Please Dont Laugh...

[thegiftedguinea]

Hello all, i have a question which you will find so stupid that i will have to hang my head in shame and possibly leave the forum in discrace, but here goes...

my tank is all set up with all tests as they should be. i have just purshased 55+ kg of LR and was wondering, where can i posision my heaters when the rock goes in? apart from maintaining them, i was thinking of putting them behind some of the rock but i dont know if they will still work as they should. the same goes for my power heads which brings me neatly on to my next question...

at my LFS the guy there told me i should buy these things to go on my powerheads. they attach to the outlet and the force of the water makes them spin around creating a sort of wave affect. he reacons he has them on his tank and there the mutts nuts! i have them 2 at the mo and they do work but i'm not sure if i'm getting enough circulation in the middle, especially since im getting corals and such like. he told me i would only need 2 powerhead but i think 4 would of been better. just between you and me i think he's a bit of a div! (thats idiot for my american cousins) anyway, just wondered if and bodyelse had come across these spinny things and what you thought of them.

I think i should introduce the guy at the LFS to my little friend!

 

[Chac]

Evening Tony

What Size of tank are we talking about

What is the flow rating on the powerheads you have at the mo

The 'things' you LFS sold you are Hydoflows, they are good for circulation but do cut down on the overall output of each powerhead

Heater, you can place anywhere really (Better Horizontal), I would also get a heater guard



PS I havent looked at my heater in about 2 years - You have just reminded me I have one tbh

Del

 

[Navarre]

HI and welcome to the forum.
Your questions are not stupid and are very relivant so dont feel embarrassed in asking as i am sure there are many people out there with similar questions. The only truely stupid question is the one that is never asked.

Your heater will be fine behind the rock and placed horizontal. Its wise to use a guard so that slow moving creatures such as snails wont get burnt when the heater suddenly turns on whilst they are on it.

The Hydor circulator is a great bit of kit but as mentioned it will slow down the flow. There is a modification you can do to the internal propellors to increase the flow but i would not worry overly about this too much. I would advise that you put as much flow as you can in the tank as you simply cannot have enough IME. I would suggest that you have 2 circulators on the powerheads and perhaps you could position 2 Power heads without the circulators into the flow of the random flow ones this will create alot of turbulance and still have a high flow rate.

 

[k.o.d]

The Hydor flo's do definitely cut down the flow but create great turbulence, the idea of coupling them with 2 powerheads is great, also you could fit a couple of Seio turbine pumps, they have a much higher flow but with a wider output, this way you can get the flow you need to the centre of the tank and still have turbulent flow.
My reef is set up like that and it is doing well

 

[thegiftedguinea]

Evening Tony

What Size of tank are we talking about

What is the flow rating on the powerheads you have at the mo

The 'things' you LFS sold you are Hydoflows, they are good for circulation but do cut down on the overall output of each powerhead

Heater, you can place anywhere really (Better Horizontal), I would also get a heater guard



PS I havent looked at my heater in about 2 years - You have just reminded me I have one tbh

Del

The tank is a Rean 120x50 probably around about 80 usable gallons with 2 maxijet 1200 power heads.
i'm glad i can put the heaters behind the rock as i was starting to wonder where all the stuff was going to live. will get the heater guards this weekend thanks alot.

 

[k.o.d]

Hi Tony,

Your circulation rate is quite low even before the Flo's are fitted, ideally the circulation should be 10x volume with higher being preferable.
On our 75 gallon reef we have 2 x Seio 1100's ( total flow 8800 lph ) and 2 x majijet 1200's with Flo's on ( probable flow 1400 lph ) and the corals/nems are thriving

 

[Navarre]

Agreed, you flow is far to low for a tank of this size. Make sure you aim for a minimum of 10x tank volume and preferrably 15x or 20x volume

 

[thegiftedguinea]

Agreed, you flow is far to low for a tank of this size. Make sure you aim for a minimum of 10x tank volume and preferrably 15x or 20x volume

ok, so if i get say 2 more maxijet 1200's, that should do me then?
can they just be standard powerheads then?
any ideas where i should put all these powerheads? that is i all this stuff pits in the tank.

 

[crazyelece]

Since no one else had brought it up, if you use a glass heater behind your rock work you may want to use a plastic guard on it to keep the rocks from breaking it if they shift. You also may want to opt for the plastic or aluminum type heaters such as the "Stealth" line.

 

[richard t]

If you add x2 more maxijets you will have 4800lph, this turnover is only the required minimum.
As already said a much more suitable set up would have a SIEO pump or two in it.
IF you had x2 sieo pumps turning over 8800lph, you could also use your maxijets to create turbulance which will help eliminate dead spots in your tank.

You seem to be worried about the amount of equipment in your tank. I have a 83gal tank myself and when the tank and equipment were new it did stand out a bit but it will blend in over time when there is algea growing over everything.

What type of skimmerwill you be running, and where are you going to put it

 

[thegiftedguinea]

If you add x2 more maxijets you will have 4800lph, this turnover is only the required minimum.
As already said a much more suitable set up would have a SIEO pump or two in it.
IF you had x2 sieo pumps turning over 8800lph, you could also use your maxijets to create turbulance which will help eliminate dead spots in your tank.

You seem to be worried about the amount of equipment in your tank. I have a 83gal tank myself and when the tank and equipment were new it did stand out a bit but it will blend in over time when there is algea growing over everything.

What type of skimmerwill you be running, and where are you going to put it

i'm going to run a red sea prism skimmer which will hang over the back of the tank. was also considering getting a wave machine, the one where it controls 2 powerheads to create turbulance. what do you think?
oh also i have a rena external filter which i was told to use without the trickle feature so that also kicks out a fair flow of water.

 

[Chac]

i'm going to run a red sea prism skimmer which will hang over the back of the tank. was also considering getting a wave machine, the one where it controls 2 powerheads to create turbulance. what do you think?
oh also i have a rena external filter which i was told to use without the trickle feature so that also kicks out a fair flow of water.

I would recommend staying away from any of the Prizm range as IMO (& loads of other reefers) they aint worth the box they come in

Have a look at the Deltec MCE600 Skimmer (Ebay), a cracking skimmer & more suited to your tank size

Are you just using the external for extra flow or are you going to be putting anything into it

 

[thegiftedguinea]

i'm going to run a red sea prism skimmer which will hang over the back of the tank. was also considering getting a wave machine, the one where it controls 2 powerheads to create turbulance. what do you think?
oh also i have a rena external filter which i was told to use without the trickle feature so that also kicks out a fair flow of water.

I would recommend staying away from any of the Prizm range as IMO (& loads of other reefers) they aint worth the box they come in

Have a look at the Deltec MCE600 Skimmer (Ebay), a cracking skimmer & more suited to your tank size

Are you just using the external for extra flow or are you going to be putting anything into it

the filter is all set up and running with all the stuff in. dont ask me whats in it because i stupidly did what the guy at the LFS told me. it basicly has thick and thin sponges, small hollow tubes and a flat bag of what feels like dust! i'm going to be picking up 55KG of live rock this weekend so i'm hoping that will do the job of filtration and the Rena wil work as a back up. what do you think?

 

[Aquascaper]

The simple modifiaction that Navarre mentioned for your Hydor is as follows:

• Pinch the clip at the top of the dome with a pair of small pliers to remove the dome itself
• Remove the 6 bladed plastic component and cogs
• Snip off 3 of the 6 blades to form a regular pattern, also make sure the cuts are as neat as possible
• Reassemble the cogs, blades and dome cover

Job done! By doing this is was able to attach a Hydor to a 1750lph powerhead without it shooting off - the overall effect is that the dome spins slower but with more output

 

[Chac]

The external will simply turn into a Nitrate Producer TBH, I personally would remove all the Bio filter media (Biofiltration is a job best suited to Live Rock IMHO) and use the external for something more suited to marine kepping ie Antiphos, Nitrate Sponge &/or Activated Carbon

You will need to clean these out regularly and they will need replaced when exhausted but they are more use to your tank than the Bio-Filtration you have in there at the mo (which you would need to clean out every 2 weeks or so so it didnt go live and end up Nitrtaes back into your tank anyway)

I did away with my external but they are handy for increasing flow & running Phosphatre removers (Antiphos etc.)


Your Liverock wont need any back up to take care of the Bio Filtration as long as it is give enought flow & time to acclimate to its new bioload