Water Movement

[superswamper]

We currently have a 75 g FOWLR. My concern is about water movement. I hear (see) everybody talking about wave makers and powerheads, and am starting to wonder if I'm missing the boat. I'm a little obsessive compulsive about worrying about it, so I hope you guys can put my mind at ease.

We have a skimmer and a filstar xp2 canister filter producing our water movement. Do we need additional items (i.e. powerheads) for more movements? Thanks guys.

 

[Sam]

It is recommended (remember that these recommendations are just opinions of what will contribute to the general health of your tank inhabitants) that you circulate approx 10 times your tank capacity/hr. With that said, even if your filter is moving that much water, powerheads (Maxijets seem to work really well) will add a major boost in getting water circulated in the tank itself and facilitating gaseous exchange. Seeing that the powerheads are relatively inexpensive, it is a small matter to drop two or three Maxijet 1200 in the tank. I have a 135G with wet/dry and skimmer and I run additionally 3- 1200 attached to a RedSea wave maker. Right now tank is FOWLR but I plan to add some corals when the tank has matured some more. On the issue of the wave maker, again it's nice to have but not necessary unless at some point you plan to have corals. It just adds variety to the water movement of the tank and I know my fish seem to enjoy it tremendously.
some of them even "swim the current"

HTH 8)

 

[MrDoctor]

Not to mention that: higher water circulation = less accumulation of waste + less settlement of microalgae and cyano.

(water circulation good!)

 

[superswamper]

I have noticed that there appears to be a 'film' on the surface of the water on the left side of the tank (w/o the filter return). I've read/understand that this is a sign that I should have a powerhead to agitate the surface of the water.

I'll double check to see what kind of circulation I'm getting with the xp2. Thanks for the input.

 

[Sam]

Absolutely the powerheads will take care of the film which is DOC and other lipid based wastes floating on the water surface. It does not exist in my tank. Just note that if you do go with powerheads, place them:

so you can agitate the maximum amount of water in your tank, i.e distribute them around the tank
place them at different levels
be creative and have fun

You will probably have to "fine-tune"the placement until "You" are happy. Glad to help. 8)

 

[superswamper]

Sam,

Is there a certain name brand and/or power (gph) that you would recommend and think would be appropriate for our 75g? Would the Maxijet 1200 be adequate or too much? TIA.

 

[Sam]

The Maxijet 1200s would be fine. they are really compact units. Since I installed them for the last four months, I have not touched them since. They also from research, seem to offe the most trouble-free operation with a wave maker. The wave maker will cycle them off and on in a random sequence to create the wave motion. Things I like about the red sea unit is that it has a setting for night mode. This gives gentler agitation. There is also a feed switch that will shut off the powerheads for 10 minutes to allow you to feed the livestock without the food getting blown all over the place. It further allows you to use either 4 powerheads or 3 powerheads and your main pump. This is how I have it set up, with the maint pump plugged in. This way when I need to shut down all the pumps, it is one switch on the wavemaker. HTH 8)

 

[Guest]

3 Maxijet 1200's would be ideal and 4 even better... You can get a package deal from one of our sponsors that includes 3 maxijet 1200' and a Wavemaker strip for around $100 I believe....

 

[Joshsmit56001]

I have my powerheads facing each other hitting in the middle stirring up the water. I find that this works pretty well.