Help with pump placement

[fickle1]

I got my 2 6055's hooked up and I am trying to find the best placement in my tank. The tank is a 30g cube 20x20x20. They are currently in the top corners of the tank pointed down in the direction of the opposite corner, about 1/3 way up from the bottom. Here are some terrible pics.

Left Side

Front

Right Side

There seems to be a decent amount of flow, but ever week when I do a water change, I blow a ton of detritus off of the rocks. I have been fighting with a patch of cyano on the rock that the anemone is on. The tank is mixed now with zoas a RBTA and 1 SPS.

 

[rvitko]

I might lower the pumps a couple inches, but I think the positioning is otherwise good. It looks like a fairly new tank?

 

[fickle1]

I might lower the pumps a couple inches, but I think the positioning is otherwise good. It looks like a fairly new tank?

I will give it a try. I see a lot of people mentioning a gyre type flow. I don't know how well that would work with my situation (cube tank, rock placement). The tank is about a year old. It was very sterile to start (dry rock and dead sand).

 

[rvitko]

I think what you have set up is the closest approximation to a Gyre flow that is possible in a cube, it may be possible to tweak the angles a bit to get a better result.

My experience with slime algaes are that flow is only a small part of the equation, I would tune up the skimmer and if the lights are traditional tubes and getting older, consider changing them. Adding kalk can also help. A quick remedy is to simply add about a 1 tsp a day of 3% hydrogen peroxide, this will oxidize the organic matter it is utilizing and within a few days it should be gone, but will return if the overall condition of the tank isn't improved.

 

[fickle1]

I think what you have set up is the closest approximation to a Gyre flow that is possible in a cube, it may be possible to tweak the angles a bit to get a better result.

My experience with slime algaes are that flow is only a small part of the equation, I would tune up the skimmer and if the lights are traditional tubes and getting older, consider changing them. Adding kalk can also help. A quick remedy is to simply add about a 1 tsp a day of 3% hydrogen peroxide, this will oxidize the organic matter it is utilizing and within a few days it should be gone, but will return if the overall condition of the tank isn't improved.

I guess in my mind a gyre is a circular flow. The way my pumps are now, they cross over in the middle as they point towards the opposite corner.

I am still waiting on you to announce the 9004. :celeb1: Been holding off getting a better skimmer until then. My lighting is LED so I should be good there. I will give the peroxide a shot if it doesn't improve.

 

[rvitko]

You would generally just run one at a time to achieve a gyre flow and the key will be glancing the flow off the front at the right angle to get a rolling current. Generally this is just past the middle of the tank opposite the pump.

Hopefully the 9004 will be ready before too long, it is completely new and some of the early molds need some revision before production starts to get the fit correct.

 

[fickle1]

You would generally just run one at a time to achieve a gyre flow and the key will be glancing the flow off the front at the right angle to get a rolling current. Generally this is just past the middle of the tank opposite the pump.

Hopefully the 9004 will be ready before too long, it is completely new and some of the early molds need some revision before production starts to get the fit correct.

How long should the interval be for the pumps? I have them switching now every few seconds.

If you need a beta tester for the 9004 let me know :thumbsup:

 

[rvitko]

I think 1-6 hours would be the most effective.

 

[fickle1]

I think 1-6 hours would be the most effective.

Wow! That long? Sorry I am new to the world of Tunze powerheads. When one is on, should the other be off, or just lower?

 

[rvitko]

More recent findings seem to conclude that corals open their polyps to feed to fairly predictable currents, the tide rushes in, flow comes one way for some hours, then the tide rushes out and the flow direction changes. If the flow is overly turbulent and always changing the feeding response is interrupted. Their are waves overlaid on this current direction change and that is what the pulsing simulates. In a bigger tank I would run one pump at low power while the other pulses but with the tank size I think the only way to achieve something approximating a gyre is a longer pulsed run time of one pump.