Flow

[fishkeeper33]

Please help i am running a rio 180 and dsin with florish evreday and they seem to e ok but my question is that alot of people with planted tanks are using power heads should i be.

 

[RadaR]

Flow and circulation are important in planted tanks because CO2 and nutrients can be delivered to the plants at an efficient rate. How important this is depends on how much light you have. If you have low light then your flow doesnt have to be high. Maybe only 5x the volume of the tank turned over every hour. If you had lots of light then you would be dosing CO2 and daily nutrients. Then you should have atleast 10x the volume of the tank turned over every hour.
For example -

60litre tank with 15W of light - probably only need 300litres per hour
60litre tank with 30+ W of light - you'll need a total of 600litres per hour

These are only rough guides. Observe and act accordinly to your own plants. The plants (and fish) are your best guide.

Some folks that need high flow rates and circulation for their tanks cant get all the flow they need from their filter alone. So they supplement with powerheads.

Hope this helps.