Positioning the flow

[Stu1407]

Being relatively new to high tech planted tanks I've learned a lot from people on here about how to grow plants successfully. But the most important lesson wasn't ferts or the fact that instead of trying to strip most of the P04 out of the water, "important in reef keeping," that I actually needed some for healthy plants. It was positioning the diffuser and the powerhead. At first I had the diffuser towards the back of the tank so it was out of the way hidden behind some hardscape and the powerhead in the middle on the opposite side. Plants grew ok, non died but it was slow going and no pearling.
I read posts and looked at pictures of some stunning planted tanks on here and saw that the many if not all had the diffuser and lily pipe to the front so I decided to move the diffuser and powerhead to the front of the tank away from the scape which seemed counter intuitive. First thing I noticed when the C02 came on was was that the bubbles were being driven almost horizontally along the substrate by the flow from the powerhead and in a couple of days the plants started to pearl. This could also have been due to putting a Vivid 2 on the tank as well.
The lesson for me was that although I was injecting quite a lot of C02 most of it was being wasted by not circulating around the tank. Now the problem is that the plants have gone ape and I'm going to have to learn pretty quickly how to cut them back aesthetically and without killing them. 🙂
Just wanted to share my experience to say thanks.

 

[Franks]

I actually forgot how important flow was - which sounds crazy. Been doing scapes for a while and struggling with a 2ft cube with rocks/driftwood. Was looking back at how I once had play sand and amazing vibrant plants because in the picture was a wave maker. Bought a 2000lph unit and after only one week, every plant, in even dappled light has been pearling. The Monte Carlo is banging out loads of new growth and is digging its way through the soil again. I did also do a massive filter clean on my Biomaster 350 so flow has also improved here. Diffusion via an inline atomiser.

I'll never take out a wave maker now

 

[copperband]

Do you find you see pearling in your aquariums when using a wave maker? I see very little in mine, except in areas where the flow is more sheltered. I’m assuming the higher flow is simply blasting the oxygen bubbles away when still small?

 

[Franks]

I do but it's much less obvious. The underside of the leaves are often saturated with o2. This is something I noticed too.

The plants are generally much healthier and new growth already obvious without changing any other variables.

 

[copperband]

I do but it's much less obvious. The underside of the leaves are often saturated with o2. This is something I noticed too.

The plants are generally much healthier and new growth already obvious without changing any other variables.

I agree, in my experience (so far) there seems to be huge merit in greater water movement, especially when it’s delivered in such an even way through the aquarium.

 

[Franks]

Agreed. It also creates more consistency when flow and in turn Co2 distribution isn't dictated solely by the filter outlet which is prone to reductions depending on how often you clean it.
That's probably enough to then trigger BBA which I've suffered in the past so I'm keen to see how this pans out long term. I use a Biomaster thermo and clean the prefilter every week but main filter not as often as I should!

 

[Myrtle]

Flow is something I really struggle to get right. All my fish are from low flow/still water and my tanks are low tech and not huge. I've tried to combat the lack of flow by having shallow tanks to aid in gas exchange, but I doubt that is sufficient to make up for low flow.

 

[copperband]

Flow is something I really struggle to get right. All my fish are from low flow/still water and my tanks are low tech and not huge. I've tried to combat the lack of flow by having shallow tanks to aid in gas exchange, but I doubt that is sufficient to make up for low flow.

I must admit, I do find it intriguing how certain Youtubers are able to achieve such magnificent tanks with absolutely no pumps (flow) and often loads of floating plants covering the surface too?

 

[Myrtle]

I must admit, I do find it intriguing how certain Youtubers are able to achieve such magnificent tanks with absolutely no pumps (flow) and often loads of floating plants covering the surface too?

I suspect that editing (removing equipment before filming), the fact that the tanks are often built with a lot of already mature plants, giving the impression they've been running for some time and the short lifespan of many of their tanks before rescaping has something to do with that!

 

[Franks]

Yep. Owning a scape for several years, you'll see it all from start-up diatoms to thread algae and BBA outbreaks etc. I've had my heater die and go full throttle to nearly 30degC, I wasn't running a separate thermometer and only noticed how warm the water felt when it came to the weekly water change. All things these YouTubers won't probably suffer as they are either sponsored by suppliers who send out boxes of plants and they turn them around fully planted with zero issues. Within a few weeks/months it looks fantastic and they're pretty much ripping them down again to start over.

 

[eminor]

I switched from 60*30*30 tank to 60*40*60 tank, i have a way better time getting the flow everywhere in the bigger tank, maybe because the lily pipe have 40cm to reach to front glass panel, it was 60cm before because the pipe was in the lenght size. The challenge come when the biomass of plant is huge

I suspect that editing (removing equipment before filming), the fact that the tanks are often built with a lot of already mature plants, giving the impression they've been running for some time and the short lifespan of many of their tanks before rescaping has something to do with that!

There is no magic trick, all of that is fake, we know how important the flow is, they certainly remove equipment