Flow plan for my new tank.. enough???

[golf nut]

If you have the source at the overflow end at the bottom,moving down the tank and the sump returns at the surface at the opposite end you will get a barrel effect that will guarantee surface water gets to the overflow and detritus is picked up and into the water column.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by nlreefguy

Thanks a lot, I'd be interested to hear what he has to say. I only want to do this once i.e. the right way the first time! I have wasted so much money on equipment upgrades since I started the hobby, it would boggle the mind!

ok, so few questions first, are you drilling for a sump? and are you planning on having a sand bed?

the reason I ask, is in this size of tank is it almost impossable to get a good ballanced flow rate with sand with out resitricting most of the flow to the top 1/3 of the tank. I ended up with 4 tunze 6060's two seio's and and two Mak4 for return in my tank giveing me a water movement equivalant of 104X in the display. it was gental flow anywhere in the tank but I would have never been able to achieve this with sand.

if you are thinking closed loop, forget it with a 3 sidded viewing tank. if you were only viewing 2 sides, the best way to do a closed loop on this size would be to drill 6 holes on each end about 1 to 1.5" and put a big bad pump on that pushing about 5 to 7000 gph to create a current accros the tank then a few powerfull power heads to randomly mix it up a bit. but.

as for pumps, vertex look good, but if you want seriouse flow I would go with 4 20's in that tank. the problem will be hiding the wires as you want one down low and one higher.. you can get away with 2 but I can tell you that you will have lots of dead spots with low flow depending on how your rock is set up and how much you use. as for the 2 20's or 1 40. forget about trying to do it with one pump the dynamics in this size of tank will not give you good flow at all.

now there is another way to obtain lots of flow with with fewer pumps but it requires a specific set up for your rock for it to work.

Steve

[nlreefguy]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

ok, so few questions first, are you drilling for a sump? and are you planning on having a sand bed?

the reason I ask, is in this size of tank is it almost impossable to get a good ballanced flow rate with sand with out resitricting most of the flow to the top 1/3 of the tank. I ended up with 4 tunze 6060's two seio's and and two Mak4 for return in my tank giveing me a water movement equivalant of 104X in the display. it was gental flow anywhere in the tank but I would have never been able to achieve this with sand.

if you are thinking closed loop, forget it with a 3 sidded viewing tank. if you were only viewing 2 sides, the best way to do a closed loop on this size would be to drill 6 holes on each end about 1 to 1.5" and put a big bad pump on that pushing about 5 to 7000 gph to create a current accros the tank then a few powerfull power heads to randomly mix it up a bit. but.

as for pumps, vertex look good, but if you want seriouse flow I would go with 4 20's in that tank. the problem will be hiding the wires as you want one down low and one higher.. you can get away with 2 but I can tell you that you will have lots of dead spots with low flow depending on how your rock is set up and how much you use. as for the 2 20's or 1 40. forget about trying to do it with one pump the dynamics in this size of tank will not give you good flow at all.

now there is another way to obtain lots of flow with with fewer pumps but it requires a specific set up for your rock for it to work.

Steve

Thanks for the info.... I was planning on having a sand bed. I have a bare bottom in my current tank and, I dunno, there's just something I miss about the look of a sand bed. If it's impossible, now mind you, I would revise my plan. As far as overflow goes, I was thinking about HOB, maybe a CPR c-siphon, but I could go with drilled I guess. I really haven't decided which is best. I have a HOB on my current tank and I've had drilled tanks in the past and I have to say I don't really notice the difference as far as funstion goes. I also kind of like the fact that the CPR looks like it will take up so little real estate in the tank. Kind of still up in the air with that one, I guess.

[golf nut]

When stirring coffee you always run the spoon around the perimeter of the cup, you never spin the spoon in the middle it sn't as effective and takes the same amount of energy..

If you stirred a bathtub with a large spoon it would keep moving for days to some degree.

Moving water at the lower 1/3 of the tank has a greater effect and is more beneficial than moving it at the surface.

Firing two power heads into each other cause less flow, they absorb each others power.

Water on the surface must move to the overflow otherwise you are not surface skimming.try dropping some sawdust on the surface of the water,
if it doesn't get to the overflow then the crap you cannot see isn't getting there either.

Using a 1000gph pump on a 100 gallon tank should typically achieve a 10 times turnover,
by simply moving the outlets to different degrees and positions this can reduce the effective turnover to less than 8 times and if done properly can increase it to almost 20 times,it is the direction of the flow which is the most important.

if you agree with all of the above then the best way to create dynamic flow is to use the outputs of the flow device to fire across the bottom of the tank away from the overflow, returns from the sump should fire across the tanks surface towards the overflow, if using a closed loop the feed to the pump should pull water in the same direction of the flow you have just achieved to enhance the flow not fight it.