leximommy

i want a 50 gallon tank preferably a corner tank, but i will do a flat one if i cant get ahold of a corner one....i want to "sculpt" the live rock into a small cove with a few outer formations, what would be the best placement for 2 powerheads?

chris2

I want to do the same thing. I'm putting the rocks in the rear right corner in a stack to make a cave (kinda caddy cornered) with some rocks along the back. I want to put the powerheads on the other side.

leximommy

...yea i just dont know if i should do the powerheads right next to each other or what....

sgould

You want to minimize "dead" areas of little/no circulation in the tank. Sometimes it takes a little playing around with power head locations and aiming to get things just right so that you eliminate stagnant areas while at the same time not blowing the scales off your fish or inverts. I would start with the power heads on opposite sides of the tank, as opposed to right next to each other.

leximommy

lol thanks .... that helps....

bhcaaron

Once again you've gotten ahead of me LexiMommy.

SGould,

I've also been wondering what kind of problems I'll have with that later on. I haven't gotten to making diagrams of how I want my rock formations to be. I too would like to sculp them, but, I need to know what my tank will be like first. (Are there any places that sculpt them to your specifications? Hmmm probably too expensive anyways).

But, once I do, how do you know where your stagnant areas are? For the kinds of fish I want, I am being forced back into a sandy substrate, so I wont be able too use to much current.

sgould

I am not aware of anyone who will sculpt for you, but its possible someone out there would. Remember...I've only been at this a few months myself!

Once your tank is set up, it isn't too hard to figure out which areas have circulation and which areas are "dead". Just watch how food or poo travels inside the tank. Areas where it swirls around or gets pushed along have current. Areas where it just drifts nearly straight down are stagnant.

On the subject of circulation, you also want to be sure you have good water movement at the surface, which helps in gas exchange and keeps the water in your tank oxygenated.

bhcaaron

I was also reading that water should not be over oxygenated so as to prevent discoloration of it. The article explains this term refers to a reddish rust color tint to the water which is basically oxidization of minerals (or was it metals?) in the water due to wate hardness. R/O systems would be able to control this, but, how to prevent over oxygenation?

sgould

Huh. That's a new one on me...maybe someone else can jump on that one.

bhcaaron

Sounds good to me... Anyone wanna jump in? But keep checking SGould. Still lots I can learn from ya.