Whats the rule of thumb for powerhead flows?

[XXFirefighter]

I have a 55 gallon. Going with the Skilter 400 and 2 powerheads. Most likely Rios unless someone tell me something better or quieter. What ones do I need ? Fish Only tank with live rock and live sand with MAYBE a shroom or 2 later down the road...

Thanks !
Rich

 

[cj10488]

Waterflow should be at least 10x the volume of water.. So in your case you would want 550gph..


HTH,
James

 

[loganj]

I would go with Maxi Jet powerheads. They are better than the Rios. I'd also look at getting a different skimmer if possible. The Skilters, although they will work, are not very efficient. How much LR do you have? If it's over 1.5lbs per gallon, I'd look at an Aqua C Remora skimmer. More money I know, but worth it.

 

[reefrunner69]

I would go with Maxi Jet powerheads. They are better than the Rios.

Ditto

 

[ReefRaff]

I would go with Maxi Jet powerheads. They are better than the Rios

Double Ditto

I'd look at an Aqua C Remora skimmer. More money I know, but worth it.

I have one and it does a fine job!

 

[fishfreek]

For a little more the Prizm Pro skimmer will work much better than the Skilter. The Skilter falls in one of those 'multipurpose' categories. For the most part things that are within that category while they might do all of the things they say they do they really dont do any of them with any great efficency.

 

[XXFirefighter]

great ! Thanks for the input...
Looks like rio is out....

As for the Skilter, I was going to go with 55-60 pounds of LR and 3 bags of live sand. So now I'm stuck on what to get since the skilter sucks...

 

[loganj]

If you are willing to keep the bio load very light until you can add more rock, you will probably be OK with 55-60lbs to start with. You won't need the filtration of the skilter...all you'll need is a good skimmer. A Prizm Pro would certainly take care of it although the Aqua C is my personal favorite. I believe you will be in much better shape by going with either of them and planning on adding another 25-30lbs of LR later. Or you could put that amount of base rock under the LR you were going to buy. If you get the Skilter, I think you'll find yourself in the position of needing to upgrade later. Even though it will cost you more initially, it's more economical in the long run to buy what you're going to need the first time...yep, learned that the hard way .