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extra flow - powerhead ok?

tovtm

tovtm

Member
Joined
2 Jan 2011
Messages
249
I am not getting the growth from my plants Infact there not as healthy as they Should be and been advised to up my flow,

I have a 125ltr tank 48" long 12" wide and 18" tall,
1200lph external filter with spray bar that runs the whole 4' length at back of tank

I have just picked up two 2300lph hydor powerheads dirt cheap but been used in marine tank. can I clean these and use one ad put it in one corner or sell both of these and buy a small nano powerhead if it's too much flow for fish?
 
what would be recommended as a max for a 125ltr tank? if using my filter still
 
Hello mate,
The recommended turnover for flow is 10X tank capacity per hour so you would be looking at a 1250l/hr turnover, your filter is rated to this but you have to allow for a reduction due to the filter media, loss in the length and diameter of pipe work and the manufacturers over optimism so by adding just one of the Hydors should be plenty but bear in mind that of equal importance to the flow rate is the distribution of the flow, i.e, your potential 6000l/hr rate is wasted if all your plants don't benefit from the circulation because of dead spots caused by other plants and decoration such as your wood, rocks, terracing etc, so the siting of your powerheads and spray bars, lily pipes or whatever you choose is also a major factor.

Personaly, I prefer the recommended 10X flow with a system of spray bars to allow complete water distribution.

By the way, not that it makes any difference in this case, but I make your tank a 170ltr?
 
The 10x rule is based on exactly that we take into account the reduction in flow etc. it's not 10x flow inclusive of flow reduction. If that would have been the case then all my tanks would have been whirl pools.
Obviously it doesn't hurt to add more flow but do think that too much isn't always a good idea.
If you read the article on flow in the planted aquarium it helps tons.
Unless I have interpreted the hole flow thing incorrectly my understanding is we use ten times to allow for reduction in flow. Not keep adding filters and powerheads to make sure we have exactly ten times flow with no restriction.
Fish would be getting far too much of a workout ha ha



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ok so filter we can certainly say isn't up to the 10x what would be advisable?

leave my spray bar running the whole 4' across the back, and put one nano 1600lph in one corner pointing about half way of tank at front glass aiming slightly down? or two nano's in each corner? ( however that would make the LPH turnover nearly 30x) as you can tell I'm a little confused.

the reason I'm asking this question in the first place relates to my other topic [/url]http://www.ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=21630
 
I see it as "10 x flow" = a recommendation, a starting point. There's no point in adding extra flow if it's not needed but as all tanks differ as outline by Mar10, sometimes more flow is required than the 10x guide to achieve good distribution.

In the OP's case the tank is rather high and long so maybe a shorter central spray bar plus 1 powerhead each side would work better, if not, it's back to the drawing board.

It's not a hard and fast rule either way of rated or actual output. If I was to lean any particular way I would go with actual output. I sometimes wish my 2075 had just a little more oomph. Yes I went for a filter rated at 10x tank volume. For my 60l tank I will possibly look for around 800-900 lph rated filter, as I will be going for HC/Iwagumi.
 
what about then having the stay bar turned to the side (width of the tank) say on the right of the tank with a powerhead same end in the corner aiming towards other end of the tank possible angled towards centre of the other end? that way I'm not way over doing the x10 flow and only using one powerhead?
again I only have ideas nothing to say there crap ones or right 🙂
 
I reckon just about everything is covered here:
http://www.ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1167
 
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