Flow is hard

[JamieB]

Hi everyone

I’m starting my first decent sized task.
I was hoping someone could help with how to place power heads.

I’m going to do LPS, Soft coral & Fish.
I have 2x 8500LPH JECOD SOW-8 DC powerheads.

I put them on back wall initially as this nicely hides all cables, but this blew all the sand off the front of the tank.

I tried one on back and one on side and put pumps on lowest setting but this still resulted in all sand blown away from front left corner.

Where should I place pumps so it leaves the sand flat and level on the bottom?

Thanks for your help!
Jamie

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

It will settle and clear. You will prob get sand kick up every now and again off that left side sand bar. You can smooth that out or place rubble rock over their.
Hths
Nice start!
D

 

[zalick]

There is not really any way you can avoid that with fine sand.

Since you are just at the starting stages, I'd recommend getting special grade sand and not that fine sand.

With the fine sand it will get blown in a certain way no matter how you have the pumps. And any time a fish kicks up sand, you'll have a sand storm.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

flow is tough in a small tank cause the flow bounces off the glass and goes down the glass and moves the sand. Try placing them facing each other, so the current meets in the middle of the tank. But that sand looks like fine sand, if it is then you made the same mistake as me, it makes it even tougher to adjust the flow. Basically, you just have to try different angles, good luck

 

[jarviz]

shooting the powehead upwards also helps... but it's hard with the jebao because the electrical cable kind of forces it back to shooting horizontally.

 

[JamieB]

I don’t think the sand is super fine, it’s the standard Red Sea live sand... maybe I’m wrong!?

tried pumps both on the ends and pointing to each other, this doesn’t seem to move sand at all... no surprise that you always see this on other tanks I guess.
Serves me right for trying to be clever and hide the wires!

just poured in the bacteria to start the cycle, tank was delivered before Christmas, I’ve been waiting so long for this!

thanks for your advice everyone

Jamie

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Just a quick google search shows Red Sea makes two.
Reef Pink (.5-1.5 mm)
Ocean White (.25 - 1 mm)

Special Grade is around 1-2 mm
I think you may have an issue with keeping your sand at the bottom of the tank and if you used ocean white you should replace it before it becomes an issue. Just my opinion. But to answer your question, point it up toward the surface to opposite corner and another to cross streams.

 

[JamieB]

Hmm

I guess I’m a bit reluctant to change it because it was nearly £100 and it would be a big messy job also

let’s see over the next couple of days with the pumps moved to the ends.

thanks for the advice though, I would have never considered that the sand size was the issue because it’s red seas main product.. I will bear it in mind

 

[jarviz]

Hmm

I guess I’m a bit reluctant to change it because it was nearly £100 and it would be a big messy job also

let’s see over the next couple of days with the pumps moved to the ends.

thanks for the advice though, I would have never considered that the sand size was the issue because it’s red seas main product.. I will bear it in mind

if you're going to do any big changes, it's def going to be better to do it early before you have a cycle or any live stock. Doing it later can cause your tank to re-cycle or worse; cause issues to your first and tank. It's also going to be a pain in the butt trying to remove sand if/when you have coral all over the place

 

[Alexopora]

Hmm

I guess I’m a bit reluctant to change it because it was nearly £100 and it would be a big messy job also

let’s see over the next couple of days with the pumps moved to the ends.

thanks for the advice though, I would have never considered that the sand size was the issue because it’s red seas main product.. I will bear it in mind

I’m not sure if this will work for you but adding coral rubble or shells or smaller rocks in areas that are hardest hit by the flow might help. I would scatter coral rubble and small shells around my sandbed which seems to help in resisting the flow.

 

[JamieB]

Hi everyone

Just to close this one off, 24 hours after putting a pump on each side of the tank and the sand is pretty stable, it’s staying pretty much flat.
Looks like with this particular set up the sand will be ok.

Thanks for all the advice anyway