Flow issues, aesthetics and power head frustrations

[Cory]

How much do you have in there??

About 215 watts of pumps. Its not about the wattage. Its more about saftey and the potential for ripped cables leaking copper and electricity. My gyres cable split near the motor. Could have caused a disaster. Thus my quest for electricty free in the tank.

 

[mcarroll]

To quote from Turbelle® stream electronic:
It can provide a wave simulation, oscillation flow, an automatic search for the resonance frequency when the oscillation flow is used, and it is also equipped with a food timer. It can be directly connected to a Multicontroller / SmartController 7000. The pump is therefore able to operate together with other pumps, for example, in the high/low tide mode.

Most of that you can see on the Turbelle® Controller advanced pic below. (...which is from the Stream 3. Different pumps might have slightly different controller setups....based on the pump's actual functions, of course.)

To me, this is all the controller I need....any wave pulse or schedule I want I can pretty easily pull off...and changes are turn-the-knob easy. YMMV but I never cared that much for the pre-programmed modes.

Each Tunze DC pump controller has it's own setup, but most controllers (like this one) can also work in tandem when controllers are linked to each other.

Check out the link above and/or check out any Stream Electronic pump manual for specific features.




Linking them to the SmartController is another question.

You probably want to check out the particulars on the SmartController 7000 as it's a complete controller (water level control, pH control, etc). I've seen folks speak favorably of it compared to some other popular controller products.

 

[mcarroll]

FYI you can see all their "handheld" controllers for comparison if you run a search for "7090" on tunze.com. (At least I think it's all! It's several.)

 

[mcarroll]

About 215 watts of pumps. Its not about the wattage. Its more about saftey and the potential for ripped cables leaking copper and electricity. My gyres cable split near the motor. Could have caused a disaster. Thus my quest for electricty free in the tank.

Power safety is an excellent goal, but those heaters are your only real worry I think....(almost) everything else is low-voltage.

I've only seen one or two tanks do without traditional heaters where they were needed.....it's not cheap to do!!

 

[[Cameron]]

Best setup I have seen was on a large 300g tank. Rather than go with power heads, the guy drilled the tank with two additional holes. He then hooked return pumps to those and went over the top with nozzles. Later he converted to homemade pvc spray bars right at the surface. Took a few shots at getting everything dialed in but it was highly effective and probably the least obtrusive. Not a cheap solution and does create a bit of an eyesore on the back of the tank but otherwise something to consider for those looking for the ultimate in low profile flow.

 

[Greybeard]

My tank looked like it had ear buds on.

Hahahahahaha

All I can do is commiserate. I have a 5' long peninsula, and I either have a powerhead on the view-able end, or I have flow issues. It's a trade off, one or the other.

My solution. Like it or not, best I can do. I superglued small zip tie anchors to the end of the glass panel, and got it as out of the way as I could.

 

[leahfiish]

One option that I haven't seen listed here is a wave box.

 

[ShawnSaucier]

Best setup I have seen was on a large 300g tank. Rather than go with power heads, the guy drilled the tank with two additional holes. He then hooked return pumps to those and went over the top with nozzles. Later he converted to homemade pvc spray bars right at the surface. Took a few shots at getting everything dialed in but it was highly effective and probably the least obtrusive. Not a cheap solution and does create a bit of an eyesore on the back of the tank but otherwise something to consider for those looking for the ultimate in low profile flow.

I had toyed with a similar idea when I was installing the new sump. My overflow has three bulkheads installed; 2x drains and 1 return. I was toying with the idea of making all three bulkheads drains and running my return behind the tank and splitting to 2x sea swirls. But I’m not sure this would be near enough flow. Drilling at this point isn’t an option without fully shutting down the tank. Also, because I don’t fully understand the safety measures involved, a closed loop makes me nervous.

 

[Greybeard]

Closed loops are a viable option... a bit complex to set up, and once drilled, you're kinda stuck with it, but it is a safe and efficient method of supplying massive amounts of flow to a system without a bunch of in tank equipment. Since they are, by definition, a CLOSED loop, they're much less problematic than a normal overflow/sump/return system. Turn the pump off, water flow stops, but it doesn't 'drain' anywhere... no place for it to drain to. You can put intakes and outlets in the bottom of the tank without undue worry.

They were never real common, but a decade or so back, they were more common than they are now. Modern in tank water moving pumps are _so_ much better now than they were a decade or so back. Speaking as someone who had a tank full of noisy, inefficient old style Maxijet pumps... ugh. Things change. The first maxijet pump I bought was to replace an airstone on a bubble tube and improve the performance of my under gravel filter

 

[[Cameron]]

Closed loops are a viable option... a bit complex to set up, and once drilled, you're kinda stuck with it, but it is a safe and efficient method of supplying massive amounts of flow to a system without a bunch of in tank equipment. Since they are, by definition, a CLOSED loop, they're much less problematic than a normal overflow/sump/return system. Turn the pump off, water flow stops, but it doesn't 'drain' anywhere... no place for it to drain to. You can put intakes and outlets in the bottom of the tank without undue worry.

Even today we can see similar designs such as the Red Sea Max E series. I like the idea of creating a small full length section of the display tank for plumbing and main tank flow. Clean look but isn't a cheap option once the loss of 5% to 10% of main tank visibility is factored in.

That 300g tank was built in the late 90s when wave pumps were limited and could not easily circulate a tank that large. The last time I saw it up was in 2011 but I believe it is still going. At the time it used Blueline pumps which were quiet and the flow cranked from one end to the other. It also had a 100g trough for the sump and a 150g trough for the fuge in the basement.

 

[ShawnSaucier]

One option that I haven't seen listed here is a wave box.

I’ve looked at them.. seems they have faded in popularity..?

 

[leahfiish]

I’ve looked at them.. seems they have faded in popularity..?

Definitely seems like theytare more of a niche product. They di take up a lot of space in the tank.

 

[ShawnSaucier]

Definitely seems like theytare more of a niche product. They di take up a lot of space in the tank.

They do. If it was a viable product for my tank, I would attach it to the side of my overflow.

 

[ShawnSaucier]

About 215 watts of pumps. Its not about the wattage. Its more about saftey and the potential for ripped cables leaking copper and electricity. My gyres cable split near the motor. Could have caused a disaster. Thus my quest for electricty free in the tank.

Can always attach a grounding rod to your system for extra safety

 

[oracle86d]

My tank has been up for 4+ years and I’ve gone through 3 types of in tank flow systems. When I first built the tank(2013) I was running Tunze 6105 pumps x2. They were large bulbous eye sores and failed a month apart two years in. The flow was great but not ideal in my system. Placement was a pain due to the large size.
So I switched to the Gyre system (x2) (2015) and 6 weeks in started having all the issues. Purchasing and replacing enough parts to easily pay for a third gyre, I laid them to rest. The flow pattern was amazing and if I had not had so many issues and costs to maintain they would probably be still on my system.
Then came the MP40qd’s (x2)(2016). I had been avoiding these for the simple reason that it feels like you have to run them on the sides of the tank (L+R) to maximize the flow pattern and they are Omni directional. When placed in the L/R orientation it kills the view on the sides and you still have cords crossing the glass. My tank looked like it had ear buds on. Over the holidays I rescaped my system and moved the pumps to the back of the tank. Loved that they disappeared and opened up the sides again, but the flow has been ech.. as I have to turn them down so far to not cause a sand storm. Every other day I’m moving sand back into the front corners of the tank, trying to find corals that have been buried. I’m having a bit of a green Cyano outbreak. It could be due to the movement of the scape, but makes me feel like there is not enough flow. If I had been able to, I would have used 4 MP10’s along the back, but my glass is to thick at 3/4”. Today at 5:30 am, the clicking of a bad wetside woke me up from a dream. After my gyre experience, I had purchased a spare wetside unit just in case, so I had to find it half asleep and made the switch. Again, moving sand back to the corners.
So here I am spinning the hamster wheel and trying to figure out what I need to do to sort my flow whoas.
Adding a third MP40 (L/C/R) on the back wall, I could maybe reduce the flow a bit more on the two sides and maybe avoid burying rocks/corals. It would be tricky to get it back there as the tank is against a wall and 30” front to back. Also may lead to having to rescape a bit to accommodate the flow. But I fear that I may still be fighting the sand issues. I’ve looked at the Apex WAV system, which I had almost bought instead of the MP40’s. I held off because they were a new product( again fear after the gyre issues) and wanted to wait and see how they held up after some time in hobbyists tanks. Reading reviews seem to hint at failures happening around the 18 month mark.
Another system I have been trying to research is the Panta Rhei Hydrowizard but it has been difficult to find info in English.
Any help/advice would be appreciated. If you made it this far in my rant, thanks. And if you have tips on training diamond gobies to move sand back to my corners and keeping corals unburied please PM me

Tell them no and Tap the glass. Use food. Worst case of course is catching them. adding a nasty invert or predator of sorts like a fish that they would be startled by.

 

[ShawnSaucier]

Tell them no and Tap the glass. Use food. Worst case of course is catching them. adding a nasty invert or predator of sorts like a fish that they would be startled by.

What is this pertaining to? Never mind, I see what you were commenting on

 

[Cory]

Can always attach a grounding rod to your system for extra safety

Yes thanks. Already got one problem is, it wont protect the tank from copper.

 

[revhtree]

I like Tunze pumps for a lot of reasons, one of them being that I prefer the cords on the inside of he tank. Depending of the placement, especially with a black background, they blend in pretty well.

the inside of the tank.

You prefer chords?

 

[mitch91175]

I have a 240 that I have 2 MP40wqd and 2 MP40wes. I have 1 of each on both sides of my tank. Before I had 1 on each side and 2 on the back and just didn't like the flow and nutrient export (overflow is in the middle of the tank). To me, when I had the powerheads on the back of the tank, when I would feed I could see where the food would flow and didn't like it so I moved both of them to the sides. So now having 2 MP40 on each side, my tank looks much better than before and my skimmer is really skimming better now. My tank is 7' long. I like that the flow in the middle of the tank isn't as strong because that will allow me to put coral that do not like a lot of flow. Also with having them on the sides, my nems stay on the left and right side of the tank. Also before the move, my LR just looked kinda dirty, but after the move, not so much.

 

[mcarroll]

You prefer chords?

Me too. The motor-on-the-outside thing is interesting, but not as good IME.