Advice on flow, in planning phase.

lookout888 · Dec 30, 2022

Hey all, looking for some advice. I am working on my new house layout and planning a good size aquarium. I am trying to start the planning with flow as this is one of the areas i have not done very well on my current setup. The tank will be viewable from almost all sides. (The one long side will have 5'-6' in the fish room). I am not sure I want to drill any holes in the bottom of the tank as I am planning for this tank to be up for 20-30 years and don't want to deal with draining 1000g+ of water. Tank will be mostly SPS. The current plan (unless someone can convince me otherwise) is to use 2 bigger ABYZZ pumps for 2 close loops. Drill inlets on the back wall in the fish room and go over the top, down the inside of the tank and under the sand/rock. I am not worried about seeing the pipe a as I can hide with rock. Then run 2 pipes down the length of the tank and have lock line coming off every so often ( 1' or 1.5') assuming i should decrees the main line side as it goes further down the tank to even out the output pressure. The lock lines will hopefully provide a ""up draft" type of flow on each side of the tank. alternating the flow between the pumps will hopefully give a random flow from one side to the other. The sump return will run down the middle above the tank and return on the oposite end of the overflow.

Will this be enough? Is there a better idea?

Plan is to do 13'x5'x 36". This may end up being 11'x4'x36" depending on if i can find anyone reasonable to do 13'

Adding a picture of the current plan.

Thank you for any input.
Mike

Jekyl · Dec 30, 2022

10x turnover per hour I thought was the general idea. Maybe more for sps. So however many gallons, your pumps should be doing 10x that in an hour.

bushdoc · Dec 30, 2022

Tidal gardens have nice video on close loop:

lookout888 · Dec 30, 2022

Jekyl said:
10x turnover per hour I thought was the general idea. Maybe more for sps. So however many gallons, your pumps should be doing 10x that in an hour.

Thank you for your reply as that is a general rule of thumb, I have found in my many years that it is very situational. I could have 20x plus turn over but if the flow is not planned out it will not be adequate. For example, I have a cube now and have well over 20x and not get good flow through the tank. but my old 120 had less then 10x and it had great flow due to placement and abilty to get a good wave.

lookout888 · Dec 30, 2022

bushdoc said:
Tidal gardens have nice video on close loop:

Thank you, yes this is a great video I have watched a few times. Thier tanks are all shallow and they go more the octopus method.

bushdoc · Dec 30, 2022

I didn’t have good experience with close loop on my 200 gal, but big part of it was that LFS who helped me set it up didn’t have a foggiest idea how to do it.In general flow was inadequate, fortunately I supplemented it with powerheads later. Unfortunately on tank your size powerheads are not the best solution.

lookout888 · Dec 30, 2022

bushdoc said:
I didn’t have good experience with close loop on my 200 gal, but big part of it was that LFS who helped me set it up didn’t have a foggiest idea how to do it.In general flow was inadequate, fortunately I supplemented it with powerheads later. Unfortunately on tank your size powerheads are not the best solution.

100% agree. Hoping to get some good input to do it right the first time.

o2manyfish · Jan 3, 2023

I have 10x4x2.5 - I'm using a pair of the Abyzz Flow Canons. One on Pulse/Wave and one on Flow. All the water in the tank rocks and circulates. Only 4 months into this setup, but I am really happy with the water movement.

The Abyzz Canons can be mounted to the side with a magnet or they have a clamp mount to mount to a pipe and install the pipe anywhere.

If you can figure out how to hide them they will definitely move all the water in your tank.

Dave B

lookout888 · Jan 4, 2023

o2manyfish said:
I have 10x4x2.5 - I'm using a pair of the Abyzz Flow Canons. One on Pulse/Wave and one on Flow. All the water in the tank rocks and circulates. Only 4 months into this setup, but I am really happy with the water movement.

The Abyzz Canons can be mounted to the side with a magnet or they have a clamp mount to mount to a pipe and install the pipe anywhere.

If you can figure out how to hide them they will definitely move all the water in your tank.

Dave B

Thank you, I looked at these. Assuming you don't have sand in your display? I am still going back and forth on sand or not sand. I like the look of it, but it can def be a pain. They def would move the water I would just have to see how I would hide them. I guess the other downside to them is you have to remove them to clean where a close loop the pump is outside and easy to maintain/replace.
Mike

Ashish Patel · Jan 16, 2023

Nice plans., with you on not drilling holes on the bottom but say you need 1 or 2 closed loop. I would have 2x1.5" bulkhead drilled 12" below waterline on either side of the overflow. Get 2 nice DC pumps (best on you can afford). You will get really high flow bc or the 2' head pressure. Add 6 1" holes in eurobrace and run the closed loop that way.

This was my plan originally for a 450g peninusula which later changed to a 400g on the wall. I still ran similiar configuration and my flow is outstanding. Even better i can use one of those 1" outlets as a powerwash to clean rock. Since every outlet will have a valve, adjusting where you need more flow is easy

Just to give you an idea. This is a vectra l1. No other flow in the tank at this point but 4 outlets. I actually only run flow from the front two seaswirls with 3/4" eductors now (game changer) and have it run through a UV also at intensity 50% at night and max 80% during the day. No deadspots in the tank and no need to remove detrius. It would work for you aswell just double or triple the GPH. You can run fancy pipe inside lower in the tank but honestly i dont think its neccessary bc the flow bounces of the glass and provides already too much flow along the bottom for my gonis and zoas. Plus you will have propeller pumps pushing water down the middle anyways so i would keep the majority of the flow from closed loop on the far side to create turbulence.