Powerhead placement

Have my new 75 gal set up and running. I placed a amxijeet 1200 in each top rear corner aiming towards the middle of the front. Problem is it blows my sand aroound creating gullies and troughs. Any suggestions on palcement or is it simply trial and error.

Thanks

 

Do you have the outlets facing down or up?

I also have a 75 with 3 maxijet 1200's I have one on each end of the tank in the back with the outlets facing up slightly towards the surface of the water and towards the center of the tank, The 3rd is on the back / center of the tank facing up slightly and towards the right of the tank. I do get a little sand movement but not to bad. They do a great job of keeping the surface water moving ;D.................... John

 

Thanks. What is the effect on the HOT skimmer with the surface agitated. I was under the impression the skimmer was more efficent when there was surface tension.

 

Sorry that should say "when there is no surface agitation". Also my PH's currently are level, not tilted up or down.

 

About the skimmer I don't know about the H.O.T. skimmer as my skimmer is in the sump and I have never used a hang on tank skimmer, But If you read the instruction manual for the Maxi-jet it recommends that you set the flow director to agitate the surface water.
This set up is working well for me but I am sorry I don't know what effect it will have on your skimmer........... John

 

Thanks. Changed them tonight when I had to do some maintance and we'll see what the effect is.

 

Hope it helps ya............... John

 

Ok, so here is the dilema. I have 2 maxi-jet 900s, a maxi-jet 400 and one of those silly powersweep 212s (seized in forward position, don't they all?). My overflow is in the right rear corner, the return is in the left rear corner (350+ gph). Right now, I have the mj 400 low on the right side, pushing water behind the rocks, which seems to be a suitable place for that thing.

Now I can't decide to do with the rest of the stuff. Should I move the overflow and return toward the middle with the return pointed at the center-front of the tank and put a mj600 in each corner (on the back panel)? Should I put the mj600s on each side panel and leave the overflow and return where they are?

Fletch, how low in the tank are your powerheads? It's funny, this sounded like an easy thing before I had all this stuff in hand, now I'm just confused! [smiley=confused1.gif]

 

GraviT

FWIW, when I set up powerheads I always try to make the flows crash into each other. That gives really good random water movement in the tank.

I would, as you mentioned, direct the return water flow to the front centre, then aim the streams from the powerheads so they flow into the return stream. At some future stage you could also add some random timers into the set up.

John

 

Thanks JohnO. I took your advice and aimed the return toward the center of the front glass. I then mounted a powerhead on each side panel, one aiming toward the front, the other slightly toward the back. Both of the streams are crossing the return water flow. I tried aiming both powerheads toward the front, and wound up with a pretty nifty vortex flow in the center of the tank. However, I don't think the stuff (star polyps, colt frag, closed brain, various shrooms, some zo's) around that area would appreciate that for very long. I think it may take a few days for my fish to consider me a friend again...if it wasn't bad enough that tha actinics were on for hours longer than usual, they suddenly had this whirlpool right smack in the middle of the tank to deal with. [smiley=biggrinbounce.gif]

I also borrowed a lamp timer from my reptile tank that will cycle one of the powerheads about every 30 minutes during the day. This is only temporary until I decide how badly I want the Red Sea Wavemaster!