MP40 Placement Question

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I have 3 MP40s I want to use on a Max 500 - tank size is 50.5 x 27.5 x 25. I'd like to put all 3 on one side. One of them about 3/4 of the way to the top of the tank in middle. The other two about 1/3 up from the bottom flanking the other one that is 3/4s the way up.

Are there any reasons I can't run them all on one side?

 

[bushdoc]

There’s no “Powerheads placement Police” to my knowledge, but the way you want to place them would create flow from one side.
Most of reefers would like to create turbulence and random flow and your placement will not help with that.

 

[royaleFork]

What is your goal and what coral are you trying to grow? That will impact placement more than anything else.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

As far as Coral growth, just success is all, it is a mixed reef. I am having to move all the wiring/dosing around on my tank today. I wanted to be able to get all my controllers on one side of the tank, organized together. But, from what I have read and feedback here, it sounds like I'll have to have a random controllers away from everything else. NBD.

 

[LAChief]

I run a single MP40 on one end of a 36 x 24 x 20 SPS dominated tank. Although the flow "comes from one side", in reef crest mode the MP40 still generates pretty random current from all directions in most of the reef. An example of how it does this:

running at a constant speed for some seconds creates a fairly laminar flow in a particular direction like bouncing off of the far glass and coming back towards the reef/MP40. The speed then changes and the new current collides with the flow coming back off of the glass and creates a very chaotic pattern. Hard to explain/visualize but it works for me. I think with multiple MP40s you could replicate and improve on this concept. The point is to create indirect flow with clashing currents and not blast the rock work directly with the powerheads.

I recommend just trying different positions/modes/master:slave orientations/etc. You can probably make it work.

 

[backbayreef]

I have 2xMP40s, one on each side and 3xWAVs on the back glass = 5 total on a 36x36x24 tank I started with all 3 WAV pumps on the back glass but later had to supplement on the sides for more.

You can never have enough flows! Agreed that Reef Crest mode is good. I think what you have there is fine, considering it’s a mixed reef. If you have grown out acros later, I suspect you’ll need more flows from different directions.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

Thank you everyone. In the back of my head, I also wonder if 3 MP40s on one side of a tank puts too much outward pressure on the glass. This tank in question is a very early Max S 500, it had the base cabinet with the channel in it and originally had that plumbed skimmer, as well as what I think is a euro brace up to on the front.