Spray bar & intake pipe placement for optimum filtration

HI all, so I'm upgrading my blood parrot cichlid tank to a 120 gallon tank. And I got the Eheim 2217 canister. I'm going to set up the tank tomorrow so I can transfer my blood parrot to the new tank. But I'm quite confused as to the best spray bar and intake pipe placement that will promote best filtration within the tank. I've done some research but apparently there's a lot of ways to do it, I've drawn out 3 diagrams and would like some opinions as to which one will be best for my new tank.

This one has both spray bar and intake on the left side of the tank with the water flow (arrow in diagram) going across the tank
View attachment image.jpeg

This one has spray bar on left side and intake on right. But I'm thinking the space below the spray bar won't receive any water flow?
View attachment image.jpeg

This is one has spray bar at the back wall with water flow going to the front of the tank, intake is on right corner.
View attachment image.jpeg

I'm having two air stones in the tank, one on each side so oxygen is enough. And I won't be getting much live plants so mostly fake ones and maybe a log in the middle.

 

Any of those options should be fine!

 

Any of those options should be fine!

Is there one that will create maximum filtration?

 

They will all be the same. Gallons per hour will be more a factor than placement. Like texas said any will be fine.

 

They will all be the same. Gallons per hour will be more a factor than placement. Like texas said any will be fine.

I'm just worried about "dead spot" where poop will start to build up. I wanted to go with the first diagram, which is to have the intake and spraybar both on the left tank wall, and position the spray bar so that water flows across the tank length-wise. But because my tank is quite long I'm worried the flow from the spray bar is not strong enough to push the water back to the intake on the left. Do you think I could get a power head and put it on the right side tank wall facing the left just to help direct the water/poop to the intake at the left wall?

 

I would set it up as one of the three options below and hold off on a powerhead. Wait to see if you get dead spots, and if you do, how big they are and where they are. If your weekly gravel vacs take care of it easily, then I don't think you need to change anything.

I don't think BPs appreciate a lot of flow, so powerheads may not be appreciated by them.

I didn't look it up before, but that filter does not have a high enough GPH for this tank. You won't get good filtration with it. I would look for something around 500-600 GPH when it's full of media (the advertised GPH on canister filters is when empty; when you fill them with media, the GPH decreases).

Since you're worried about dead spots and your filter isn't big enough, I would add a second filter to the other end of the tank. That way, you have intakes and spray bars on both ends.

 

Agreed. Your filtration needs to be upped. I would get a second canister and do what you had in one of the first two pics...just one on each side

 

Slight hijack but... How will you know if you have dead spots? With black sand it is hard to spot detritus build up.

The other thing is plants. I had my tank setup like option 3 but in a larger tank the spray bar only took up less than a third of the tank length. The plants near the intake were not doing to well. What setup would be best if you have a 1m long tank and 30cm spray bar?

 

Yeah I realize last night while doing research that the 2217 isn't enough for the tank even though it says so on the package box (which the lfs recommended to me when I order the tank)... So I'll be getting another 2217. Should I put one spray bar on left and another on right and having the holes facing each other? Will that create a whirlpool effect in the middle of the tank when the flow of water met? Or should I put both spraybar at back of tank wall facing the front, and intake on each back corner? (like pic 3)

the other thing is I'll be moving my current media in my HOB on my old tank to the 2217 canister, but if I'm getting two shall I put my media in just one of it or shall I spread them up between the two canister?

 

Just put it in one the other will build more bb.
Seperating may help it quicker but I don't see how it would make a difference.

 

I would have one side's spray bar angled (45 degrees or so) towards the surface and the other spray bar pointed towards the substrate (again 45). That is how I have mine set up.