Powersweeps?

[Jolieve]

Been looking into powerheads that oscillate...

Does anyone here use these? What's the intent behind them and would they be a bad choice?

Really curious about these things... they seem pretty neat...

Jolie

 

[Desolas]

They are pretty much worthless in a saltwater applicaiton. With the prefilter they will last a little while, but the amount of gunk in the water causes the mechanism to become stuck very quickly, within a month or two it will stop sweeping; for some people even faster than that.

 

[Ralphyhp]

Hi Jolieve, IMO the perfect choice is a seaswirl wavemaker unit from www.sea-swirl.com is more spensive but it really works, you have three sizes to choice 3/4", 1/2" and 1" and Ditto Desolas opinion too. Dont waste your money. :wink:

 

[tkhawaja]

They are ok for a cheap solution but you should think about saving up for something better. If you are ok with doing a monthly or bi-monthly maintenance of the unit you should be ok. Some people run them in a vinegar solution whenever they start getting stuck, and they're good to go again.

 

[Jolieve]

More interested in the oscillating type powerheads themselves vs ye olde standby... I hadn't intended to actually get the powersweeps, it was just late and I had no idea what to call them My LFS carries the wavemaker.

Mostly, I want to know if an oscillating powerhead would be a good buy and what benefits they have over powerheads that don't oscillate.

Jolie

 

[tkhawaja]

It's pretty much providing a variety of currents in the tank to minimize dead spots.

 

[klingsa]

I'll go out on a limb here, and give my own positive experience with powersweeps. I use the prefilters, so maybe that's helping. The corals like the extra water movement. If I had more money, I probably would have bought Sea Swirls, but I didn't and still don't! I only have a 75 gal, so maybe they'll be ok?? You think? :?: I hope I didn't waste my money, but only time will tell.

Anyway, they are helping to eliminate dead spots, helping fight algae problems, and the corals love them. The sweeping motion that most wavemaker powerheads have is closer (than regular maxijets) to natural conditions. That's really the point of wavemakers in general. Save up for something better if you can, but if not, powersweeps seem (to me) to be an ok intermediate step.

Sara