Powerheads

[Feather_Sword]

Hi, I was wondering what a powerhead is. From what I have looked up, it seems like it circulates the water inside a refugium or similar container in the aquarium, but I am not sure.

If it does exactly that, what type of powerhead should I look into for a home-made acrylic container that will hang inside a 16 gallon freshwater aquarium?

 

[chrisbassist]

A powerhead is basically a water pump.

In marine aquariums with filtration provided by live rock that's where you get your flow.

In fw it is sometimes used to describe the pump part of a filter.

But yeah you just put it on the side inside the aquarium.

 

[Feather_Sword]

Thank you for clarifying the marine and freshwater definitions of a powerhead. This helps a lot.

 

[chrisbassist]

No prob

for 16 gallons would it be worth just setting up another filer to add flow? Just a small one. That way you have backup for filter and you add flow. Just a thought.

Most of the marine style ones will probably give you far too much flow. Maybe a koralia nano might bot be bad...

 

[onebto]

The Korelia nanos are great little power heads and they do not just flow straight ahead the flow of water is more spread out

Regards onebto

 

[OldMan47]

There are tons of power heads made for freshwater. I use several in different tanks as the water movement source for a sponge filter. I have used mostly the AC brand because they are readily available on e-bay.