When some years ago I saw a roller filter, I was simply in awe… and now, at long last, we have one in our hands and it only awaits to be assembled.
Article available also in: italian
We’re talking about the Reef Roller – Manual Roller Filter by Tropical Marine Centre, or TMC.
After our presentation article in December (here in italian), we were directly contacted by TMC who asked us if we wanted to test one; we enthusiastically accepted and now it is here in our very hands.
The roller filter is a filter for sediments that has to be placed exactly under the spot where the water topples out of the aquarium. This way the water coming from the tank has to go through a roll of filter material that blocks impurities and suspended loads.
On the other hand the filter’s functioning is extremely simple. It promises a rather egregious cleaning of the aquarium, and maintenance, all in all, should be minimal, since a roll is supposed to last for three months before having to be replaced.
Assembling it is extremely easy and fast, and I will now be concerning myself with how to install it in the sump, since the base has to be above the water line, for obvious reasons. I’ll be installing it this week (together with some other things, but that deserves its own article) and then I’ll be able to tell you about it.
There are two versions of the Reef Roller, automatic and manual, and it comes in three measurements, small, medium and large. We have the manual medium version.
The small filter handles a maximum flow of 1.000 l/h, the middle one of 2.000 l/h and the large one up to 4.000 l/h.
The last difference that is worth mentioning among the three filters is the length of the roll they can contain. The small filter can hold 20 metres of filter material, while the medium and the large ones can hold up to a 50 metres roll.
In the previous picture you can appreciate the filter material’s texture, much finer than simple socks, and that is because it does not have to be in the water for long since you can collect it as it gets dirtier.
The mechanism is very simple.
Below you can see the water line, but as the filter material clogs up less and less water is able to go through, therefore the water line will be by far over the demarcation line which you can see above.
That is the exact moment in which you have to collect the roll.
The price of all the Reef Rollers, both manual and automatic
The price of the Reef Roller M in our possession is 209,99 euros, while the S version costs about 199,99 euros and the L version costs about 249,99 euros. The automatic versions cost respectively 289,99, 329,99 and 359,99 euros. Certainly a more demanding price.
The rolls cost 21,99 euros for what concerns the Reef Roller small at a 20 metres length and 29,99 euros for the other two, at a 45 metres length. It’s this detail exactly that makes us recommend the medium version, since paying just 50% more, you get more than double the length.
The dimensions of the medium version in our possess amount to 26,5 cm in width per approximately 16 cm in depth. Its height amounts, without the glass connection module, to 29 cm. The base, which is narrower, amounts to roughly 16×13 cm.
TMC is distributed in Italy by Piubello Pet, and you can contact them for further details (here), or you can ask us.
