One of the largest problems with my old grow system that I plan to overcome this time around is water movement. In the past I had employed the use of powerheads mainly because they are readily available and inexpensive. I was never satisfied with the results from powerheads. Actually, I don't think that many people are, but until the past few years there were not that many options on the market.

  In visiting other farming operations, I usually found people implementing some sort of airlift tube or growing in a raceway configuration, neither of which I was very excited about. The raceway configuration is not even applicable in my circumstance anyway. During the final stages of my previous farm grow out system; I eventually employed the use of two different pieces of hardware. The first was the Ocean Currents Rotator, and the second being the Sea Swirl. I think both units performed in correlation to my investment. Initially, I found the Ocean Currents Rotator to clog often, until I used foam pre-filters which eliminated the problem.

One thing I am able to do now is utilize different technologies in different tanks and attempt to match the needs of the animals I am nurturing there. The first method I set out to use was two 360 rotating pulsers. I connected the pulsers to Mag pumps in which I drilled the mounting plate to connect to the side of the Tuff Stuff Tank with Zip Ties. This worked for about a week, and then the lips on the base broke. I then wrapped Zip Ties around the pump and the base and that has been holding for months.

While you can see in the bottom right of the series of four photos, the single rotator head made a considerable amount of current in the tank. In the long run I had two problems; first the output was not forceful enough once the tank was stocked. The waves created just would not plow through the colonies. I think looking back each tank would have needed two to three heads which leads to my second problem.