Water Flow And Surface Agitationin In Tank Is It Ok?

[Spurry]

Hi i am in the prossess of setting up a new tank look here
and im wanting to make sure the flow of water and surface agitation is right

tank is a juwel rio 180
what i want the end project to look like is a partly planted tank for now
as i learn to look after the plants who knows but for now its going to be partly planted

as i have only done the land scaping for now im looking a getting the hardware bit sorted out first, my current river reef has a big water floing current with 2 pumps turning the water this makes quite a current and one points at the surface breaking the waters surface

ok back to the rio 180 after setting up the fluval 305 and its all working fine its very diffrent to the reef, its more like a lazy river and like a mill pond
on the surface is this right? or do i need more flow and surface agitation

im a bit comfused so any help would be good

cheers

 

[Hermithall]

The only major benefit of surface agitation for fish is the increase of oxygenation via gas exchange by increasing the water's surface area, great news for oxygen breathing fish - but for plants increasing the water surface area by agitation is not so desirable because the carbon dioxide that they 'breathe' is released from the water into the atmosphere via the same gas exchange process.
Don't worry about it though - you're only doing a partly planted tank for now, so just create a surface flow that's pleasing to you. If you go fully planted later on, you can worry about CO2 and stuff then.

 

[L_Plates]

Evening Spurry i have a Juwel Rio 240 so very similar tank to your just the size difference.

Here is a photo / diagram of my flow setup.

The filter is an Tetratec EX1200 and the Powerheads are 2 x Hydor Koralia Nano 900lph

Here is a little video as well showing the movement.

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm-zBdjDOew

Our set ups are different but it might give you some ideas of what you may need to do.

Cheers
LP

 

[Spurry]

Thanks for the info,

I’ve had to move the output from the filter back to the tank it was stuck on the back glass pointing straight forwards and it’s blowing the sand in the corner
And it made a mound, so I’ve directed it now slightly down the tank and its seems not as bad

Would it be better to have a spray bar?

 

[L_Plates]

Spray bars are great for spreading out the flow in a line evenly across the tank as well as surface agitation. What outflow does the 305 have ?

LP

 

[Spurry]

What outflow does the 305 have ?

LP

1000 LPH is that the outflow?

 

[L_Plates]

That's the volume but i was meaning the outflow pipe what's it like ? As you was asking about surface agitation.

LP

 

[Spurry]

That's the volume but i was meaning the outflow pipe what's it like ? As you was asking about surface agitation.

LP

ok i see now its this one

 

[L_Plates]

So with that nozzle you manage to get the surface movement that you would like ?

I had one similar on my old internal filter and it worked ok. But since using a spray bar i would not go back as the flow is far better as is the surface movement.

LP

 

[Tizer]

with the 305 i had, same outflow i used to have it an inch under the water then angled upwards, but as LP said spray bars are ace.

 

[Spurry]

not realy its very minimal i just pointed it a bit down the tank as it was blowing the sand out of the corner
i will do vid tomorrow to show you...

 

[Spurry]

with the 305 i had, same outflow i used to have it an inch under the water then angled upwards, but as LP said spray bars are ace.

Cheers I have moved it a little and its about a inch under as before was about 3 inch under for some reason it naturally points down so with some tweaking it now point up
And not blowing the sand about now but I'm going to look at a spray bar soon.