Power Head Placement

[forsaken541]

OK I am soliciting everyone on this so please chime in and give me your thoughts. I have a 90 gal glass tank not drilled with a HOB overflow to my sump and a Mag 7 for a return so unfortunately I have to use power heads to create flow for my system. I would like to know how to place my PH's so that
1. I dont get the dead spots I have now and
2. They dont blow my sand into piles.
Coments would be great, Diagrams would be even better. Thanks,
Erik

 

[BCT182]

For me, when I did have a sand bed, I placed them low in the tank. About 3 inches above the sand be and aimed the jets up. It was high enough so that it didnt pull sand up and having them low facing up gives you the ability to cover a large area of the tank away from the sand bed. Hope this helps.
Brett

 

[reefaddict]

rh placement

I have my powerheads shooting into and through the liverock to keep detrieus off and aid in biological filtration. as far as dead spots go, you may need to do trial and error to figure what works best for your tank.

 

[cronicreef]

Some also say to point the Powerheads towards each othere and place some pointing towards the glass/corners. The idea behind this is so the water move in several directions vrs just the one direction that the powerhead is faceing.

I only have a 50gal but this work out good for me. Even my buddies 300gal has a couple of powerheads. But the trick is makeing the most movement with the fewest powerheads and hide them if you can.

Hope this helps some.

 

[Katchupoy]

I have 4 PH's... on a wavetimer.... two one the left and two on the right...
1) Left side - just below the surface facing the left/front side of the glass. So the indirect flow will go to the right side of the tank.

2) Left side - just below the No. 1 pump but facing rear side towards to the right. This one doesnt turn on at the same time as No.1 but instead its No. 3 pump.

3) Right side - facing front/right side of the tank.

4) Right side - just below no. 3. Facing left side/rear.

So 1 and 4 turn on at the same time then 2 and 3 at the same time.
So the current will be clockwise for 1.5 minutes then counter-clockwise for another 1.5 minutes.


In this manner... I can put all current loving corals on the edges... and slow current corals on the center.

 

[NaH2O]

Erik - you may just have to play around with them. I read on another thread a suggestion to purchase a few algae magnets, and permanently attach the powerheads to them. This way, you can move them wherever you like easily, and won't be bothered with the suction cups.

Do you have any idea what size powerheads you want to use? You could always go with a lower flow one for closer to the substrate.