Flow - enough is never enough

[wayne]

You'd be better off running a closed loop along the top where you hide it with the hood for the most part, and running a big powerhead deep and low (though hopefully not throwing up all your substrate).
Food, junk and cyano usually mark dead spots

[yamahaguy06]

Wayne, or any one els that could reply, first I have a question about inverts. Would to much water flow restrict your "clean up crew" from getting enough food? Because they are scavingers, dont they need food to settle on the bottem of your tank? I mean, I have a lot of water flow in my 60 gallon(like at leaste 900gph(with skimmer)). but when I feed my hermits they go crazy and start running around and all. And I shut off to of my maxi juts(sumtimes) and the hermits all come out and look for food or whatever. When I have all my power heads on they dont realy wonder around. Ok I think thats it sorry so long, lol. what do you guys think?

[yamahaguy06]

oh and like fether dusters? can they stand up to a lot of water flow? thks...

[wayne]

Your feather dusters can easily absorb 900 GPH from maxijects. If you put your hand in front of a maxijet at 1 inch distance and move it away feel how quickly the flow drops away. At 6 inches it is just not powerful (another plus for the seio/tunze stylee). And any, depending on how you do it , 900 GPH in a 60 , esp if you inc the skimmer is a pretty low flow enviroment - low, but possibly adequate.
Anyway, if your clean crew aren't getting enough food that is good, get less clean up crew

[FroggyFox]

Hey all...for informational purposes could we list some product reccomendations as far as pumps go? I read Seio and Tunze as brands who have 'propeller type' pumps, but I know those two are both a little more spendy than other types...and I dont know what type of models they have that might be better than others.

[TRe]

if yur talking about powerheads when u say "pumps" i highly recomend koralia's IMO the best bang for buck

[FroggyFox]

Yes, powerheads. As related to this discussion on moving the water around the aquarium...

[Mushroomman]

Heres a quick sum-up of several commonly avaliable powerheads

Tunzes'- really good, solid broad flow, can hook up to wavemakers, etc, popular in europe, many swear to them, can be found online

SEIO's- good, solid powerheads, produce a large, broader flow "poor-man's tunze", still not really that cheap though.

Hydor Koralias- good at being contorted to face different directions, decent broad flow

AquaClears, penguins, maxijets, etc produce a thin stream of flow that tends to lose alot of current as distance increases, not too expensive

[TRe]

i couldnt imagine the flow being any broader than my koralia ... in my 125g i have it about in the middle of the glass on the side wall and not only does it break the surface but the flow also hits the bottom and both sides and thats just with one #3

[TheFool]

The differences in flow 'style' between the different propellor pumps are pretty minimal - the differences are in quality, features. Pricewise, from the top, I tihnk

Vortech - go look there are huge pros, also a couple of big cons. You're going to love them or hate them. I think they have a speed controller out now.
Tunze turbelle streams - the original designers. Big range, with some big volume ratings. Super reliability, single and multi controllers for speed controller (6000 + single controller is big bang for the buck), light sensors to slow them down at night.
Seio - some quality problems, have they got that controller out yet (I think answer is yes in theory, but I've never seen one)
Hydor Korallia - cheap, flow is good, noise not so great, some reliability issues, they've been recalled once.

Also throw in that mix the nano streams fomr Tunze that are great value for money, but initially had some QC problems. If I was looking for pumps for tanks up to a 55 or 4x2x2 120 that's what I would get, and mod them to up the flow (see reefcentral). There are also similar pumps fomr AquaMedic, and others, but I've not seen them

And then, in Europe, the situation is confused even more by the fact that on a rating for euro per litre moved the difference between seio and tunze is very , very little (10 ~ 10% dearer) if you shop around, and if you include speed controllers seio is actually a little more expensive according to some calcs.

FWIW I use original tunzes, with one of them on a single controller. Mins brush streams to create a turbulent vortex, and with the single controller set to vary between 30% and 100% every 15 secs I can get the vortex to move up and down the lengh of my tank.