Circulation

[krusty_krab]

Hi All-

In a bit of a quagmire here with powerheads. Tried some powersweeps- not happy with them. Actually one that I ordered came broken! The other one heats up my tank too much. Sending em back. Moving towards a different idea...

That which is- 3 maxi jets on a wavemaker. I got one to put on my cpr bak pak. It cooks. Wondering what power I should get? The big one does 295gph. (1200 series) Maybe I should mix and match?

Also- does anyone have any heat/noise problems with thier maxis? I have a 30 gallon, 30 by 12 inches. Something in my tank- a dying rio or the new maxi- is jacking my temp up 3.5 degrees, from 78 to 81.5 - not happy. Fish seem okay for now though. Definately cant afford a chiller right now, nor do I feel I should have to. Note- the lighting is a super weak 32 watt regular size flourescent. No heat from that. On the noise, the maxi is drowning out the bad rios. And they are loud!!!

On the wavemaker- I would like something that will have a calmer nighttime cycle, and a 5 minute feeding off timer. Any suggestions appreciated. There are so many out there, hard to choose.

Finally I should note- I have been studying this salt stuff from awhile, an opportunity came up for me to grab a working tank, so I did- the next day, the main heater fries, and most of the rio powerheads are on thier death bed. So not only am I behind the 8 ball on having it set up properly, I am definately a newbie here. So feel free to explain in detail! I probably need it... :lol:

I will have a ton more questions later, for certain. Thanks in advance!

KK

 

[ross76053]

I've got a Maxi 400 (106 gph), and it's very quiet, although it tends to raise my tank temp about 2 degrees. Don't have any exp. w/wavemakers, so can't help you there.

Oh, and I'm new to this board, but not to reefing....

Good luck!

 

[jhaag]

3 of the MaxiJet 1200's will probably be too much for a 30gal. That would give you a turnover of live 30x your water volume, plus they tend to displace the sand bed pretty majorly in a smaller tank like that. You might want to go with the 400's of 600's. For now though, I would probably just put a single powerhead in there and spend the money for your wave maker on a lighting upgrade. You really won't be able to keep much until you upgrade you lighting. Even then, you can get away with 1 powerhead in each of the back corners if you aim them towards the center of the front glass. That'll definately work for quite a while or at least until you take care of the other things you need.

 

[esmithiii]

red Sea makes a wavemaker that is exactly what you are looking for.

Ernie