Flow in a Peninsula

[Justin Aretz]

Wanting to keep this threat very concise and specific. I have read through many posts with similar "titles", and am fishing through far too much info to not get very good answers. So:

How do you get strong flow with no dead spots in your peninsula, without powerheads on the 3 viewing panels?

I do NOT have a hood to hide any plumbing from above. I am not opposed to drilling my bottom panel, actually seemingly inclined to do so. Flow coming from the top third of the overflow panel from powerheads on either side of overflow, with a low loc-line return at the far bottom, to continue moving that water back towards to overflow and "close the loop" of flow. Does this make sense?

Very open to ideas, and thank you in advanced.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Your idea makes perfect sense to me. I have a friend with a 180g peninsula and that's just what he did.

 

[David Cher]

Your idea makes perfect sense to me. I have a friend with a 180g peninsula and that's just what he did.

any pics ?

 

[Saltees]

“with a low loc-line return at the far bottom, to continue moving that water back towards to overflow” How do plan to do this?

 

[Justin Aretz]

“with a low loc-line return at the far bottom, to continue moving that water back towards to overflow” How do plan to do this?

the two purple dots represent power heads up high, with the red dot representing one penetration/bulkhead with a Locline coming up and T-ing off to push the water along the bottom, back towards the overflow

 

[Saltees]

Nicely done! Can’t beat that!

 

[wildcrazyjoker81]

Following along as I am going to be setting up a 200G Glass Miracles Peninsula and have been trying to come up with ideas for flow. I have two drilled bulkheads on the drain side and have 2 1 inch sea swirls that I was tempted to put on the other, but same issue of not really wanting to have a hood since I am running a ATI 8 bulb Powermodule and don't want to trap the heat.

 

[Gablami]

What are the dimensions of that tank?

it doesn’t look that long. I don’t think you need to drill the bottom. One mp40 on each side of the peninsula panel on anti sync would work great. No need to over complicate things.

 

[Justin Aretz]

What are the dimensions of that tank?

it doesn’t look that long. I don’t think you need to drill the bottom. One mp40 on each side of the peninsula panel on anti sync would work great. No need to over complicate things.

As much as I would prefer for that to be the case, I am fearful. It is a 4 foot tank. I have run 4 foot tanks in the past where they really required pumps on either end to help with detritus build up. My two concerns are this, and having strong enough flow at the far end. I only keep acros, so this is of paramount importance to me.

 

[Justin Aretz]

Any peninsula owners want to chime in?

 

[ScottR]

Any peninsula owners want to chime in?

Will you have sand in the tank? I foresee possible dead points near the overflow at the bottom. You may want to play around with the positioning. If you go bare bottom, it does give you a bit more play room. I have a peninsula but have gyres at both ends. I still have dead spots near the bottom of the overflow and I am pushing the gyres. Also, as you add rocks and corals, flow gets disrupted and broken up. So it takes a bit of playing around with. No 2 tanks are the same.

 

[dbleoh7]

I'm having a peninsula (48" x 18" x 14" - L x W x H) built right now and was under the same issue you are. I finally decided on doing a single ice cap gyre on the wall side. I went with that rather than drilling from below because I wanted to minimize the complexity of the tank. Just another idea

 

[JoshH]

I went with a 4 outlet closed loop on my peninsula myself, all four coming out of the bottom of the tank.

If I were to do it again I wouldn't drill any holes in the tank and have an Internal closed loop. Pretty much only able to have this on a custom built tank but basically you have a false wall on the back of the aquarium where the overflow is located with the actual overflow in the center portion and on either side is a compartment for a closed loop DC pump and each pump has an outlet for plumbing at the bottom so you can run plumbing along the bottom of the tank to the far end

 

[Greybeard]

I feel your pain...

I have a 60 x 30 x 18" peninsula. Bare bottom. Mounted a pair of Tunze 6155 pumps in the bottom corners of the 'back' panel, directed down the long bottom corners. They're connected to an Apex, ramping slowly (over 2 minutes) from 20% to 50%, and then reversing, with the opposing power head doing the opposite, so one is ramping down, while the other is ramping up. Once every 4 hours, both powerheads ramp to 100% and stay there for 5 minutes in order to really stir things up. This keeps all the detritus swirling in the lee of a rock right up front, where it's real easy to siphon out.

Honestly, I got plenty of flow, corals are more likely blasted than lacking flow... BUT... it wasn't really good enough.

With that configuration, I was getting surface oils and such. Cloudy collection of gunk collecting on the surface, never made it to my overflows. Bugged the heck out of me. I ended up adding a Tunze 6040 to the 'Front' of my peninsula, yes, on one of the exposed viewing panels, pointed at the surface. It keeps the surface scum traveling towards the overflows, where the sox and skimmer can remove it. Didn't want to do it... but there just wasn't any other way I could make it work.

Eh... I'm used to it. The Tunze 6040 isn't very big. Heck, I even it plugged into one of their emergency switches, so that it'll run on a battery if the power fails. Surface movement being key to oxygenation... and the smallest pump in the system. Seemed to make sense.

 

[David Cher]

I feel your pain...

I have a 60 x 30 x 18" peninsula. Bare bottom. Mounted a pair of Tunze 6155 pumps in the bottom corners of the 'back' panel, directed down the long bottom corners. They're connected to an Apex, ramping slowly (over 2 minutes) from 20% to 50%, and then reversing, with the opposing power head doing the opposite, so one is ramping down, while the other is ramping up. Once every 4 hours, both powerheads ramp to 100% and stay there for 5 minutes in order to really stir things up. This keeps all the detritus swirling in the lee of a rock right up front, where it's real easy to siphon out.

Honestly, I got plenty of flow, corals are more likely blasted than lacking flow... BUT... it wasn't really good enough.

With that configuration, I was getting surface oils and such. Cloudy collection of gunk collecting on the surface, never made it to my overflows. Bugged the heck out of me. I ended up adding a Tunze 6040 to the 'Front' of my peninsula, yes, on one of the exposed viewing panels, pointed at the surface. It keeps the surface scum traveling towards the overflows, where the sox and skimmer can remove it. Didn't want to do it... but there just wasn't any other way I could make it work.

Eh... I'm used to it. The Tunze 6040 isn't very big. Heck, I even it plugged into one of their emergency switches, so that it'll run on a battery if the power fails. Surface movement being key to oxygenation... and the smallest pump in the system. Seemed to make sense.

Any pic

 

[FishTruck]

Look at Mr. Saltwater's video on using MP60s to push water from the overflow panel to the end of an 8 foot peninsula tank.

He does have some returns sweeping the surface, hidden in the cabinet though.

 

[Greybeard]

Any pic

Sure

 

[Justin Aretz]

I went with a 4 outlet closed loop on my peninsula myself, all four coming out of the bottom of the tank.

If I were to do it again I wouldn't drill any holes in the tank and have an Internal closed loop. Pretty much only able to have this on a custom built tank but basically you have a false wall on the back of the aquarium where the overflow is located with the actual overflow in the center portion and on either side is a compartment for a closed loop DC pump and each pump has an outlet for plumbing at the bottom so you can run plumbing along the bottom of the tank to the far end

with how many people are telling me NOT to drill my brand new tank, I am sure I will end up draining it before my cycle is complete to drill for a loop