powerhead, filter placement????????

[crshnbrn]

I have a 29 gallon tank with 2 powersweep powerheads and a magnum 350 canister filter, also have an aquaclear 200 What is the best setup? Should powerheads face each other with filter in middle? Cant seem to find any pics of how to setup. Any help would be great. It will be a fish only tank.

[kidafius]

That would be fine. The main goal is to have water flowing in everyspot in the tank, i.e. no "dead spots". As long as you have no dead spots, then the rest is up to your preference. Especially with FO, the flow doesn't really matter, as long as the dead spots are taken care of. So the theme, I guess, is "no dead spots."

[dogofwar]

We have an almost identical set-up so heres what I did with mine.

I've got a PH on the back wall in each corner about 2" in from the sides, aimed slightly downward and to the very front of the sides.

In the center is my HOB power filter. I siliconed two strips of acrylic to the output to direct the water off the sides in both directions.

I had the option to test it before I put the tank to use. I used 2 different food colorings. Started it with red in one corner, blue in the other and fired it up. I watched as the PHs pulled it through and spit it out towards the corners. From the corners it spread out in all directions a full 90 deg from the corner.

In under 5 sec the HOB was pulling in the red and blue and spitting out purple water. I could then track the water outlet from the HOB.

it was everywhere in under 10 sec so I was quite pleased with the set-up. Just off center and a bit forward was a very agressive mix which could prob please any coral.

Your motion isn't real important in a FO tank, just make sure you get circulation everywhere. This will it do it for you, as well as support a future expansion for possible corals and such.

sorry so long HTH

[dogofwar]

oh and on a side note, if you find dead spots directly below the PHs, you might consider adding an extension to the pickup and drill a few holes along the length of it to pull water from various locations. I don't anticipate a problem with the set-up I described but I did have that prob in a previous FW using only a single PH. The extension worked perfectly. It'll just take a little thought and inginuity on the length of the extension as well as location and size of the holes.