Powerheads setup question

Hey guys

I have a question, I have a nano tank (around 80 l) with some corals, couple of clowns and a jawfish (apart from the cleaning crew and some uninvited guest).

When I got the tank I was adviced to get a tunze 6025 to help with the flow (which coincidentally is on sale atm). The problem is that the tunze was way too powerful (around 2800 lph). I could find a suitable place for it in the aquarium as it was always blowing the sand away creating wholes in the surface. so I ended up buying a koralia 900. I have one at the moment on one side of the tank and everyone seem much more happy. However I feel I need another one on the other side as the opposite side is barely getting any flow and I also have some brown algae growing on the surface.

So, here is the question, what do you recon is the best setup

- To buy another koralia 900 place it on the opposite side facing the rear of the aquarium to create a circulating effect
- Buy another 900 and place it facing the front of the aquarium (the same way the other 900) and buy a controller to create a wave effect inside the aquarium
- Buy two 1800 and attempt to recreate the same effect as above (wave thingie)

The reason why I am nto so sure if I want another 900 to create the wave effect is because in the end I will be running 900 lph which it might not be enough to cover all the aquarium hence why I thought of using 2 1800s instead of 2 900s.

What do you think?

Thanks!

I would have gone for a Tunze 6015 in the first place, but as you have a K900 now, I would get another, and a two way controller.
Hydor do a nifty controller to match the Koralia900. If you set the time at less than 15mins, you will destroy the pumps in no time.
Half hour on, half hour off for each pump. That should keep dead spots out of your tank.

Hey crustycrab

15 minutes? I thought the koralias would be ok with quick switch off/on. I know the bigger ones have that "facility" can't find anywhere if the smaller ones 1800 and 900 do too.

There is a fella on ebay that sells two koralia 1800 plus the controller for 80 euro so I could go for it and keep the 900 as a spare.

Otherwise I will get another 900 plus the controller but that's going to cost me 72 euro plus shipping so not much of a difference

What do you recon?

Thanks!

When I was looking into pumps for my tank, I was talking with the Tunze rep, and he had on file a few cases of the smaller Koralia pumps (900 and 1800) burning out in about 3 months, when used at less than 15 min intervals, the newer and bigger ones don't seem to have that problem.
He wasn't trying to sell me anything, as I had both Tunze and Koralias available.
Hydor don't say much about the smaller pumps with controllers, only the bigger ones, which are fitted with the "safe start" , a sort of slower ramp up to full power.
The Tunze 6015 cost about €30 almost the same as the Koralia 900 at €29
The Hydor controller about €50.
Is that the guy in Italy? He has some cracking deals? Remember to factor the postage when costing the prices, but that's a good deal on the 1600's. I would go for it, and keep the 900 as spare

Yeah that's him!

I will place an order then and see.

The problem with the tunze is the size. My aquarium is quite small (slim) so two tunze will take over half of the total length.. the hydors are much smaller. Because of the way the aquarium is fitted into the bookshelf I can't use the Vortech powerheads either. So far the hydor seem like the best choice.

You are right regarding safe start, the only pumps that mention safe start are the bigger koralias. I heard that the new nano range (they have an upgraded impeller etc) are ready for this but its the same thing, havent seen anything on the hydor website!

Thanks again for your help

PS: I was just looking at the 1600 (not 1800 my mistake!) and they apparently the new models are compatible with the timer... I will check if these are the new models or not, they claim to be!

www.hydor.it/en/products/show/28#tabelle