Maxi-Jet 1200, Multi-Use Water Pump and Power Head, Fully Convertible

Marineland has come out with this ultra cool powerhead/circulation pump combo. I love powerheads in my tanks because of their efficency in moving water and filtration for a reverse or forward flow undergravel filter/or sponge powerhead combo. It has proven to be ideal in my clown loach tank where I am just using multiple penguin powerheads/sponge combo and have had them alive and thriving for nearly 10 years. When I saw the new Maxijet PRO I just had to give it a try. My clowns love playing in quick water as in nature they are from areas with high water movment-so I decided to buy this for the circulation mode. Other strong circulation filters are three times the price of these and are weaker or equal to the power. I have read many reviews saying they were very loud but I find mine to be very silent considering the power, only a very slight hum can be heard when I am within 3-4 feet. I found that at first when I started it it was really loud, but after a couple of minutes it became almost silent (I think the air had to be purged and propeller locked in, try shaking them a little and putting your hand over the back part where the water gets sucked in to quiet them down when you first get them up and running). Now when I turn them off and on during water changes the initial loud noise is gone and they start up perfectly. If I had saltwater tanks and were using them with a wave maker I probably would worry and instead spend a little more and buy the old maxijets with the aftermarket conversion kits or Hydors. But for my clown loach tank they are perfect, so perfect that I have decided to buy another one! Now, after reading the reveiws I am still worried about the reliability, but after finding out that the loudness is false I feel more secure with these. With a two year warranty like the penguin products I highly doubt they would make the new Maxijet Pro's as bad as some of the reviews have said. If anything, I can still use them as powerheads if the circulation mode fails. I have faith in marineland quality. I would recomend this to people with large tanks or people who keep fishes that love fast moving water! Oh.. and to add I think the black suction cups are great, much better than the crappy clear ones that come with the penguin models which seem to harden and become useless in half a year. I change out the clear ones and use the black suction cups and dont have problems with my powerhead falling anymore. With three of them I feel pretty safe. Maybe saltwater is different and much harder on the suction cups, makes sense since salt water tends to quickly dry out, crack, and corode rubber products... Update: Since using them for a little while I can see no problems with their reliability and they are solid powerheads like other marineland products. I do however have a little problem with them heating up my tank water. Since I live in a tropical climate my tanks are naturally around 82 to 84 degrees which is warm enough already. I put two in a thirty gallon tank and my tanks temperature skyrocketed to 90 degrees! I have since moved them into my 125 gallon and have no problems with them raising the temperature. Could be great if you live in a colder climate which could save you money on a heater! Update #2: After using them in circulation mode for a while I have noticed that they have a huge problem creating heat. They give off so much heat that they have even become a problem in my 125 gallon tank. I had to take one off and am now only running one of them. The temperature increase is not noticable with only one of them, but when I try to run two of them it can go up to 88 degrees (normal temperature hovers around 82-84 degrees) in my 125 gallon tank. The reason why I say 88 degrees and not higher is because when I noticed the temperature was that high I took one of them off imediately. Would be great using them in a cooler climate (would take some of the strain off your heater), but here in Hawaii it can be a problem. They are still silent and dont seem like they are anywhere near breaking. The trio of suction cups hold on good and strong. They do make a rather loud clicking/grinding noise when first starting them up (after unplugging them) that makes me think like they might break, but after a few seconds they start up perfectly and do their job very quietly. I think the problem is their large power consumption compared to other circulation powerheads/pumps. I have two Hydor Koralia Evo 1400's that dont even come close to heating the water even in my 30 gallon tank (they also dont make the loud clicking noise when restarting). Still if your looking for a cheap circulation/powerhead and you live in a cool climate, or only want to use one in a large tank, or have a really large tank, they work great. Don't know what happened to other reviewers maxijet pro's but mines are really really quiet, infact over time they have become SILENT. I have to literally put my ear up to the tank where they are mounted to hear anything from them, even then they are still hard to hear (after the restart that is).

Before I go on I just have to say if you don't have Amazon Prime yet you need to jump on it!! Free 2 day shipping is absolutely the best!!! I just set up a 180 gallon tank and most of everything was purchased through here on Prime!! I've most definitely have already earned my money's worth!! Anyways, ONTO THE REVIEW I'll start my review by saying I ordered 2 of these Marineland 1200s. After opening it took me a few minutes to figure it out, but after assembly was quite easy. What I didn't know was there are 3 different set ups for this powerhead. They are as follows: 1. Powerhead (submerged) 2. Laminar flow (submerged) 3. Utility pump (submerged or external). For my purposes I'm using both of mines submerged. I'm using one as a powerhead and the other as a laminar flow. After setting and starting both up I was blown away by their power and range. The laminar set up was more like a giant fan blowing, with large area flow. The powerhead was more direct, but had smaller range. I set one up at one up at one end and the other at the others end of my tank, pointing to the center. I actually tried different set ups, like two laminar flows, but found having one of each to be better (one laminar flow and one powerhead). I even placed them in different places in my tank, pointing in different directions but ended up putting them in the center. As I was setting them up I had them on so I can see where the water was flowing. They are now set up and I'm absolutely loving them both!! They are really powerful and blow and circulate water really, really well. I highly recommend this for your tank!! IMPORTANT EXTRA INFORMATION: So a side effect I heard about and have seen for myself is this powerhead does raise the temperature in your tank. Since my tank is brand new and mostly large I filled it using the water from my outside hose. The temperature of that water was about 68-70 degrees. Well, the two powerheads have warmed my water up to about 80 degrees!!! For me personally that's an added bonus because now I've removed the heater altogether and am using the two powerheads to heat the tank!!! I've monitored the temperature, using a digital thermometer, and the temperature in my tank has been bouncing between 78-81 degrees (but that's because of the changes in temperature in my house when it changes from day to night).

What can I say, it pumps water….use it for my fountain, seems I have to replace once a year though. The previous one I bought barley made it a season before it just stopped working, took the propeller out made sure it was clean etc but nope just stopped. Otherwise these are great pumps

Arrived well packaged, brand new in original box, fast delivery via Amazon Prime. I researched these types of pumps for awhile, and settled on them because they are a reputable company and recommended by various DIY You Tubers who rave about what an invaluable tool they actually are when it comes to aquarium maintenance. There are all sorts of things you can do and setup's you can apply these pump's too. I have two of these set up on a 50 gal aquarium with a DIY under gravel set up using 3/4 pvc pipe! The effect on my fish was mediated, at first they were a little perturbed by the circulation, all their lives they've been wondering how they wound up in a stagnant pond and then all of a sudden they have all this awesome current to swim in! I can really see the difference this has made for tank full of five year old gold fish, they've never been more happy and it shows! So since fish can't talk, I would just like to say on behalf of them to Amazon and MarineLand... THANK YOU! Now for some technical data that might help some of you who are trying to figure out which pump is right for me? I really couldn't find anything anywhere not even on MarineLands website but this is what I found out after much digging.... 10 gal tank.... Just one 110/500 gph pump will provide sufficient flow as a circulation or under gravel pump. 20 gal tank.... Two 110/500 gph or one 160/750 will provide sufficient flow as a circulation or under gravel pump. 30 gal tank.... One 160/750 gph will provide sufficient flow, but for under gravel filters 30+, two pumps are recommended. 40 gal tank.... One 230/1000 for circulation, two for under gravel filtration. 50 gal tank.... One 295/1300 for circulation, two for under gravel filtration. The general rule of thumb when selecting a submersible pump is that the GPH (Gallons Per Minute) should be 5x times that which your tank holds. For instance my 50 gal tank needs a x5 gph of around 250, so one 230/1000 would more than do the job for circulation, but for an under gravel set up I opted for two of the the 295/1300 to work in tandem, and to back eachother up in case one goes out. Sure one would work okay, but two are optimal and your fish will thank you for it. Note that you don't have to run both pumps 24/7, one will work fine in conjunction with a good air stone. Set up; I read a lot of bad reviews on these pumps, and from what I can gather as a 5 year novice into the hobby, these people don't know what they are doing, and I find it some of them boast about being aquarist for twenty or more years! You would think that they would be sure to read the clear instructions that come with the pump, and disassemble and reassemble the unit as instructed to do so. You would think they would take out and inspect all the impellers and then reinstall them per the instructions! A lot of people complain of noise and broken impeller blades, and this is simply due to improper inspection, assembly, and failure to follow simple instructions. The impellers are magnetic, and they can get jostled loose during storage or transport. If you take out the impeller, and plug it in, and hear no noise, the problem is more than likely improper installation of the impeller or a defective part. If there are any broken parts, call MarineLand first and give them a chance to repair or send you a replacement part. Oh, and one more thing... If your fish get sucked into the circulation pump, that's a sign of a bad Aquarist, there are steps you can take to prevent that from ever happening and there are a lot of videos on You Tube to instruct you on how to keep it from ever happening. If you love your fish like I love mine, educate yourself on how to take care of them, trust me, they will show you their appreciation for it. UPDATE 7.20 I recently had to order a new power head, as it appears the propeller separated from its magnetic barrel and free floats. This causes it to rattle and stop turning altogether. I tried to find a replacement but couldn't find one for Marineland 295/1300 pumps anywhere online. I did happen to notice that replacement propellers for power heads are very expensive for some reason? A replacement prop can cost as much as buying a new power head, so if your looking to replace yours, your probably just better off buying a new pump instead of getting taken by after market rip off artists. Its really sad that replacement props and parts are not readily available to the manufacturers customer base, but its a Greek tragedy when distributors take advantage of that customer base. A replacement prop should be readily available by any given manufacturer in Aquarist Business, and a replacement prop should not have the same MSRP as a brand new power head! Anyone offering a replacement power head propeller over a max of ten dollars should be avoided, if you can, you're just better off ordering a new power head with an extended warranty and let them eat the cost of replacing the whole head if the prop goes out. Pretty much a no brainer there if they offer it. tfr.

Works great in my 33 gallon long tank. Helps circulate water and carry warm water from heater away and circulate it into the tank keeping for a steady temperature. I have it in power head mode. I like the air hose and valve, great for adding a little extra aeration while medicating fish or increasing temperature. Does make more noise the more the valve is opened. Its quiet when its closed, and pretty mild when opened for normal use. Opening it all the way makes it fairly noisy, but then it pumps 90% air! The wavemaker mode on this is REALLY strong. The 33 gallon long tank is 48.5 inches long, the current is too strong even for fully grown pictus cats (6 inch fish) at the opposite end of the tank. For a bigger tank, sure, for this tank it was a little much, and the powerhead mode was more what I wanted anyhow, but its great the are convertible. All around good pump, no complaints.

Like the couple ways it can function for different uses.

This is an excellent product at a great price. Reasonably quiet, good power for its size given it's design, very versatile and can be used in a variety of ways with many mounting options, and very easy to put together and install.

These pumps used to be made in Italy and were reliable, quite, and durable. Now they are owned by a different company, they are now made in China and they literally went from being the quietest best pumps to being the absolute LOUDEST pump in my tank. Not only is it the loudest pump it also has the most vibration and shakes the hose that its attached to so I get noise from the pump and vibration noise from the hose vibrating up against the back of my tank also. I picked up 2 pumps and they both are extremely loud that I cant even leave them on at night. The story of the MJ1200 pump is such a sad story, this pump used to be the "go to" pump in the industry and then they completely trashed the pump and turned it into a cheap, use it for a month untill it breaks, throw away pump. I still have some of the old pumps STILL running perfect to this day, but they changed the propeller design so, once those go, you cant replace the parts. If you are looking for the old tride and true reliable MJ1200 pump, It is dead, and lost to history. Look for a different Italian-made pump.