Powerhead Advise

[phoenixgsd]

im thinking of swapping my air stone for a powerhead, the airstone was ok in my old smaller tank but i think a powerhead would be more benificial to plants and fish, its a 300L and as ive never had one before im looking to pick your brains, ive come across this one on ebay but dont know if its good enough or even which size to get advise please http/www.ebay.co.u...984.m1423.l2649

 

[Tuxyu3]

Really does depend on what kind of plants and fish, whats in the tank?

 

[phoenixgsd]

shrimp, cherry barbs, harlequins, corys, khulis, a male swordtail a flying fox as for plants i have anubis, amazon swords a few krypts, and i think theyre called baby tears (long things) java boss and a few which came as a assorted bunch from pets at home,

 

[DrRob]

Depends what you're trying to achieve. Those'll give you direct flow over a specific point. If you're after mass water movement you're probably better off with the wavemaker types, such as these,

http/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2500L-H-Marine-Wave-Maker-Aquarium-Fish-Tank-Powerhead-WM-2500-/180728258424?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Fish&hash=item2a143e5f78

of whatever make you fancy for flow rate. Hydror or vortech seem to have the best reputation in that group, but that goes with the highest prices.

 

[phoenixgsd]

not sure really this is new territory, i dont have co2 and heard air stones can actually take oxygen out of water, i do have a spray bar on my filter that gives quite a bit of surface movement the filter also came with a veturi? tube but no idea what it is or how to use it so opted to use spray bar instead

 

[phoenixgsd]

after lots of googling and trawling you tube i discovered what the venturi tube does, attached it, i 'think' correctly, and boy its fierce, i tried closing the knob on the end outside the tank but it still gives out a very forcefull flow, is this right? im trying to get that little extra oxygen in the water but not blow the fish to the other end of the tank,

 

[phoenixgsd]

anyone?

 

[Tizer]

do your fish struggle then or something? why more oxygen?

 

[DrRob]

I've never really liked venturi's. Didn't see the point of them most of the time.

With flow a huge amount of what you're achieving is removing any stagnant areas and making sure that their water is constantly replaced with stuff that has been near the air and has it's gases exchanged (or the CO2 source if you're supplementing). What you generally want is water movement, which is what the wavemaker type heads achieve, but in some situations the old school powerheads with direct flow are better at getting to the point (such as a specific dead spot).

 

[BigTom]

As long as there's a reasonable amount of surface ripple then o2 levels should fine, unless you've got a lot of organic decomposition going on, in which case bacterial blooms can strip the water of all available oxygen very quickly.

 

[phoenixgsd]

do your fish struggle then or something? why more oxygen?

no, fish are fine, i was told as my tank is now bigger and has more plants, i would need more oxygen, and that the air stone even though its on low setting is takeing oxygen out of the water and as some of my plants are no longer thriving i assumed this was the case, my spray bar is half the length of the tank and gives lot of surface movement so wondered weather there was something else i could do

 

[DrRob]

More plants, up the water movement, especially as heavy plant growth will slow it down. That'll sort out your oxygen problems by itself if you have surface ripple.

 

[phoenixgsd]

ok thanks