Flow on an 8' peninsula 3 sides viewable

[jjk_reef00]

I have a 8'x30"x30" FOWLR.
I have an overflow on a single 30" pannel and the other 3 pannels are viewable. Any recommendations on getting enough flow on the far side of the tank, specifically near the surface.

I currently have an Eheim 1262 return pump and 2 Tunze 6305's all on the end where the overflow is. I also have a closed loop plumbed but have not hooked up a pump yet.

I'm thinking about adding a second return pump that goes up and over the tank. I have a few options:

1.) Run pipe all the way to the far end about 7.5 feet and have the return point back towards the overflow.

2.) Run pipe half way accross the tank about 5 feet and have the return point towards the far 30" pannel (the one without the overflow).

3.) Put a Tunze on the far 30" pannel. I want to avoid this because I like looking down the 8' of the tank without cords or powerheads blocking my view.

The tank is acrylic with standard bracing.
What do you guys this is the best solution, if you think of something better please let me know.

 

[iced98lx]

I have a 8'x30"x30" FOWLR.
I have an overflow on a single 30" pannel and the other 3 pannels are viewable. Any recommendations on getting enough flow on the far side of the tank, specifically near the surface.

I currently have an Eheim 1262 return pump and 2 Tunze 6305's all on the end where the overflow is. I also have a closed loop plumbed but have not hooked up a pump yet.

I'm thinking about adding a second return pump that goes up and over the tank. I have a few options:

1.) Run pipe all the way to the far end about 7.5 feet and have the return point back towards the overflow.

2.) Run pipe half way accross the tank about 5 feet and have the return point towards the far 30" pannel (the one without the overflow).

3.) Put a Tunze on the far 30" pannel. I want to avoid this because I like looking down the 8' of the tank without cords or powerheads blocking my view.

The tank is acrylic with standard bracing.
What do you guys this is the best solution, if you think of something better please let me know.

sounds like what you're doing is just creating a close loop on top the tank and running off a 2nd return pump. If you've already got a CL plumbed, excuse my ignorance but why not use it?

Even if you do want to stick with moving a 'return' to the other side of the tank via above the water line, I'd have the CL feed power it, so you don't throw off you return flow etc.

 

[slief]

My tank is a 96"x48"x24" tall peninsula with 3 sides viewable. I have a Reeflo Hammerhead Gold for a return pump which pumps through a pair of 1" sea swirls which pump water out about 2" below the waters surface at one end of the tank.

At the opposite end of the tank I have a pair of Tunze 6205's mounted to the back 48"x24" wall facing the seaswirls and a Koralia 1400 also facing the seaswirls. I have a central overflow and on the overlfow I have a Tunze 6105 which also faces the seaswirls. All the Tunzes are sync'd up in a pulse mode which generates a 2" wave across the length of the tank. Maybe overkill but I also have a Reeflo Dart Gold as a dedicated recirculation pump. It draws from the back wall and returns through a manifold that circles the base of the overflow. This helps eliminate any detritus from settling under the aquascape that circles the overflow.

Prior to the Tunzes, I had a Koralia 1400 in each ones place which provided plenty of circulation.

With my current setup, I have incredible flow and surface agitation. My Tunze's are controlled via my Apex and I have several different profiles that kick in at random times of the day to change things up as well as profiles that kick up any detritus from the bottom and suspend it so it can go over the overflow to be filtered out via my filter socks. I also have nighttime profiles which slow the Tunzes down to a constant 30% output for calm nighttime conditions.

Some food for thought. Prior to having Tunze's and Koralia's, I had a few pond pumps that handled recirculation. When I decided to make a power conscious change to my tank, I eliminated those pumps and replaced them first with Koralia's. What I did to eliminate the unsightly wires from inside the tank worked out very well as I was able to use the old bulk heads and some of the PVC out the back to hide the wires and provide a custom mounting solution for the new pumps..

If you take a look at my build thread, I have step by step instructions showing how I mounted my Koralias and then my Tunze's with no visible wires in the tank.

My Koralia mounting to the bulkheads is covered on this page:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476

My Tunze conversion is covered on this page.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476&page=19

 

[jjk_reef00]

sounds like what you're doing is just creating a close loop on top the tank and running off a 2nd return pump. If you've already got a CL plumbed, excuse my ignorance but why not use it?

Even if you do want to stick with moving a 'return' to the other side of the tank via above the water line, I'd have the CL feed power it, so you don't throw off you return flow etc.

I think the closed loop will not provide enough surface agitation at the far end of the tank.
Right now my return pump is very small. I was planning on upgrading to a larger pump and splitting the return into two outlets. I prefer to plumb it off of the return because it is easier for me to plumb the return on the top of the tank and the closed loop on the bottom of the tank.
Instead of buying a new pump I figure I could just hook up the second Eheim I have in the garage and see how it works.

I'm not sure if it would be better to have the return at the far end of the tank facing the 30" side with the overflow on it. Or have the return enter just past half way across the tank and facing the 30" view-able side with that doesn't have the overflow.

 

[jjk_reef00]

Your build is very impressive Slief, great work!
I really like the way you mounted the tunze's with the cords going into the bulkheads.
I really wish I could stick a Tunze in there on that end of the tank but I've tried deco-rocks before and the cord just drives me crazy. I have no way of cleanly hiding the hardware.
I think a 0.5" grey pvc pipe as a simple return is the cleanest I'm going to get for surface agitation on the far end of the tank.

 

[vair]

I have a 8'x30"x30" FOWLR.
I have an overflow on a single 30" pannel and the other 3 pannels are viewable. Any recommendations on getting enough flow on the far side of the tank, specifically near the surface.

I currently have an Eheim 1262 return pump and 2 Tunze 6305's all on the end where the overflow is. I also have a closed loop plumbed but have not hooked up a pump yet.

I'm thinking about adding a second return pump that goes up and over the tank. I have a few options:

1.) Run pipe all the way to the far end about 7.5 feet and have the return point back towards the overflow.

2.) Run pipe half way accross the tank about 5 feet and have the return point towards the far 30" pannel (the one without the overflow).

3.) Put a Tunze on the far 30" pannel. I want to avoid this because I like looking down the 8' of the tank without cords or powerheads blocking my view.

The tank is acrylic with standard bracing.
What do you guys this is the best solution, if you think of something better please let me know.

Option 1 nice and high near the surface.

 

[jjk_reef00]

I think I'm going to plumb it this weekend, anyone else have any opinions?

 

[doubleohwhat]

My tank is similar although a tiny bit smaller (not quite 30" wide). What I did was hide powerheads in the rocks to help keep the flow going at the far end of the tank:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2302115

 

[jjk_reef00]

My tank is similar although a tiny bit smaller (not quite 30" wide). What I did was hide powerheads in the rocks to help keep the flow going at the far end of the tank:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2302115

Really nice setup! I'm going bare bottom so running cords under the sand is not an option for me.

 

[jjk_reef00]

Right now I'm leaning towards option 2, anyone agree/disagree?
Once I hook up the closed loop I will have plenty of flow on that side of the tank, and my Tunze's provide surface agitation at 5-6'. I really just want surface agitation for that last 3 feet.

 

[mseepman]

I have a 84"L x 32" x 26"H peninsula tank and I've basically done option 1. My return pumps up from my basement fish room/sump and then splits with a wye to two pipes running along the top of my eurobrace who then join together into a loop. Two ends come down through the eurobrace and point back towards the overflow end. On the overflow end, I have two 6105's and one 6205 that push water around in a random flow pattern.

Right now I'm not happy with my return pump flow but the idea of running the return back at the overflow has worked well. I need a bigger return pump but don't want to put out the electrical cost.