power heads

[SqueakyClean]

Whats a good power head, with out braking the bank?

[bderen]

I like and use both the SEIO and Koralia poweheads. THey both give you a lot of flow per watt and are very affordable ~$40-50 a piece. I've expirienced both stop at some point and they need and ocassional "push" but I feel if I was to take them out once per year and give them a thoral cleaning they'll work without a glitch. It happens about every 6 months so it doesn't really bother me if one of the 7 powerheads in my tank suddenly stopped. I just put my fingers in the propelers (no it won't cut them off) and wigle it a bit and it starts up. With all the stuff growing on and in these things I think it's expected that they may ocassionaly slow down or even stop. I've read on RC that you should take them out periodically and give them a vinegar bath to disolve all the deposit on them, but I can't stand the smell of vinegar so you won't see me doing it.

[stevem]

I agree both very good powerhead without breaking th bank.
I try to clean them every 4 to 6 monthes, and i never had one stop on me yet. Now that I said that it will probably happen.

[bderen]

hehe you know it will.

One observation, I had problems with my SEIOs 620 in the past where they would stop. Here is the thing; they weren't stopping, they were just not restarting properly. While still a problem if your electricity tends to go out more than it's fair share, this problem is inexistant if you provide clean power to them. In my new apartament none of the 3 seios (which are already over 4 years old) have stopped in the past 14 months. Great powerheads!!!

As stated before, I don't clean my powerheads.

[stevem]

Blackouts can be a problem with alot of pumps restarting, when they are dirty that usually cause the problem.
Anytime I had a pump not restart it just need a cleaning.

[xoomer]

I've seen some cheap battery backups on ebay. These can be used to eliminate power cuts, blackouts, browouts, etc.

I highly recommend one rated at 1500VA just for the powerheads. Powerheads draw very little power so in case of a blackout they'll still run and oxygenate water and provide current.

I also have a small (rated up to 120W) power inverter that converts from 12V to 120V. In case of a longer power outage I can just take the battery from my car and run all 7 powerheads (each less than 10W) for probably at least a day or two. These smaller inverters are cheap, they can be found for about $20. Larger inverters are more expensive.

When buying one get one rated for double the load you'll be attaching to it. So if your return pump is 160W and you have 6 powerheads, each at 12Watts, get a unit rated between 300-500 Watts, this way they don't overheat and fail.