Powerhead Adjustment

[howieumd]

I have 4 Maxijet 1200 PH's and 1 Wavemaster Pro for my 72 gallon tank. I'm wondering how to adjust the air gauges on each PH. Do I want it so they are pushing out maximum force, a few bubbles, or adjusted just right so that no bubbles are flowing out of the PH's? I have them positioned so that two are at the top of each of the back corners facing eachother and the water flows toward the top of the water level and the other two are toward the middle of the way down the tank, on back of each side, and the water flows toward the front/middle of the tank. That is how it was recommended to position them. Anyways, again, what is the best adjustment for the air valve tubes? Thanks.

 

[andrew79]

no bubbles, just have them pushing the water

 

[clem1999]

is andrews response correct. i would like to know how much air should pushed out of mine as well.
if it is water only, how is the water oxygenated?

 

[sly]

I agree. No air bubbles. A better way is to oxygenate the water with a skimmer and/or a wet/dry filter. Then use powerheads to direct oxygenated water across your substrate. This keeps the substrate in a breeze of water to eliminate "dead spots" and prevent anarobic waste production. The purpose of the powerheads is not to oxygenate the water, it's to distribute the oxygenated water through the tank.

 

[howieumd]

Are 4 MJ 1200's too much flow for a 72 gallon tank? That is what was recommended to me to use, however, since I put them in, my 2 perc clows have gone from swimming around to staying neutral and swimming in place in the bottom right side of the back of the tank, where there isn't really any flow reaching it. Will they just need a few days to get adjusted to the new current, or is it too high for them?

 

[sly]

How long have you had your clowns? Mine swam around at first but then settled in his anemone and now almost never comes out.
I have 2 1200 PH's in my 72 gal tank. My theory is to have just enough water flow to keep the dead spaces at a minimum without having too much to keep the fish in a wind all the time.

 

[howieumd]

I've had the clowns for 3 weeks. They are just swimming in place since last night, at the bottom right side of the back of the tank, which is when I put the PH's in. I have 90 lbs of LR. Are 4 1200's in a 72 too much? How do you have yours positioned? I can slow them down by turning the air flow tighter, right?

 

[sly]

I have mine on opposite sides attached to the back glass in the bottom corner area. I put them both low in the tank pointing toward the middle area and toward the substrate. My main outlet from my system pump points down across the back of the glass to keep the back area with water flow.
I don't use any air. My PH's just push water only. My skimmer and wet/dry filter add O2 to the water so I keep the air on my power heads turned off.
You might try turning your air off and see if it helps. Some people will say that air is actually bad in a tank because air bubbles can get caught in the gills of a fish and make them sick, but I've never seen any actual evidence of this. I just think it looks better without air.
If your clowns don't like 4 power heads then try unplugging all of them except 1. If they start swimming normally, then plug in another power head. Keep doing this until they start hiding again. That will tell you if you have too many power heads in your tank.

 

[howieumd]

Ok, do you use MJ PH's? If I don't use air, can I just not use the air tubes, or do I still need them connected? Reason I ask, is because I would like to put the PH's lower in the tank, but with the air tubes, I can only put them halfway down. What do you, or anybody else, suggest?

 

[sly]

Yes I use MJ 1200's. They come with a plastic cap that plugs up the hole where the air tube attaches. Mine are plugged.
If you don't have the plugs then you can just disconnect the air tube and move the power head down and it will still work fine.
If you want to keep using the air tube but want the PH's deeper in the water, then use a plastic connector to join two tubes together and buy some extra tubing from Home Depot. The MJ's also come with this connector. It is a plastic piece that has barbs on both ends to hook two tubes to on each side to join them together.

 

[soccer4life94]

I have two Percs as well and I have quite a bit of flow in the tank. For the first week or two they would swim against the flow and then go down to the back corner of the tank. Soon they found a nice low flow area and they stick to that one area, except to come out and swim against the current for a bit or to eat. I have read that clowns in nature usually only live in like a foot area or something. I might be wrong though.