Sand blowing around!

[bromion]

Whenever my powerheads get moved the slightest bit, the sand in my tank starts shifting around a lot. I get hills and valleys dipping all the way to the glass in some places. How do I prevent this? Any tips?

Right now I have 4 PHs each about 280 gph in my 58 gal tank. I want to maintain suitable flow, have good surface agitation, but these sand banks are making me mad! : ) I don't think the fishes like it so much either.

Thanks,
Jason

 

[seaham358]

how deep is the SB? how about removing some? Or point the PH so the deflect off the glass and point towards the surface.. Im not sure there is a easy answer here.. Just a trial and error.

good luck..

 

[Brenden]

Just aim the PH higher or deflect it as seaham suggested.

 

[austinsdad]

You're at almost 20x flow rate. On the high end, but preferred by some. Try removing one, or maybe two PHs. How's the landscape? Lot's of rocks for "wind breaks"? It's gonna take some trials, but I think you're at the high end of the circulation rate. I forget which is the technical term, on water thru PHs. I think it's circulation. The flow thru the filter/skimmer/sump is the turnover rate.

I got it right yet?

 

[bromion]

I have a pretty shallow sand bed. It's about 1.5" deep on average. Most of my PHs are pointed upwards and toward the center, which gives good surface agitation and no dominant current direction. If I point them more toward the walls, I always get blowing away of the sand on that wall.

 

[Nøjo]

I had the same problem at start up, and it takes a long time to adjust the PHs correctly. I have 5 of them, tons of circulation, and it was a small nightmare to get it going. I got so sick of the sand moving around that even though it's been settled for months now I still haven't bothered to clear off the floating sand that settled on my live rock. I have a 3" sand bed and the mountains were constantly forming no matter what I tried.

What worked for me in the end was to postion two PHs in each lower corner in the back, blowing out towards the sides. Then three on the surface - one for surface agitation, the other two are on the sides of the tank pointed downwards onto my live rock. There is lots of flow but the sand is completely still. If anything I have too much current, but there is enough rock to break it up and so far the fish haven't had any problems swimming around. I do turn them off when I feed though, as my mandarin has a hard time catching food if I don't.

It'll take a while, but you'll get it figured out. I hope this helps...

 

[roka64]

Can you adjust the amount of flow on the PHs, to a little less power?