What Powerhead Do I Need?

[Hawkins]

Ok so a very useful forum member told me I need a 2500 LPH powerhead for my tank. I currently have tropical fish in it, and would really like to change to marine.

Here are the dimensions:

50cm x 81cm x 36cm, it's a Juwel Rio 125. Should hold about 125 litres!

I have had a look on eBay for a suitable powerhead, but i cant find one!


I have searched elsewhere, and found this

Im hoping I can get away with 2x Aquaclear 50.


any help would be great!

 

[N1z]

In all fairness, aquaclear powerheads are not what you want for marine. Mainly becuase the current is a very powerful jet that does not disperse over the whole tank. What you need is powerheads made by:

Seio

Tunze

Hydor

Those the best ones cos they produce a huge turnover running on less wattages then normal power heads and have a better wider current.

So your looking at 10x - 20x turnover the whole aquarium is ideal. so your looking, at min of 1250lph pump or 2500lph pump/s.

 

[Hawkins]

Ok thanks!

I also dont want to be drilling holes in the tank. I will have a look for some of those powerheads..

Found one that seems to suit the requirements! CLICK HERE

 

[N1z]

Ideal mate, they very good pumps if not best ones.

 

[ben1987]

dont just use one big one. use two smaller. miles easier to create a current around the whole tank then. If you have areas of little or no flow (dead spots) then you will end up with cyano or algae build up as well as clumps or crap that dont get shifted which will lower your water quality

 

[Hawkins]

Cheers Ben. Just as I thought I had found the ideal one, you remind me of that!

So im looking for 2x 1250/LPH now.

thanks

 

[Hawkins]

could i not have this as a main one, and a smaller one of about 500 lph at the other side of the tank?

 

[Hawkins]

I found THIS ONE. Its nearly 1250.. well its 1100! not sure if its any good though. the output pipe looks ok.

 

[N1z]

Course, check out

SEIO Super Flow M250 Pump 970 LPH

SEIO Super Flow M620 Pump 2400 LPH

 

[ben1987]

also try and auim for a minimum of 20x if you ever intend on keeping corals

 

[Hawkins]

Yes, well if I have a 2500LPH and a 1000LPH or something, would that be ok?

It should "get all the crap"

 

[rabbut]

I have two Tunze nanostream 6025's in my 70l and they are excellent. In a 125l, they would give arround 40 times an hour turn-over. Ideal IMO. Particulary with Cyno and Diatoms, more flow usualy = less algea

The Maxijets are good solid pumps, but have narrow outputs. They will take all the abuse you can throw at them (like the Tunze according to those whom have ran them for a while) but unlike Tunze, you will need more than the recomended flow in there due to the narrow outlet if you use the MJ's. The MJ's give out a lot of heat also. In short, the Tunze pumps have a bigger flow rate, produce less heat and use about half the MJ's power to shift almost twice the ammount of water

HTH
Rabbut

 

[Hawkins]

Hmm yeah that would be 5000 LPH.. is that not overkill?

 

[rabbut]

Nahh. I have that in a tank just over half the size of your's and still have dead zones

EDIT to add. The general consinsus with marines and flow (with exceptions for a few species like sea-horses and box-fish) is the more the better, with a control factor of it should not blast the livestock arround. (as with filtration in freshwater) My 70l nano has 72X an hour turnover with 5000lph of flow, so 40X for your's with the same flow would be fairly slow in comparison to mine

All the best
Rabbut

 

[ben1987]

most marine fish are very strong swimmers.

Hydor Koralias are very good powerheads. Number one and two only use 4.5w of electric and a similar designes to tunze, just a lot cheaper