Has anybody come up with any great ideas to ensure your gettin good circulation and flow in the tank with putting in power heads or streams, just incase the little fella's got an urge to blend himself???

Someone floated the idea of hard piping into the tank with a pipe and then splitting with lots of holes drilled in to get flow off in all directions but im not sure bout that......???

Over to you...... :bugout:

I teke it everyone uses power heads inside their tanks then???

Your instincts are right, we've lost a couple of bimacs to powerheads. But also, we've had octos that take them apart!

Yes, most of of use powerheads, but you can be careful to find a well-protected design, and can protect it even more with netting. I never had any problem with my powerhead and my bimac.

Nancy

cheers Nancy,

SO i suppose no one has come up witha way of gaining circulation and flow without the use of a power head then.....hmmmmm

Thatsa bit of a poor show really, i would of thought someone might of tried???

In my main tank, me and my dad set up a plumbing situation where there is a powerhead in the sump, but the circulation goes through a pipe that goes around the sides and comes out through small holes...

This is a basic (and bad) drawing of the setup. the water enters the tank through the holes in the pipe.(BTW, the holes are on the bottom. Also, one thing to note: you may have to clear the holes once/6 months or so- aiptaisia and things like to grow on them for some reason.

I have always used powerheads and as long as the intakes are protected from prying arms there is no problem,

Cephkids use of the return from the pump is ideal, the spray bar is a good idea

Nice one Cephkid thats agreat idea and similar to one I have been reveiwing with some mates.

We had thought up the idea of splitting the return to the main tank and then spanning off it with the piping like you. hhmmmm gunna have to ponder on this one.

Dont suppose you have any pics do you??


Colin I suppose you used somethin like netting to protect the intake or womesn tights (pantyhose)??

pics? Okay, just remember-the spraybar is only temporarily taken apart. we're fixing a leak...

Will take pics tonight.

cheers mate

Sorry for the delay, I'm having some trouble with my computer. Will post the pics once this gets cleared up.

no probs mate im not on line all the time anyway due to work commitments, so cool :D

i have my return running all the way to the bottom in the back corner of the tank split up with t-pieces so that there is current on all levels of the tank

though the flow isnt as strong as id like :(

aaaah, I'll post my pics once I stop being so lazy and get outta this papa-san chair... :P

If you can get a pic Cephkid that would be cool, bout to redo my piping (3rd reconfigure, bigger size with new more powerful pump)

been waiting on pump for moons but was to be posted with a mates crabs....arrrghh hurricanes hurricanes hurricanes!!!

was posted with crabs (some eventually sourced!), got lost and ended up stuck in post office...crabs died.... package returned...with my pump!!!!

There retrying in a few days!!!

here

...here...

...and here. Now, off to my grand old chair... :sleeping:

Cephkid Your a diamond mate!!!

On your photo number 3 im lookin at your pipework and thinkin....

1) You have drilled holes in the pipework to create a spraybar effect with it comin out the end as well havnt you??

2) Is the pipework fixed in the tank with suckers along its length to help it stay up?? an if thats the case doesnt the octo pull it down?? my fear is that is exactly what'll happen especially when its at full growth, any thoughts?? i cant rememebr how old your set up is

Nice tank BTW, is that some kinda montipora in the same pic??

Noticed you have another kinda softi ( cant rememebr pic near back left of your tank an can never rememebr name of softi!!!) in there that i want an am gunna put in me nano reef when i get that rollin aswell!!

Cheers :D

1. yep. :mrgreen:
2. screwed into the black overflow, and has these black "clamps" inside the overflow. 3 years old.
3. the softy on the right is a kenya tree, the ones on the left are zoanthids that use LOTS of light if you want full coloration.

HTH!

I went with a closed loop system. I have a 1500 gph pump that sucks water in from two spots in the tank and returns it via 4 spots. I posted pictures of it a while back. I like this method a lot, no powerheads, less cords and the tank seems tidier.

im settinng up my tank right now and ive drilled 2 holes for the returns one on the top left side of the tank and the other on the bottom right of the back that way i get a good circulation when piping the returns put a tbar at the top left corner to connect the to returns to 1 pump that way when the power goes out it doesnt drain your tank into your sump and furthur onto your floor

RandyB Wrote:

I went with a closed loop system. I have a 1500 gph pump that sucks water in from two spots in the tank and returns it via 4 spots. I posted pictures of it a while back. I like this method a lot, no powerheads, less cords and the tank seems tidier.

Yeah mate I really like this way of gettin circulation as long as the intake grilles are not too tight to be clogged all the time and not too apart to let him get in. Not sure an intake like tights would be a good idea here. Not pretty either!!

Only thing is, is that ive no room above tank for pumps to do this :confused: have to think about it, whic is all i can do at mo, no time to continue my set-up and manage tank properly at mo. doin my head in!!!


joefish84 Wrote:

im settinng up my tank right now and ive drilled 2 holes for the returns one on the top left side of the tank and the other on the bottom right of the back that way i get a good circulation when piping the returns put a tbar at the top left corner to connect the to returns to 1 pump that way when the power goes out it doesnt drain your tank into your sump and furthur onto your floor

Yeah mate ive got similar... return at high level one (RHS) and then tank is drilled on other (LHS) at bottom with a weir in front, but i reckon there should be more flow than just that.


Nice one

im going to be using an external pump that is going to pump water into the top front left side of the tank and also the back bottom right to get a good circular flow the t for the split will just be at the top of the tank that way if the power goes out the tank wont drain. also i am using 1 inch return piping... i figure in a 75 g that will be enough flow for the octo along with 2 overflows

wow i just posted the same thing twice thats funny