Water movement powerhead/return pump placement

[jmccown]

I have toyed around with my return plumbing and my powerhead in several places on my tank. But what is the best mounting location for the best filtration/circulation in the respect of getting waste up to the overflows? I have my return coming back into the tank on the left side kinda facing the front/center of the tank flowing towards the surface of the water for surface agitation. Previously I had the return line pointing middle ways down the tank rather than aimed at the surface and it created a dead spot with no water movement on the surface. The return is on the left side of the tank, while the powerhead is mounted on the right side pointing toward the middle/lower part of the tank. In all my configurations I find that there is always debris floating around in the tank that can't quite make it up to the overflows where it needs to go. What might be the best configuration on this tank, considering the height (36") depth (26") and length (96").

Should I mount the return and powerhead both on the left side. I am only using the right side as the overflow and the left side as the return. I may rig something up on the return that gives me more direction, but need to know where to point these to give me the best circulation. My return pump is about 2300gph (VIA AQUA 8000) and I run one Seio 2600. Looking for some veteran advice.

 

[firefish2020]

As long as you have good internal flow generated by powerheads mostly you wont have to much to worry about. IMO you still need way more flow in that tank. You want to create an instance of wide flow bouncing off the sides and off of each other to produce chaotic churning that will reach the bottom. More Seios, Tunze or a Koalia4 would get the job done. IMO surprisingly, the Koralias puts out way more power than a Seio. Which ever you choose wont matter as long as you have enough.

 

[jmccown]

Arent' the Koralia PH's only about 1200gph though? My Seio is 2600gph. I've been debating getting another in the near future for the other side. I know the fish really love it. That big Naso I got the other day especially likes it. He just stays in the current.

 

[firefish2020]

About 1200 GPH so they say, what's nice about the Koralia is that it has a massive wide dispersal pattern, even wider than a Turbelle Stream at close range. In output it can't measure up to a 6100 but then again neither can a Seio IMO. The cheapest route to achieve what you want would be with the Koralia or Seios but you would still need a lot to equal the power of say 2 6100s and a wavebox, or one or two 6200 and a wavebox etc...you get the idea.

 

[fishmon]

whichever one you choose, you need another pump, one on each side at least plus your return. I use brine shrimp to help judge my flow/ deadspots. Just thaw some out and overfeed it until your tank looks kinda like a snowglobe, look where the shrimp aren't moving and where their settling and adjust your pumps outflows accordingly. This won't hurt your tank at all just turn up your skimmer a little to pull out the excess and a small water change afterward. Brine has a very low amount of fats and proteins and won't foul your tank as long as you don't do this often. It works great for me. jmo

 

[igotsalt]

That big Naso was beautiful! I noticed it was gone today. A very thick healthy fish. I bet it looks awesome in your tank! I have a blonde in my 125. He (she??) is very personable and eats from my fingers. It is very enjoyable to watch it FLY effortlessly through the tank!

 

[sixliner6]

Hey fishmon! That is a good tip. I think that I will have to try that. I have been trying to figure out how to position my 3 streams and I think that will really help.

 

[jmccown]

Yep, the Naso just took the spot of "my favorite fish." I've got a vlamingi tang that is the same size as the Naso that is a looker too.

One last thing on the water movement. Is everyone in agreement that there needs to be surface agitation as well? At this particular moment I have the return flowing kinda upwards at an angle to the surface and it keeps the whole surface of the water moving nicely. I'll try to post an updated pic of my tank maybe this afternoon for a better idea, but I will start looking into another method of water movement for the opposite side.

I'll check out the brine shrimp method, Jim. Thanks.

 

[firefish2020]

Surface agitation is only needed if you are trying to emulate certain reef conditions IMO. The areas with greater coral growth (SPS), endure extreme currents and agitation due to the crashing of waves against rocks. Now you can't really emulate the rock part without throwing spray everywhere, but you can emulate the surface movement with enough pumps. I have 2 6100 on a multicontroller on my system right now and the surface is very turbulent. But that's how I want it, the wavebox takes care of the lower zones and the chaos above eventually encounters the subsequent wave(s) and reached the bottom nicely. This provides flow in all areas of the system. When I go to a 6 foot tank I will likely add 2 more streams to increase the turbulence. My goal is dense growth near the surface so yes I need that much flow.

Let your goals determine your water flow, don't go out and buy a spa pump just to say you have 1000X turnover in your 55gal tank just to be cool. That's not what it's about, make sure you have the proper amount of flow for your system livestock and you will be rewarded with great growth and healthy long lived animals.

BTW: Make sure you feed that Naso by hand from time to time he likes the attention, took me about 2 weeks to learn him that trick.

 

[coralreefer]

I've always found if you have enough flow you should end up with good surface agitation.

Looks like Ron and I posted at the same time :lol:

 

[jmccown]

Will do Ron. He's about settled in now. I think just yesterday he learned when feeding time was. All my fish gather in one spot and he came right up with them.