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Permalink Reply by Hmoobthor on December 26, 2011 at 12:04pm

aim the powerhead toward the surface a bit to make ripple.

yes 750gph is too much for a small tank your fish will be blowing around.  Go for a bit smaller powerhead.

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Permalink Reply by Big Bleecka on December 26, 2011 at 12:10pm

Okay so 750 is to much? What size should I go for? And I want to point it up to creat ripples. Not down toward the bottom of the tank.

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Permalink Reply by Hmoobthor on December 26, 2011 at 5:23pm

a power head that you can control the flow or output

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Permalink Reply by Joshua keithley on December 31, 2011 at 6:41pm

Get an Aquaclear 30 powerhead. Anything more than 200 gallons is too much flow. Also they are easy to control the flow.

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Permalink Reply by Bryan on January 5, 2012 at 11:13pm

I had an Aquaclear 30 powerhead in my 29g along with their 'quick filter' and was not too impressed by it...

It does have a flow rate adjustment But it will only decrease the flow rate from a max of 175gph to a min rate of 143gph.  In my tank I had the flow turned all the way down.  The flow rate is adjusted by a little lever under the impeller (shown by the red arrow) that slides a plate open and closed.  The slot that the lever moves in has a lot of open space, and in my tank thats where the dead leaves and other debris would get sucked into and collect.  Also, I never used the air line supply (blue arrow) and random stuff always got stuck in that too...

Also, in a planted tank you really shouldnt be using an under gravel filter- And thats the only reason you should need to use a powerhead.  I didnt know either of these way back when I first started planted tanks...  Now I just have a submersible pump (~100gph) in my 29g and that rocks!  Its much smaller and quieter than a powerhead And its not nearly as ugly!

For pump placement you DO NOT want to aim the output at the surface of the water- Ripples are bad news in a planted tank!  If there are ripples on the water that means the water cant hold as much co2 And as we all know plants like more co2, not less co2.  With my pump I positioned it on the side of my tank toward the back, about 6in from the water surface with the output shooting toward the opposite side of the tank.  This provides plenty of circulation without disturbing the water surface.

Hope this helps!

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