How To: The Tunze Nano Stream Mod

As mentioned previously, I recently picked up a pair of Tunze Nano Streams (model 6025) to add some flow to my tank. While these power heads have been troopers so far, reefers are always looking for ways to improve a situation if anything can be done. Much like the iPhone, I think Tunze really did themselves a dis-service by announcing new models of the Nano Stream but failed to meet the demand of the public at the peak of our interest. What I mean is... the 6-8 months between the iPhone announcement and when they will become available, the idea will most likely be copied a few times and as a result sales will suffer. The same goes for Tunze... we are shown three versions of the product so we now know the Nano Streams can in theory, pump out so much more. However, so far we've been watching the carrot dangle in our faces and can only sporatically (at best) find the base version; guess what? Sales will suffer or mods will be done!


So what do you get when you combine a bored teenager with some tools and some free time to break things? You get the Tunze Nano Stream mod. I can't take credit for this since some guy with much more free time than me thought of this... but I do thank him for it.

So basically the idea behind the mod is simple. Chip off a part of the inner tube so more water can be sucked up at one time to be propelled through the tunnel. Sounds simple enough. While Tunze claims the inner tube is needed to prevent the propeller from breaking or starting up backwards, no one who has attempted this mod thus far has had any major issues.


The easiest way to cut out the inside is to use a Dremel tool. For this project, I used the saw attachment.


While cutting the inner tube away, you can try to smooth it out so that the curve matches the inside of the sphere and that no misc. plastic bits are still half attached to the protective sphere.


This is what it looks like after you cut away the big pieces and smooth out the inside. It's nothing spectacular to see but the results are phenomenal! Most people that have done this mod (including myself) are seeing about a 50-70% increase over the designed flow output. Seeing how my Nano Streams don't have a permanent restarting problem, I do highly recommend doing this mod if you own the Nano Stream. If you mess it up or end up not liking the mod, you can buy a replacement cover from Tunze for $10. Also, since the mod will generally give you output of the mid-tiered model, you've just saved yourself $30 and the anguish of waiting for the release 6045 model. Want to see the original thread that started it all? Have more questions? Let me know.