I'm getting this on my combat log:

You cast Mana Tide Totem.
You gain 290 Mana from Mana Tide Totem III's Mana Tide.
You gain 290 Mana from Mana Tide Totem III's Mana Tide.
You gain 290 Mana from Mana Tide Totem III's Mana Tide.
Mana Tide Totem III is destroyed.
You gain 290 Mana from Mana Tide Totem III's Mana Tide.
You gain 290 Mana from Mana Tide Totem III's Mana Tide.

Why does people report their tide ticks for 3 ? I'd expected 4 tbh.
And also 2 ticks post mortem ?

Just a guess, the totem periodically pulses a buff that actually does the mana regen. The buff can persist past the totem's death. What I'm not seeing is why this would ever be inconsistent - why would everyone not be getting the same result.

The tool tip claims:
"Summon a Mana Tide Totem with 5 healt at the feet of the caster for 12 sec that restore 290 mana
every 3 seconds to group members within 30 yards".

I did some other experiments and some time it ticks for 4 o_O

Cast at T0
290 at T0 + 3 secs
290 at T0 + 6 secs
290 at T0 + 9 secs
290 at T0 + 12 secs

And some time:

Cast at T0
290 at T0 + 3 secs
290 at T0 + 6 secs
290 at T0 + 9 secs
290 at T0 + 12 secs
290 at T0 + 15 secs <=== It should be not there

I'm going to guess it's lag, but if you can figure out a way to make it consistently happen I'd be interested in hearing about it =)

Indeed it's why I'm trying to understand when this happens.

After some tests ( damn cooldown) It seems behaviour is completelly random:

a) 4 ticks before totem is destroyed
b) 3 ticks before totem is destroyed + 1 after
c) 3 ticks before totem is destroyed + 2 after
d) 3 ticks before totem is destroyed

What it's interesting too is that SCT detects only 3 first ticks if I don't have "Show all Power Gain" enabled that's may
be why some people claims their tide does only 3 ticks.