Top choices for water flow

Moving water in a natural way is a very important way to replicate what the natural ocean does. This not only looks good when viewing your aquarium, but also serves a vital role in your complete system. Two big reasons to get the water moving in your system is to allow the corals to repatriate and to allow to effectively perform nutrient export.

The following is my recommendation for a quality power head that is widely available in the aquarium trade. I have owned and used all of these products over the years.

Maxi Jet series of pumps.

This power head has been a work horse in the aquarium trade for years, and for a good reason. This pump can be bought at a fairly cheap price and is reliable. This pump is used in many other products from different manufactures for their own uses as a water movement needs.

These pumps can be modified very easy and almost have a cult following among hobbyist. For a small amount of time and or money, you can make this pump produce crazy flow for minimum cost.

This is a product that has hit the market with great response. It takes what the DIYer used to do them selves and makes it possible for anyone to make this modification easy to do. It basically changes the direction of the flow that is coming out of the pump and a greater spread of flow.

My next favorite pump for my fellow reefers to use with their water flow needs in the Koralia line from Hydor. This more recent product for the hobby takes water flow up a notch.

This pump provides a the reefer a very quality pump for a reasonable price. It has great water flow pattern and at a low voltage draw. One great feature that this pump has over the Maxi Jet, is that it uses a combination of magnets and suction cups to attach it to the glass. This is a must feature to have on a pump that could fall in the system and blow the sand bed all over and cause an ammonia spike.

Since the first generation of these, Hydor has changed the design of these pumps to be able to be controllable.



The best of the best!

The Vortech

Once you get past the sticker shock of this bad boy, you will be amazed of what it can do! This pump can do almost anything that you would want it to. It has several different flow modes, wireless ability to talk with other pumps and controllers, the heat from the motor is outside of the tank, and it has a very gentile and wide flow pattern.

I will let the results speak for themselves....