Circulation in a deep tank? (1 Viewer)

[ebayes11]

I am setting up a 140 gallon tank (48" x 24" x 29"). I'm trying to work through just how to get effective circulation in it. Below is the aquacultre theme that I'm thinking of going with:

I'd like to get some pretty hefty circulation down the channel between the two islands. The return from the sump enters from the left overflow so that could be directed down the channel. But the downside of that is that it would not be random. For auxiliary circulation, I am thinking of going with a 4-way OM and putting a nozzle in each of the corners - would this be enough? I want to stay away from powerheads and Streams. Any ideas?

I think it will be tough to get adequate circulation down low in the tank. Without drilling the sides, is there a good way to achieve good water movement down low?

I'd like to use the intake for the OM to provide some passive water movement into the rock islands, and would be a CL.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

 

[Style23]

i would think something like that would work, and depending on how much return flow you have, possibly a vortech pump (the red box)

and if you did it like that you could use the 2 way squirt, and just use each side as 1 of the ways..then just split it off at the overflow box with the lock-line, would save alot of plumbing

i just decided that it wouldnt really work like this to get good flow down close to the bottom, you could drill it close to the bottom in the center of the tank, and have a Y shaped lockline down there too, that would help tramendously

 

[Guest]

I am assuming your going to have sand in the bottom.
You could get some black PVC pipe running it down by the returns & under the sand with just the return sticking out of the sand. You could even put a rock in front of it to keep from seeing the returns. In which it would give you a lot of flow on the lower end.

 

[ebayes11]

Yeah, I plan on running the intakes down near the overflows and under the sand. Would the intakes alone provide all that much movement? It would seem like I would need some additional flow to keep the water moving down low.

 

[CBBSteve]

Hi, ebayes11.
One thing that several of us with the Oceanic tanks with dual overflows - like the one in the diagrams - have a problem with is the fact that its very difficult to get good flow down into the back corners. I would suggest your planning take that into consideration. You may want to extend spray bars into that area. What I'm doing now - not very good - is to direct my seio's straight down. Too much flow, but maybe better than none.

good luck,
Steve

 

[ebayes11]

I've been reading more into a closed-loop manifold. With this route, I could direct the flow into whichever direction I wanted. I am slightly concerned about the randomness of the flow going this route though. Anyone use closed loop manifolds?