Water movement

techrach · 06-10-2006, 06:57 AM

I am new to marine fish and new to the forum. How do I tell if I have any dead spots in my tank. I have 4 Maxi jet 1200 and a current sea wave-maker. I am not sure my placement is best and need to know how I go about determining this. Hoping some one will have advice for me

acenia · 06-10-2006, 09:40 AM

Take some fishing line and stick it in the tank. If theres water movement it will sway with the current, if theres no movement it wont move and point straight down. Hope that helps

coral reefer · 06-10-2006, 09:47 AM

Welcome first of all to 3reef!
As for the importance of dead spots is concerned, do you plan on or do you have coral in your tank? If you have a fowlr tank, dead spots aren't as critical as it would be if you had a full blown reef.
The easiest and most efficient way of eliminating dead spots is to have less rock than was stressed a few years ago. With all the live rock in peoples tanks and set up like a wall covering up the whole back of the tank, that was the norm back then. Now it has been tested and is much more beneficial to have a deeper sand bed and alot less rock to aid in the decreased dead spots within a tank.
I would set up 3-4 powerheads and set them up to basically move the water in a circle about your tank. You could also, place the powerheads against the back of the tank and have them blow towards the front of the tank so the water will disperse once it hits the front glass.
The thing you want to avoid, is having a powerhead flowing directly on a coral with full force as you could damage the tissue of a coral, knock it over, and/or cause the polyps to not open up!!!!!
I would just experiment, and you can see the water movement in the tank especially by the movement of polyps and corals etc.
Hope this helps!

techrach · 06-10-2006, 02:29 PM

Very helpful information thank you. I have 4 powerheads and I can see movement I was worried about the middle of the tank as that is where all the Sand seems to go.

sssnake · 06-11-2006, 03:54 AM

Welcome to 3reef

Drop a couple of flakes of food and watch where they go and adjust your powerheads (if need be).

rickzter · 06-11-2006, 11:11 AM

You know, a good way I've noticed to see exactly how your water moves is to float a little seadweed selects and it will sway exactly how the water moves.

Be careful, too much water movement is not alway good and does not benefit all corals. Adjust your current depending on the corals you have. I have all my softies mid to low levels, my stonies mid to high placement. The big boys (aggressive are all at the top, with the exception of my Sinularia sp.).