Do I still need one/two powerheads, if my 16G tank came with a 132 GHP "circulator"?

[Muffin87]

My tank came with a Nano Marinus 4-in-1 BioCirculator. It consumes 5 watts, and it's got good reviews on amazon stores across Europe.

Water goes into the sponge and the surface skimmer, and comes out of the red nozzle in the image. The circulator takes care of:

• water flow: 500 litres per hour / 132 gallons per hour;
• surface extraction;
• plankton feeding (really? How does it do that?);
• filtration.

 

Considering I got this, how many powerheads do I really need to start my tank? Zero? One? Two + timer alternating them?

 

Can I save the money to get a mame protein skimmer and a HOB refugium first, and add more powerheads later instead?

 

[Clown79]

 132gph is 8 times turnover in a 16g.

 

Minimum is around 20 times for soft corals.

[Muffin87]

Thanks, I hadn't thought to google turnover rate! I learnt:

Quote

Low flow (20x-30x turnover): zoanthids,palythoas, some leathers, and most LPS
Medium flow (30x-40x turnover): Most of the low flow group + xenia, and more species of leather coral.

 

Is one hydor koralia nano 425 GPH + bio-circulator 132 GPH sufficient to start with some LPS in a 16G tank? That's a 35x turnover rate.

 

Later, I could add a hydor koralia nano 240 GPH to alternate with the 425 GPH one every 12 hours.

Or is it necessary to have from the start two alternating powerheads pointed to different directions?

[Clown79]

Ya that should be enough

[Lisa166]

I had succesful soft corals with this pump. But it is super loud, and its hard to adjust the skimmer. I'd safe up some money and then get one or two eheim flowpumps. They are way more silent. 

[Lisa166]

Btw, I never got to such a high turnover rate in my tank. I tried, but it made my corals look unhappy and made the whole tank look like a hurricane. 

[Muffin87]

2 hours ago, Lisa166 said:

I had succesful soft corals with this pump. But it is super loud, and its hard to adjust the skimmer. I'd safe up some money and then get one or two eheim flowpumps. They are way more silent. 

You mean the Dennerle bio-circulator is superloud, but by itself allows to keep soft corals without any other movement pump? did you also keep LPS with it?

 

I plan on replacing the bio circulator as soon as I’m done buying everything else. It was cheap because I got it with a discounted all-in-one kit.

16 g tank + salt mix + sand + light + Heater + densimeter + food samples + BioCirculator was just 230€ in total. 

[Muffin87]

Could I replace the Dennerle bio-circulator with a seachem tidal power filter?

Do they have more or less the same functions?

 

[Clown79]

20 minutes ago, Muffin87 said:

Could I replace the Dennerle bio-circulator with a seachem tidal power filter?

Do they have more or less the same functions?

 

That filter is fantastic. Best hang on filter.

The pump is silent too.

 

But you will want to use customized media.

Sponges should not be used in Sw.

[Muffin87]

Yes, I've heard the seachem tidal is great . But maybe a seachem tidal rated for 55G is too strong in a 16G? 

 

Both the Dennerle Bio-circulator and the Seachem tidal seem to provide the same functions

• surface skimming;
• filtration;
• waterflow (132 GPH bio-circulator VS 250 GHP tidal);
• Dennerle allegedly provides "plankton feeding", which the seachem doesn't.

Are the Bio-circulator and the tidal functionally equivalent then?  (just the tidal is obviously better)

[Clown79]

I used it on my 15g with 2 powerheads.

I removed one powerhead

 

The seachem has complete control over flow so you can turn the disk to what you need.

[Muffin87]

4 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

I used it on my 15g with 2 powerheads.

I removed one powerhead

 

The seachem has complete control over flow so you can turn the disk to what you need.

That's fantastic. Great information. Thanks a lot.

 

What did you do with the powerhead in your 15G? Did you always have it on together with the seachem? Or you turned it off every X hours?

[Clown79]

It was on at all times.

 

I ran a sicce 530 with the filter on full flow.

 

I than ran a jebao sw2 with it and removed the sicce.

[HarryPotter]

Can’t have too much mechanical filtration. One rated to 55g would be great for your tank. 

[Muffin87]

Fantastic advice guys. Thanks a lot! Really!

 

I'll probably just get a Seachem Tidal (250 GPH), plus one power-head around 240 GHP.

 

The total turnover would be around 490 GHP. In my 16G, that would be 31x.

 

Now I just need to find an extremely quiet powerhead that doesn't cost a huge amount of money. (i'd really like an ecotech vortech mp10, but that's just out of my price range)

[Clown79]

You'll love the tidal. With my black background it hid really well and is so quiet. 

 

The surface skimmer is adjustable and works great. The basket is huge. I ran floss, purigen, carbon, and phosguard with room to spare.

 

The hydor are good and quiet powerheads.

 

Maxijet are noisy.

Sicce are silent.

Tunze is reported to be noisy.

 

Love my aqamai kps. Totally controllable by Wi-Fi, you can make any pattern of flow you want with complete control of intensity.

It's small and silent too.

 

Also great if you get a bigger tank.

 

What length is the tank?

 

[Muffin87]

The tank is 15 inches long (38 cm).

The aqakmai kps is great but it's 116€ here.

 

I was thinking the Sicce Voyager Nano 1000 (265 GPH). It's very compact and cheap (20-30€). I hope it's silent though. I have the tank near my desk. 

 

This is the same tank I bought! (Just mine doesn't have that great lightning or any livestock!)