increasing circulation

[crystalview]

As my sig say's I have one Fluval running at this time. In an other post they talked about plant movement. Where I have the out flow hose now the water goes into the center of the tank and just makes the surface move slightly, not the plants. I see others who are using two canister filters. Is this just for a bigger bio-mass? I have another filter but can't figure out the configuration. with two I would have a in and an out on each side. That's does not sound effective. You have talked about the advantages of adding a power head would that be opposite the output of the canister? With or without a second filter. That seems like a lot of stuff in the tank. Without CO2 how much current should I have and where do I put it. I saw the companies X pattern with two power heads but do I need two? Could I use the X pattern with one being the filter?

I know I have a lot of questions Warning more in the future

 

[Carissa]

More circulation is almost always better in a non-co2 tank. The Koralia powerheads are great if you can get one, they move lots of water but not in as violent a stream as traditional powerheads, so they are ideal. You really don't need a lot of biomedia with a well-planted tank, so adding one powerhead maybe in a rear corner where it can push water across the back of the tank towards the front would be a great idea. In my 30g I have one Aquaclear 50 hob in the middle, an internal power filter in the back left corner shooting water towards the front right corner, and a small powerhead in the back right corner pushing water towards the left. Plants and fish are doing well so I'm happy with this setup.

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

Like was siad, more water movement is why people add extra filters ect.. They could do OK with just a powerhead.

The more/better water movement will actually help the current filter do its job better by not letting stuff sit, it makes more stuff get sucked into the inlet.

I read that you have another canister filter. You can just use that for extra movement. Then if you want to setup another tank in the future just buy a powerhead and take one canister off and move to the new tank with another powerhead and you will be golden.

For the configuration it will depend on if you have spraybars or just normal flow outlets. For mine currently since its a long narrow tank and I have a flow/jet outlet, I have the inlet low on the back left, outlet is high on the back left aimed towards the front right. Then I have a koralia pump on the front right aimed at the inlet on the lower left. The top of the water stays moving is a circular pattern. If you have enough flow you can aim the flow more towards the middle, more like an x then you will still have good movement on the top and bottom.

 

[crystalview]

Thanks both of you