powersweep

is the powersweep powerhead pretty good or not any opinions

I've heard that they tend to jam up and that the nylon gears in them often end up getting stripped. I've read that on this board as well as have heard that from the owner of my LFS.

Unfortunately I have no first hand experience to relay to you.

the idea behind it is great but they only come with suction cup mounts which fail everytime and they are kinda noisy and sometimes get jammed so imo they suck poop i have two i couldn't even sell em to any body unless i gave em away

trust me on this don't buy a powerhead that doesn't come with a clip that mounts to the top of the tank

I've had three running for about a year and a half. If you clean them every few months, they run fine. If you don't, they gum up and jam. Funny how geared systems will do that.

Ratty

Ratty's Reef

I have one and it worked great, for the first week I had it! If I don't take it out religiously, almost daily, it will stop "sweeping." Even a thorough cleaning doesn't guarantee to make it work. It'll sweep for a half day or so, then stop. I'll stick my hand in the tank, give it a bump and sometimes it will start sweeping, sometimes not...Another more important point, they don't have ANY power whatsoever compared to my other ph. My other ph is 1/3 the size and puts out 5x more flow!

Do not make the mistake of getting one. They are practically useless!

JM .02... hth

Sounds like you got a really crappy one. I haven't had problems of this kind with mine. Thing is, people whine louder than they praise, always. You don't see people posting threads about how wonderful their Rio or Maxi-Jet is. People usually only post when they're grumpy about things. Like those Rios that occasionally burn out and boil a tank, or the Maxi-Jet that shorts and electrocutes fish.

Any make/model can have lemons. It's the nature of the beast, and you bet your aquarium pumps aren't made by the highest bidder to the tightest engineering spec. They're junk motors in quick-tooled plastic shells.

More moving parts always means more maintenance. If you want a sweep, you have to clean it occasionally. If it's low enough to catch stirred up sand or grit, that's going to jam the gears constantly.

Ratty

Ratty's Reef

I have one since last week and, until now, it works wonderfully. I know it isn't much time, but still... However, I noticed that putting the flow redirector on one side (so that it can flow from the corner of my tank to most of the tank space) helped with the sweep effect, and putting it to flow on the other side was really much more "difficult".

A little note from my LFS is that those that have "new" on the box are better than the original one. I don't know if it's true though as I only bought the one with "new" on the box.

Just my 2c.

I vote for a Maxi Jet.

the other problem i've had is heat issues in a small tank with the powersweep. they're a good idea but flawed execution.

Agreed, I noted my heater has much less job to do than before I got the PowerSweep

I you use it as a powerhead, don't buy because you'll be deceived. But if you'd like a small wavemaker without plumbing work, then the powersweep gets the job done.

I have a Powersweep. It's a piece of crap. It constantly jams and it seems to put more energy into heating the tank than creating flow. And the suction cups are garbage. They always fall off. Last time it landed on my blastos and killed a couple polyps. After that I took it out and replaced it...

It may or may not work properly for you. But it's underpowered for its size, that's a fact.

I had two. One jammed all the time, the other stayed good for months. DEFINATELY underpowered. And they are huge.

IMO, invest in a SCWD to get alternate current.