large tank question (no powerheads)

[pepino]

im going to upgrade from a 55 to a 140 with 30 sump is a 48 inches long tank and i was thinking on not using power heads i seen some good ideas in the past but i cannot find anything
any ideas ??
thanks in advance

 

[medicjason]

Im going to be doing the same thing with my 210g this weekend. I think as long as you have a good strong return pump with plenty of returns you will have good water movement you should be fine. At least I hope so.

Jason

 

[pepino]

well the tank has 2 overflows and i have lockline in the returns cannot remember how strong the pump is but is an external pump will look into that

 

[am3gross]

depends on what you are going to keep in the tank. i have a 210 and there is no way there is enough flow from just the returns.... you do not want a bunch of flow going through the sump either. i dont even count the return when i figure out how many times turnover i am getting.... right now i am gettting 50x turnover but i am gooing sps dominant... just my opinion......

 

[Jflip2002]

Yeah, that sounds like a bad idea. Your flow going through the sump, ideally should match your skimmers pump. If you want to do a Closed loop additionally, then you will avoid powerheads in the tank. I dont think you could get away with just the return pump, though. Youre asking for some it.

 

[Ed Reef]

Do a combi of Return and Close Loop. This way, you can eliminate power heads...

 

[Untamed12]

I dislike the look of powerheads also. My 400 gallon tank is doing very well with three Darts. Two are closed loops and the third is the return pump.

See...no powerheads. Each CL has 4 tank outlets, and there is 2 outlets from the return pump....so that is 10 tank outlets. If I've done what I set out to do, you probably don't immediately see them in the photo below. (4 of them are in the tank floor)

 

[pepino]

my mistake thats what i was looking for doing a closed loop but i just dont want to have to drill the tank i will have a mix reef more softies then sps but i seen some people doing pvc pipe around the top of the tank with lockline any body has some pictures of some like this

by the way nice tank untamed

 

[mcliffy2]

With Vortechs you will not even see powerheads - 2 vortechs would be awesome in there, and much much less of a pain than plumbing a closed loop IMO.

You can barely even see them:

 

[Lowredranger]

I know this does not constitute as no powerheads but would a wavebox in the back corner help a lot?

 

[ioreefer45]

Depending upon how fast your sump can handle, you can try a high throughput return pump and add penductors on your returns. this would give you additional flow.