trying to work out some current

[Tackett]

I am mulling over how to fix up my 55. It is nice, alot nicer than it was, but Im trying to improve on it. I posted my skimmer delimma and it is solved. When I get around 380 dollars, Ill get the AquaC EV-180 with a mag7. Now I am mulling over the best way to master the flow.
My present setup is like this:
I have a rio1100 spewing from left to right, closer to the front of the tank.
A aquaclear 802 in the middle of the tank, pointed toward the front.
A aquaclear 901, spewing from right to left, towards the back of the tank.

The 801 is around 400gph, the rio1100 is around 400gph, the 901 is 900gph.
That is a decent amount of flow, but its nowhere near what I want. I have stopped getting critters, and will probably wind up selling my critters so I can get my equipment. I am going to plumb my old 29gallon and use it as a sump/refugium, and get rid of the tidepool that I have now. I guess my question about the flow is this..what would you do?

I wanted to get four mag12's you can get those for about 100 beans. Run two on each side of the tank. i.e: One mag12 will run from the sump and out to a T and exit in two places, side by side, near the surface, pointed toward the opposite end of the tank. The other mag12 will run the same way, except the exits will be near the bottom of the tank. Repeat on the other side. Put all four pumps on timers and run as follows:

Alternate top and bottom exits on right side for one minute each for seven hours. Then switch to the left side, do the same, and repeat.

The biggest issue here is the overflow. Since I dont have a predrilled tank, I would have to find an overflow rated for around 4k gph and I wouldnt have the first clue where to look for something like that. I suppose I could make it if I wasnt a moron, but gotta work with what I got here.

Is this a bad idea?

 

[shellshocked]

If you can afford a tunze stream it is the way to go. I have 58 gallon and use one and have much better flow than when I used three different powerheads. If you don't have a big budget then put your powerheads on one of the cheap wavemaker power strips.

 

[Anonymous]

have you looked at the Squid wavemakers? They work good. They use no juice, so thats a plus

 

[Anonymous]

If you're willing to spend $400 for pumps:

get a tunze stream. (quickest and easiest) http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem. ... uct=TZTS07

Or get a nice external pump and a sqwd. tee off before the sqwd. One line going to a spraybar, the other to the sqwd. Those two outputs from the sqwd going to either end of the tank.

Whallah, lots more flow, with beer money left over.

B

 

[Anonymous]

4 mag12 in a 55 is going to be a lot of heat to deal with. I would go with one large external pump on a closed loop. The stream would be a ggod option also since you were planning on spending $400 anyway. SCWD's are OK, But would not work on a large pump since they are good to about 1000gph. I had 2 on a mag18 closed loop and they were fine.

 

[Anonymous]

FWIW, for a cheapo-type powerhead for water motion I bought one of those new Powersweep ones that are supposed to oscillate back and forth creating some tubulence.

Model 228 ($25.00 or so including pre-filter) pumps like 270 GPH and believe it or not it works as advertised.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

You'll find that in a few months those powersweeps will have stopped sweeping. The track record for those is pretty bad in the long run.

 

[Anonymous]

You'll find that in a few months those powersweeps will have stopped sweeping. The track record for those is pretty bad in the long run.

Really? Thanks very much for the heads up; it was for a temporary fix anyway....

 

[Anonymous]

Instead of going to the sump do an "over the back" closed loop. They work fine and require no drilling. I had one on my 110 that ran like a charm.

 

[Tackett]

4 mag12 in a 55 is going to be a lot of heat to deal with. I would go with one large external pump on a closed loop. The stream would be a ggod option also since you were planning on spending $400 anyway. SCWD's are OK, But would not work on a large pump since they are good to about 1000gph. I had 2 on a mag18 closed loop and they were fine.

I was going to run them all externally. I run my mag5 externally and it doesnt add any heat as far as I can tell.

 

[Anonymous]

Running them externally will still add some heat. I think my mag18 added 1 or 2 degrees F to my 110.

 

[Tackett]

Instead of going to the sump do an "over the back" closed loop. They work fine and require no drilling. I had one on my 110 that ran like a charm.

You know buddy, Ive had thoughts of doing that...It might actually be what I wind up doing. Those Tunze streams look mighty tasty, but I think for 400 dollars I can get a higher gph with 4 mag12's am I wrong?

 

[Anonymous]

2 6080's (2200 gph each) would put out about as much, if not more once line losses are figured in, as 4 mag12's for about the same price, less I beleave.

 

[Tackett]

Running them externally will still add some heat. I think my mag18 added 1 or 2 degrees F to my 110.

Really? well, that just kills this idea then....hmm...what else to possibly do.

 

[Tackett]

2 6080's (2200 gph each) would put out about as much, if not more once line losses are figured in, as 4 mag12's for about the same price, less I beleave.

pardon my ignorance, but what who is the manufacturer of those? That would work better, but how could you switch top and bottom with out being able to use a SCWD because I dont think they will handle 2200gph.

 

[Anonymous]

Tunze stream model 6080. You might consider one of the sequence reef flow pumps. They put out up to 4500 gph. Run one or two lines in to a SCWD and the other two with out any thing.