Originally Posted by
overeazy
I have a 110 gallon tank that I will be setting up soon to as a reef tank with fish. It is 24 inches deep and am wondering of placement of the powerheads. Am thinking of using four powerheads with a wavemaker and would like a little input as to how far down in the tank I should place them. Should they all be at different levels or towards the top and can I pipe one down the bottom of the tank and then blowing back up towards the live rock? I do not like the look of powerheads being seen on the sides of tanks and was wondering if it will be possible to place them all in the back and pipe them around my two back overflows? What is the difference between live sand and crushed coral for use as a substrate and opinions on each please. Been doing lots of reading but have not found much on these two subjects.
thanks
Duane
If you can see water movement (watch for particles), then you should be ok. I'm usually very anal about flow in my tanks, and hook up about 3-4 PH's in a 75. I would try it without piping first, and see how much of an eyesore it is. You'll get better flow with it that way, rather than restricting it through a series of pipes.
I would go with live rock, and live SAND. crushed coral is phooie. You'll wind up with nitrate problems before long. I know sand is a little expensive, especially live... but what I do is I mix one bag of live for every two bags of inert, and the live eventually seeds the inert. you'll save yourself a lot of money doing it that way, and you'll spare yourself a headache later on. My only issue with it so far is that it has a tendency to stir up with overly active fish. On the other hand, I've seen CC beds with an inch of silt on the bottom because nobody siphoned. I would keep doing research on it, and even look through the forums here. I bet sand vrs coral has been discussed up the yingyang.
