Where Should I Position My 'wavemaker'?

[ZoddyZod]

Morning all,

Although I have a Fluval 305 & 405 running on my tank, it does suffer from dead spots and there's not really enough wavet movement to keep the plants totally happy. I've ordered a 3000lph powerhead to help with the flow......but not really sure where I should position it.

In the picture below you can see the in/outlets of each filter (circled in red), each outlet is positioned at approximately 45 degrees, so they both point at the center front of the glass at two different heights.

Circled in yellow are the areas with minimal plant movement/flow.

So, where should I place and point the new powerhead?

I may have lied about the fantastic schematics.

 

[AdamHawk]

Great question, I'm looking to add an external in cojunction with my Juwel Bioflow 600, so this will help when someone posts some answers.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

I'm not sure about your wavemaker (however I am also curious to hear the replies you get) but I would have thought that pointing your filter outlets more across the tank instead of at the middle/front would work better? Yours is quite a big tank so maybe it's too long for that to make much difference!

 

[ZoddyZod]

I'm not sure about your wavemaker (however I am also curious to hear the replies you get) but I would have thought that pointing your filter outlets more across the tank instead of at the middle/front would work better? Yours is quite a big tank so maybe it's too long for that to make much difference!

the problem is if I point them along the tank, they would basically just be sending water across the rear and agitating the front of the tank less. If that's what you mean?

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

I was thinking more corner to corner or even corner to short wall. So the water rolls down the opposite glass and across the substrate?

 

[ZoddyZod]

I was thinking more corner to corner or even corner to short wall. So the water rolls down the opposite glass and across the substrate?

when I've had them facing the front wall directly, they tend to make a nice big hole in the sand at the front, might give that another go again.....but I reckon it will make the middle 1/3 of the tank pretty dead.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

lol right, I had to draw a picture myself before I could see that it wouldn't really work BUT what I was saying was to point the back left outlet towards the front right corner (or even the short right wall) and point the right back outlet at the front left corner (or short left wall) but I think you'd end up with a clash in the middle because both will end up running along the substrate and hit each other somewhere. I'm not being very helpful but I'm having a good time thinking about it! (black arrow is actually pointing to the top corner, it's an optical illusion ya see...)

 

[ZoddyZod]

cheers, yeah I could try that.....just not sure the filters have enough uumph to foce the water flow across 4 feet and still have noticeable flow in the corners. Will give it a try though.

anyone want to suggest where to add the new powerhead???

 

[ian]

opposite the bit where the plants aren't waving about??

it's difficult, as the i can't see the flow, it's better to see the flow.

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Its best to play around, you'll know better than us sittin here Zod

 

[ZoddyZod]

bah, I was hoping for an easy answer rather than figuring it out myself

the powerhead should arrive tomorrow, will have a play then.

 

[hensonc4098]

I may have lied about the fantastic schematics.

No idea about the powerhead, but this made me laugh

 

[KkAaNnEe]

bah, I was hoping for an easy answer rather than figuring it out myself

the powerhead should arrive tomorrow, will have a play then.

 

[Andy Vox]

I played with my two externals and Koralia wave maker for ages trying to get things right.
The best way I found to do it, I'd start here and mess around from here, i spent at least 12 hours playing.
Inlets and outlets for the filters at one end. Point the inlets down the length of the tank directly along the surface, but not enough to make it ripple, you want to achieve water movement not huge aggitation (I'm using spray bars, I'd recommend them to make the flow more uniform). I'd then put the wave maker at the opposite end halfway down the glass point at the front glass.

Here is another fantastic schematic of mine.

Hope that helps.

 

[Andy Vox]

The idea is to create a uniform flow across the whole tank, in the centre where your flow meets from the two outlets the flow will meet and oppose each other.
I have tried to create a uniform circle with mine. Another route is to run a spray bar along the entire back length.