I have no idea where to place my powerhead

[laezur]

Yo!

I’m battling a little bit of a cyano issue that has gotten worse since I changed the positioning of my powerhead, I just don’t think I’m getting enough flow through the rockwork and sand. Making it mighty easy for GHA to settle as well.

I have the Red Sea Reefer 170, and a TMC reef flow 2.0 4000 https://urmstonaquatics.com/tmc-reef-flow-2-0-4000-wavemaker.html


I’m also counting the return pump because it’s quite strong.

Where should I be placing this thing? Currently have it on the left wall and it’s clearly not very affective lol.

I have it facing up to the top of the water for surface agitation, I’m worried about not doing that but I do have a skimmer and the return creates SOME agitation.

cheers

 

[blaxsun]

Aiming up towards the water surface is good. You can always throw an airstone in to track your flow with the stream of bubbles.

 

[laezur]

Aiming up towards the water surface is good. You can always throw an airstone in to track your flow with the stream of bubbles.

I’ve noticed the flow with some bubbles before, it definitely SEEMS to reach the entire tank but possibly not strong enough. I was thinking about getting a second but then I feel it’s going to be too much flow, the RSR170 isn’t that big

 

[blaxsun]

I’ve noticed the flow with some bubbles before, it definitely SEEMS to reach the entire tank but possibly not strong enough. I was thinking about getting a second but then I feel it’s going to be too much flow, the RSR170 isn’t that big

It doesn't actually say what the flow rate is, but you typically want between 10x-20x your tank volume.

 

[laezur]

It doesn't actually say what the flow rate is, but you typically want between 10x-20x your tank volume.

It’s 4000 litres per hour which is just under 900 gallons per hour, my tank is 40 gallons so I feel like two would just make it hard to live in the tank

 

[52728299]

It’s 4000 litres per hour which is just under 900 gallons per hour, my tank is 40 gallons so I feel like two would just make it hard to live in the tank

I'm interested what you figure out for this. I have a 42 gallon tank and I have a wavemaker that puts out 925 gph at lowest setting and that's not counting the return pump.. I've noticed the flow may be too strong as my sand keeps getting blown away from the front of the tank and leaves a big crater. I've since turned my flow down as far as I can and will try and place my wavemaker elsewhere (lower in tank pointing more up perhaps?) but I have nothing but rock in the tank so far so looking to learn from this experience here

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Buy another pump. Its so hard to get good flow in your tank with just one powerhead (and a return pump). I used to have 4 powerheads in my 32 before I got a gyre.

 

[laezur]

I'm interested what you figure out for this. I have a 42 gallon tank and I have a wavemaker that puts out 925 gph at lowest setting and that's not counting the return pump.. I've noticed the flow may be too strong as my sand keeps getting blown away from the front of the tank and leaves a big crater. I've since turned my flow down as far as I can and will try and place my wavemaker elsewhere (lower in tank pointing more up perhaps?) but I have nothing but rock in the tank so far so looking to learn from this experience here

Is the tank new?

Fine sand moves a lot when it’s new, you’ll have to just keep moving it back into place when you do maintenance for a while. As your sand gets more mature and grows bio diversity it will become clumpier and won’t move as much. But even then, I still get sand movement from my powerhead. Just move it back into place now and again

 

[52728299]

Is the tank new?

Fine sand moves a lot when it’s new, you’ll have to just keep moving it back into place when you do maintenance for a while. As your sand gets more mature and grows bio diversity it will become clumpier and won’t move as much. But even then, I still get sand movement from my powerhead. Just move it back into place now and again

Yea it's been set up less than a week. Thanks for the reply glad I didn't drastically change anything

 

[busfullofderps]

+1 for another powerhead. Having them on opposite ends of the tank facing each other directly, or one above the other can create random current patterns that makes dead spots for detritus hard to form. I wouldn't worry too much with a new tank, The dirtier the better Good luck on the tank cycle!

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Yea it's been set up less than a week. Thanks for the reply glad I didn't drastically change anything

A week old tank is going to get all kinds of algae before it becomes stable. Use this time to fine tune your flow patterns, and as others have said, add another pump/powerhead if needed. It's really hard to say if your current flow pattern is contributing to the algae/cyano since the tank is so new.

 

[oldmonk]

@laezur
IMO, Its always beneficial to have multiple power heads than having one with a higher rating. It will help you to run them at different speeds and at different positions. You get a benefit of varied flow pattern. Redundancy also goes up

Thanks.

 

[laezur]

A week old tank is going to get all kinds of algae before it becomes stable. Use this time to fine tune your flow patterns, and as others have said, add another pump/powerhead if needed. It's really hard to say if your current flow pattern is contributing to the algae/cyano since the tank is so new.

Sorry mate, that's not OP.

My tank (OP) has been up and running just over 10 months

 

[laezur]

@laezur
IMO, Its always beneficial to have multiple power heads than having one with a higher rating. It will help you to run them at different speeds and at different positions. You get a benefit of varied flow pattern. Redundancy also goes up

Thanks.

Absolutely. I've been thinking about moving the powerhead either to the other side of the tank, and lower down so it smashes into the rocks and keeps them free of nuisance algae or just stopping it from facing the surface of the water so I get more of a flow around the tank while I figure out if I'm going to get another.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Sorry mate, that's not OP.

My tank (OP) has been up and running just over 10 months

My apologies.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

You want multiple powerheads. You will get more turbulent flow and it takes a lot of flow to be "too much". I like to target 20-40x turnover is LPS/softie dominated tanks and 50-80x turnover in SPS dominant tanks. 10x turnover absolute minimum for fish only tanks.

For a 40 gallon tank that would be 400 gph absolute minimum, 800-1600 gph lps/softie, 2000-3600 gph SPS dominant.

 

[laezur]

You want multiple powerheads. You will get more turbulent flow and it takes a lot of flow to be "too much". I like to target 20-40x turnover is LPS/softie dominated tanks and 50-80x turnover in SPS dominant tanks. 10x turnover absolute minimum for fish only tanks.

For a 40 gallon tank that would be 400 gph absolute minimum, 800-1600 gph lps/softie, 2000-3600 gph SPS dominant.

Running a mixed tank at the moment, should I still look towards the higher end of things?

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Running a mixed tank at the moment, should I still look towards the higher end of things?

Probably 40-50 then. Powerheads pointed toward surface so the top half has higher flowrate than lower half.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Running a mixed tank at the moment, should I still look towards the higher end of things?

I believe the typical "turnover" recommendations refer to how much water goes through your filter/sump, not how much internal flow you have.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

I believe the typical "turnover" recommendations refer to how much water goes through your filter/sump, not how much internal flow you have.

My "turnover" recommendation was internal flow through tank, not sump flow.