Which circulation pumps for a large peninsula tank?

[Koen Vervaeke]

I am waiting for a Waterbox 7225 peninsula (183cm long, 60cm high and 64cm wide) and debating what powerheads to use for water circulation. For those who have a similar tank (for example Red Sea 650), what did you buy and where did you place them?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sicce 5.0 , ecotech L1, Or abyzz pump

 

[djray77]

I have an Ecotech L1 on my Waterbox 7226 and its great.

 

[piranhaman00]

Are you looking for wavemakers to move water to the other side? Or return pumps?

 

[djray77]

Good point Piranhaman00, I use 4 mp40's on mine, 2 on either end. I have been debating replacing the 4 40's with 2 60's and making the one end pump free.

 

[Koen Vervaeke]

Are you looking for wavemakers to move water to the other side? Or return pumps?

Sorry for the confusion, I meant powerheads, gyres, etc. One sided mounting versus double sided. I'd like to hear from you who've tried it out.

 

[Gablami]

Check out tunze turbelle 6255s. Two can be mounted on your peninsula wall, and can push flow 6 feet better than mp60s. That’s what I’m doing with my 6+ ft peninsula setup.

 

[Koen Vervaeke]

Check out tunze turbelle 6255s. Two can be mounted on your peninsula wall, and can push flow 6 feet better than mp60s. That’s what I’m doing with my 6+ ft peninsula setup.

Yes! Interesting! My plan was to mount two Turbelle 6105's on each side of the overflow, fairly close to the surface, and create a gyre (as illustrated here: ).

 

[Koen Vervaeke]

Are you looking for wavemakers to move water to the other side? Or return pumps?

I meant wavemakers.

 

[Gablami]

Check out this detailed analysis. The 6255 are the best for what you (and I) want to do.

Tunze Turbelle Stream Pumps: What You Really Need to Know!

Dana takes a detailed look at Tunze Turbelle Stream pumps from a more useful velocity metric instead of the ubiquitous gallons-per-hour metric our hobby has become accustomed to. Water velocity may be the key to certain corals' success.

reefs.com

And check out @this is me ’s tank thread where he using only two of those powerheads for his entire tank. Inspiring!

Large Build - Nick's 360 Gallons Reef Tank with Angels

First off, let’s start with the tank. The tank was delivered October of 2015. Other than the initial inspection, it was crated back up and has been sitting in my garage. Tank dimension is 72”x48”x24” and holds ~360gallons. It was built by Miracle. Miracle also made the stand for it. The tank is...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[fragit]

I use Maxspect gyre on mine.

 

[Koen Vervaeke]

Check out this detailed analysis. The 6255 are the best for what you (and I) want to do.

Tunze Turbelle Stream Pumps: What You Really Need to Know!

Dana takes a detailed look at Tunze Turbelle Stream pumps from a more useful velocity metric instead of the ubiquitous gallons-per-hour metric our hobby has become accustomed to. Water velocity may be the key to certain corals' success.

reefs.com

And check out @this is me ’s tank thread where he using only two of those powerheads for his entire tank. Inspiring!

Large Build - Nick's 360 Gallons Reef Tank with Angels

First off, let’s start with the tank. The tank was delivered October of 2015. Other than the initial inspection, it was crated back up and has been sitting in my garage. Tank dimension is 72”x48”x24” and holds ~360gallons. It was built by Miracle. Miracle also made the stand for it. The tank is...

www.reef2reef.com

First of all, you've got a amazing reef tank. I like the dimensions and how it allowed you to mirror this group of Hawaiian islands!

The Dana article is excellent. I wish these considerations came up more often in technical discussions. However, considering that my tank is only 64cm wide, and taking the plume width of the Turbelle's into account, I should probably opt for a 6105 (narrower plume). You tank is very wide, and there the 6255 (wide plume) is likely the best choice. In my tank, two 6255's would likely make water get stuck on the other end, preventing a nice back flow. What do you think?

 

[Gablami]

Lol. @this is me, is not me. I wish I had a tank like that.
Yes a more narrow tank may not work as well. Not sure.

 

[Greybeard]

My reef is 60" x 30", 18" tall. I ended up with 2x Tunze 6105's in the bottom corners of the 30" back wall, flowing down the bottom/outside walls. Bare bottom, so no problems with sand moving around. The 6105's are running 20-40%, set up so that one ramps up while the other is ramping down, over the course of a minute. 4x per day, for 3 minutes, they both run at 100%. The occasional BLAST keeps detritus and such suspended and moving. I have a little rotating pile of heavy gunk in the lee of the front rock island. Honestly, I think most of it is fragments of coraline algae that I've scraped off of the glass.. anyway, I siphon that out weekly with my water changes.

Didn't want to do it, but I ended up with a small Tunze 6040 on the viewable end, wave crest mode, mounted so that it keeps the surface agitated, and moving back towards the overflows. Without that pump, I was building up scum on the surface. Just couldn't get the return flow I wanted without a pump on the viewable end.

 

[this is me]

This is a problem with long narrow peninsula tank. You don't want a powerhead on the viewable side but with the narrow width of the tank, it doesn't allow the pump to push water to the other end and then send it back to the overflow. It worked on my previous tank with 72"x48" with a middle passage way for the surface scum to flow into the overflow.
These Tunze pumps are very powerful but they do need a lot of room to utilize the full power of it. With the 48" width, I was able to keep the aquascape centralized and away from the glass. This allow the Tunze to be blasted without peeling the flesh of any corals. And the pumps to be mounted on one side of the tank only. Anything less than 36" width peninsula might be difficult to achieve this.
On a rimless tank, a Gyre might not look too bad on the viewable side of a peninsula and can solve the surface scum issue.
On a eurobrace tank, you can have the manufacturer drill a couple of of 3/4" holes on top of the eurobrace on the viewable side. If you do a canopy, you can route the return to this side. I thought I needed the holes on the 72"x48" so I asked Miracle to drill the holes for me. I was going to do a 4 way ocean motion and have the return split into the left and right side of the tank. But I didn't end up using them.
I'm getting a 84"x34" peninsula and this time I did not get the eurobrace drilled. The tank is done and now I'm starting to think I will need the holes. ***.

 

[fragit]

I have a 48” peninsula too. Return goes through a SeaSwirl that just stopped “swirling” and I use a Gyre xf250 in each end. Over time I keep thinking about switching to two Tunze on the viewing end, but haven’t justified the cost yet. When I upgrade I’m gonna use an ocean motion instead of a SeaSwirl and returns will come from the surface mounted manifold. Flow is difficult in a peninsula without a doubt.