Which Powerheads

[vermonter310]

Maxi-jet or Marineland Powerheads ? Which do you prefer and why?

Also would a Penguin powerpro 30 wet/dry bio wheel be enough/to much biological filtration for a 55g with 4" DSB and 45 lbs live rock?
Set up will be:

55g
4" DSB "Southdown"
45 lbs live rock
2 100 watt visi-therms
2 Maxi-jet or Marineland PH's 170x2 for the Marineland's or 230x2 Maxi's

Tell me now if I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks

 

[fishfreek]

I have used maxi-jet but not marineland so I can only comment on the maxi-jets.

I like maxi-jets over some other PH brands like RIO or ZooMED.

Here is the list of powerheads that have been reviewed on this site

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/displayreview.php?type=Powerhead

If members have opintions on powerheads please submit your review so others members like vermonter310 can benifit from our past experences.


Add another 10lbs or so of live rock and you wont need any extra bio filtration. In fact you probably will not need it at this point with your sandbed and rock.

 

[michealprater]

Ive had both and both did good. But when I buy a new one, it is always maxi-jet. They seem to be very well built and they perform very well.

 

[loganj]

PH's

I highly recommend the Maxi Jet PH's. I have had them all and I like these the best by far. They will stand up to a wavemaker very well. They will not burn up if they run dry. You can even run them external...although I'm not sure I'd trust them not to leak in the long run if used in this manner.
If you have a 4" DSB and 45lbs LR, I would strongly recommend not using the Bio Wheel. I think Bio Wheels are hard to beat for FW use, but I have known people who used them on SW and they always had a nitrate problem. Your LR and LS should take care of bio filtration with no problem.
Logan J

 

[michealprater]

Wow! Thanks logan, i never knew that about bio wheels. Ill pull mine out tonite.

 

[loganj]

bio wheels

Be careful pulling them all out at once...they may, at this point, be carrying a substantial amount of the biological filtration load in the tank. I would proceed slowly and make sure the bacterial growth on the LR is up to the job. Yanking a large portion of the biofilter could cause an ammonia spike. I would suggest slowing the water flow to them gradually down to a minimum and then removing them one at a time over a period of several weeks. Maybe that's overkill, but you can't be too careful. Bio Wheels are VERY efficient biofilters, but they will crank out nitrates like crazy.
Logan J

 

[michealprater]

Keep in mind this is a penguin 330. It is on my 100 gallon reef tank, that contains around 300 lbs of live rock. I'm not sure that those biowheels will affect it that bad. Let me know if I should still do it the way you listed above.

 

[michealprater]

view pics of my tank here...

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=819

thanks logan.

 

[loganj]

Your tank

Ok...I'm pretty jealous after looking at those pics. NICE! I'd pull the wheels one at a time and keep an eye on water parameters. With that much LR, you don't need 'em. Penguin would make a good place for carbon and that sort of thing...plus it's a good circulator pump.
Logan J

 

[michealprater]

Thanks for the help logan.