils arrive.

The solution must be something that gives headroom enough that permit service intervals up to a month apart.

I’ll post pictures of what I mean and whatnot in due course.

All the best and thank you again

Bg
I’ve had tremendous success with mine for my breeding tanks. I blocked off the skimmer parts with clear water proof tape and drilled five 5/16 holes in the lower back part of the white basket. Zero noise and no over flow. Hope this helps
 
Hi
I have a Tidal 35 in the bedroom, super quiet and good strength

I also have a Tidal 55 in the office in a much larger tank (200l), again silent.

I had (only after turning it off for maintenance) the noise problem, but it takes two seconds, I take out the white basket and put it back in...done
Cris
 
LoveTidal.jpg


Cheers,
Michael
 
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😆😆

I’m sure its a good bit of kit, no question.

Just fiddly ‘shrimpers’ like me causing waves.

I’m slowly moving towards giving it a good test and will report back with findings thereafter.

All the best guys

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