power head placement in a 5 foot long

HI all still not sure of the best place to put these powerheads at the moment canister intake is left rear corner outflow via spray bar right side across right side end wall with a power head underneath spray bar in each corner one pointing to back glass the other pointing to front glass roughly 45 degree angle. Should they be in opposite corners or as they are directing the water toward intake?

the fish seem happy with water flowing the same way

 

Why do you feel the need to have these powerheads at all in the tank ?.
Sufficient flow should be generated by the filter, and high flows from powerheads will only shorten the life of your fish due to overworking in strong current flows generated.

 

To aid in the flow of nutrients to plants and to stop any eead spots both power heads point slightly upward to agitate the surface for gas exchange but I might just go with one also they help move gunk toward filter intake

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To aid in the flow of nutrients to plants and to stop any eead spots both power heads point slightly upward to agitate the surface for gas exchange but I might just go with one also they help move gunk toward filter intake

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What else is in the tank?
How is it being scaped?
What are the species in the tank?
What's the gph of the canister?
What's the total tank volume?

Maybe instead of a power head a wavemaker could be used. Some are pretty high-tech, so all depends on the whole setup.

In my O2A 55G Long. The lily outflow creates a natural surface movement and I also added a low volume inline circulation pump creating an understream current on the left. The input for the inline I have installed inside of the cavern structure of the lower back left side of the tank. This creates flow across the tank in various currents. This helps both as you said nutrients & Co2 spread if using Co2 along with better debris movement towards filtration inputs. Also for the community in my tank this also provides for their needs as well.

 

What else is in the tank? see pic

How is it being scaped?

What are the species in the tank?well we have a real community of fish ie 3 platys,4 guppys,5 cherry barbs, 3 odesa barbs,3 otos, 10 corys, 4 saes, 10 cardinal tetras, 14 harlequins, 7 minnows , 17 shrimp and 2 nerite snails and 5 platy fry
What's the GPH of the canister? 440 so the blurb says.
What's the total tank volume? 118 us gallons so you see with the 112 gph power head and the 440 gph its is a wavemaker which gives me a flow of x8 which is a bit high for a planted tank I think, so one has to go I like the wide spread of flow from the small wave maker think the power head will be for back up or for water changes.

 

A flow rate of 5 times the tanks volume of water filtered in one hour is perfectly adequate, especially, as in your case, you have a stocking of small species, and a planted tank that will have horizontal looking plants in a strong flow ( nice tank BTW ).
Nutrients for the plants will be carried around the tank perfectly OK with this flow, and you can always " agitate " the waters surface using the spray bar return set to disrupt the surface if you so desire.
Save your money

 

I took out the power head and just got the small wave maker pointing slightly up and toward front glass everything is much calmer and got good surface movement .The fish are swimming around more

 

The fish will enjoy not having to fight a strong flow. The whole tank will look more " relaxed " in a more gentle flow.
Remember, most species of fish are from slow flowing river environments or lakes.
Very few species are from fast flowing waters.

 

your right thaI I was so concerned about this 8x flow a lot of places go on about.I really don't want to hook up another canister filter.
I think with the 7.4 x flow and all the plants, I have enough filtration todays readings were temp
24.5c amm 0 nits 0 nats 10 ph 7.6

 

On a 5 foot tank such as yours, some very experienced Aquarists do not use any filtration at all. ( A whole different thread req,d on flow rates - so not here )
All the plants, substrate Etc are used to treat the water, and the only flows are from small hob filters with no media inside to just generate a very small flow in order to carry nutrients around the tank.
Your flow rate is perfectly adequate, as I have previously stated, and your tank will thrive under these conditions if you give it the correct care.
Just a little observation, your temperature seems just a little low, and maybe around 26/ 27 would be better. But maybe with all the species you have this is the median temp ?

 

May I suggest a custom PVC outflow with an eductor attachment? The eductor increases flow up to 400% they say. I'm not sure if my flow really increased that much but I can tell it does work very well. I have about 325gph on my outflow and the water flow definitely reaches 4 feet with more to spare. I had to direct my spray bar a little bit against it to cut it back a little since it was digging on my fine sand on the opposite side.

 

Yeah I went for 24c as an average

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