What powerhead would you recommend for mixing in a 5 gallon bucket? Can the powerhead be used to do water changes? Both removing and adding water?

As you can tell a real newbie here...:blush:

hey mickster, You can truly use any powerhead to mix up your sw. the only difference will be how quickly and effectively it will dissolve the salt. I personally use an extra seio that I have laying around. if you want one that will help then move the water into the tank during wc then maybe something like a maxijet could work. just attach a 1/2" hose.

If you are mixing in a 5 gallon bucket you don't want too big of a powerhead, maybe just a mini-jet. I mix my water in a 32 gallon Brute and use a 500 gph powerhead to mix it and then use that same powerhead to pump it back into my tank. I just siphon the water out of the tank. I think that using a powerhead to pump the water out would be more hassle than it was worth.

Thanks Camie! How long do you mix it for?

Usually I mix it overnight or longer. (In an emergency for a couple of hours.)

hey carmie ... hear what you're sayin, I used to use a koralia 1 instead in my 5G mixing bucket, but it always took so long to mix and I inevitably had to mix it manually to ensure a good dissolve. the seio eliminated that. of course, i had to turn it down a bit ...

i use a small 75gph pump...it mixes my reef crystals well.

MJ1200 works great in my 5g bucket. I use a magnetic holder to hold it on the side and it makes a great flowing wirlpool. I use the same "clean" MJ for filling the tank and refiling the bucket from other mixing tanks. I use a separate "dirty" MJ and bucket for removing water from the tank. I have a tunze 6025 for mixing in a 10 or 20 gallon tank for mixing.

I use a mini-jet over night with no hang on or magnets. I just toss it into the bottom of the bucket, since that is where all the salt ends up anyhow. Just make sure it lies on its side; else the intank sits on the bottom and it doesn't mix well. Oh and with these you can take off the screen on the bottom of it. You will boost the flow a bit more.

I use a MJ-400. It's a little small for the job, but works. If I had the chance I would bump it up to a 900 or 1200.

The MJ-400 is convenient for water changes, as it's a good rate of flow for the job (on a nano).