Adding Circulation To 45 Gallon

Hey everyone


My 45 gallon planted build currently has an eheim 2213 running on it which works well imo, but the 1 spray bar in 24" of water just doesn't do it for surface agitation + good flow of water in the tank and I'm struggling to find good info on how to achieve that.

What I know about Air pumps

Whisper and fluval seem to be the quietest brands recommended
People generally don't seem to love them
Everyone probably knows more about them than I do. Lol
Questions about air pumps.

What size would I need for my tank?
Would this even do anything beneficial? How do make a straight line of bubbles across the back instead of just having one string of bubbles come out in one spot?

What I know about Power heads

They were mentioned as an alternative to airstones
That's all I know..

I do twice weekly water changes right now just to keep oxygen up in my tank and I can't have my spray bar fully below the surface of the water or I get 0 surface agitation and biofilm builds up. And it just gets gross quickly. Oh yah, I can't have too much flow either though because my fish like low currents so that's why an air pump seemed like a decent idea.

 

I would just do a powerhead.
Maybe a hydor 245gph power head.

If you want more flow.

 

I looked it up, I love how simple the design for it is, and it has good reviews too. The 240gph is going to be ok with my low flow fish? I figure if I point it towards the top of the water I should be good.

My outflow is in its sweet spot right now just at the surface of the water/just under the water so it's creating the only amount of surface agitation it does which still isn't much. My worry is getting circulation all the way to the bottom of the tank without creating a vortex for my fish and blowing them around lol. I was thinking the power head would go on the left tank wall to blow my spray bar water to the other side of the tank but I don't know if that will do anything for the bottom

 

So I bought a powerhead for my tank. A hydor 240, which is creating a little wave to my plants but nothing intense (which I think is better for my fish? They're low flow water fish for the most part. And my newest question is where to actually position the powerhead, I have it on the left hand side of my tank facing the right side, it's about 6" under the water below my outflow but should I move it to the right side away from my outflow?

Oh, in that picture my outflow is backwards to what it currently is. I have I on the left side now. It's the same positioning just not on the right anymore.

 

HI Saloka93 -
If you will, I will share my experience with water flow, as it is a topic that comes up quite often and there are a lot of different opinions. I would start off by defining what you want to achieve.

If you are looking for water surface movement, what you are actually saying is that you want to increase the rate of exchanges of gases - i.e. O2 and CO2 primarily.
If you have a little or no surface movement, then the exchange of gases is minimal, with CO2 unable to leave the water into the air and O2 not being absorbed into the water. This will make your pH level drop as the water is more acidic. If on the other hand your surface water is agitated by an airstone or water flow, then you will have a higher pH as the CO2 moves from the water to the air.

The other factor of course are plants. If you have a heavily planted tank, then the osmosis during the day (or when the lights are on) lowers the amount of CO2 in the water (higher pH) while at night when the plants burn O2, they produce CO2, so depending on the time of day you take the measurement, you may have differing readings.

If you are looking to get rid of algae which tends to grow on plants in areas where there is little or no water flow due to the poorer water parameters in these locations or just generally to improve plant growth, then you need water movement within the tank and not necessarily on the water surface. You can use a something like the hydor 240 you bought and position in to point at a specific area (works like a fan in a house on a hot day - moves the water around). If you are concerned that the fish are not going to get enough sleep, then connect the hydor 240 to the timer you have your lights on. It will give the fish a break when lights go out

My personal recommendation and experience is to provide an environment as close as possible to the natural habitat of the fish. i.e. a flow from one end of the tank to the other. I do this by having two canister filters that take in water from one end of the tank and both return water at the end of the tank - one puts water 10cm below the surface and the other blows half way down the tank.I don't like the water spray bars as the provide water surface agitation with out creating water flow at the lower levels of the tank. Apart from that they are noisy and make a mess of the lighting.

Hope you find this useful!

 

I added a 3500 l/ph powerhead to one of my tanks. All fish live it and strangely enough two of my BN's are out and about since then. Cardinals, corys etc etc.....

My reason was to oxygenate all parts of the tank. Especially the bottom in which anaeribic denitrification takes place.
Ammonia / nitrite can't get make a layer just above the substrate if there is a decent flow. Bad (anaerobic) bacteria won't get a chance.

 

Thanks for the great tips I just have a few more questions. The get flow in the tank, and this might sound dumb.. but should it be circular or left to right? Like both my filter output and powerhead are on the same side directed towards the intake on the other side of the tank. My powerhead is a little over a third of the way down my tank but should I position it higher or lower? And I have plant coverage so that gets in the way of my powerhead a bit, unless I move it to the right side of the tank.

 

Thanks for the great tips I just have a few more questions. The get flow in the tank, and this might sound dumb.. but should it be circular or left to right? Like both my filter output and powerhead are on the same side directed towards the intake on the other side of the tank. My powerhead is a little over a third of the way down my tank but should I position it higher or lower? And I have plant coverage so that gets in the way of my powerhead a bit, unless I move it to the right side of the tank.

You have touched on a philosophical topic there. Some like it hot, some like it cold, some like it in the pot....etc...

Some like a circular movement as in a pond. Some prefer a linear movement as in a river. I guess you need to look at how your tank is behaving and where the water movement is reaching to make a decision.

If you take a an air stone on the end of a piece of flexible pipe connected to an air pump, you will be able to move the air tone around and see where the bubbles are flowing to in order to map the water movement. Yes most bubbles go up.... but the smaller ones follow the flow of the water.