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Extra waterflow pump - dead spot solution?

DaveB86

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In my aquarium I have a small problem with dirt accumulation in a few places with a clear cause for me (the flow is broken by the stones in front and therefore does not reach the bottom backside of the tank). I want to see if I can do something about that with your help. For convenience attached two photo's of the scape construction with arrows of the water flow from the spraybar on the back wall (hopefully clear enough).
  • Red = the spraybar over the entire back wall.
  • Blue = the intake at the bottom left in the back.
  • Green = the flow of the water as I imagine it should go, I imagine that this goes in a kind of funnel movement from right to left towards the intake..
  • Purple = the places of soil in the back of the aquarium where dirt is accumulating.
Note: the stone at the top right is gone, so that doesn't block the waterflow anymore.

Now I'm thinking to add a flow pump but I have no experience where, I want to prevent it from working against the current flow and therefore cause more problems.
I think I have sufficient waterflow/current in the aquarium but only suffer from these two dead spots.

Point of attention: What I have learned is that black brush, or BBA algae (if present in the tank) thrives in high current, in my tank you see that the stones in the front have the most BBA + the back wall in the middle above the sand. So exactly in the places where the current hits the strongest and has free play.
More (higher) flow is therefore not necessarily desirable, I think.
Also note: this thread is not ment to solve my BBA problem, I'm working hard on that issue with promising results.

I am curious what (positive/negative) effect adding a flow pump has in the following places:
  1. top left flow to the right under the spray bar
  2. bottom left just above the intake, flow to the right more over the ground
  3. at the top right flow forwards with the current flow, but with that just more flow from the right side (in the hope that the dirt will 'fly' with it towards the intake)
  4. top right flow to the left under the spray bar (now follows the direction of the water)
  5. bottom right, just above the ground, flow to the left (there are taller plants here, so this may not be possible)
How do you think I can best get solve the dead spots with the right flow, without doing anything to the scape (removing a stone immediately causes all the soil behind it to collapse ;) ) and without further supporting the BBA algae?

I am also curious how strong a flow pump in my case should be (l/h), the tank contains about 300l net water.
 

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I am assuming this is ~120 cm wide, ~300l tank. Add a circulation pump/propeller. You can consider a Tunze nanostream 6055/6095 propeller or an AquaMedic EcoDrift 4.3 or SmartDrift 3.1/4.1. These models have electronically controllable flow, which simplifies the adjustment. These are just examples as they are plenty of alternatives on the market.

You will need to try out the placement. Making assumptions about the water movement and circulation is useless and you will need to observe the actual circulation. I would try out three configurations.
  • One propeller placed on centre of left (or right) glass pane, close to the substrate, approximately at the height of the rocks.
  • One propeller on the back glass pane, below the spraybar, pointing slightly downwards (to the front/middle of the tank) to reinforce the flow from the spraybar.
  • One propeller on the back glass pane close to the substrate slightly behind the wood piece and pointing to the bottom of the front glass (you might consider two propellers, one behind each wood piece).
Check if any of these work...

There are plenty of high flow tanks that are not systematically suffering from BBA. BBA can indeed appear in high flow areas but that is not a sufficient nor a necessary condition. You need <other factors> to <trigger BBA>. BBA is often linked to poor CO2 distribution or fluctuating CO2 levels. This suggests you might get BBA not because of the high flow but because of variable CO2 levels in that area.

Are you using CO2? And which filter are you using? A single filter for a 300l tank with CO2 injection will not generate sufficient flow. You should aim at a flow of ~10x the water volume, i.e. ~3000 l/h. To reach this level you will need additional pumps/propellers. Even if you use two filters, a propeller is highly recommended to achieve adequate circulation (you can then reduce the flow of the propellers during the night to give the fauna some rest). Finally, profile your CO2 levels to verify that you are properly injecting and distributing CO2. You first need to secure that you have sufficient flow and stable CO2 before trying to tackle BBA and other algae - minimizing the flow on a CO2 tank is a recipe for disaster.
 
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Thank you for the quick reply. I'm going to try out the SmartDrift 3.1.

I'm aware the BBA is caused by different issues (in my case trouble with my co2 kit and lack of maintenance due to personal issues). It's getting better, I think the balance is back and I'm using a clouding treatment with easy carbo to remove the bulk and seeing from there how it will go in the coming months. The main reason I mentioned it is because I notice the BBA is growing first and fastest on the places the waterflow is best (where it hits the stones first), making me think a higher waterflow overall will help the BBA grow everywhere if I don't get it under control. But we will see. The better water distribution I hope to achieve with the circulation pump should help improve the live of my plants distributing the co2 and fertilizer better.
 
Thank you for the quick reply. I'm going to try out the SmartDrift 3.1.
Have a look at the market. The SmartDrift is nice because it is quite compact and the app allows to control the timing. But these models are not exactly cheap. A cheaper alternative is getting a propeller that cannot be electronically controlled and connect it to a switch to turn it off during the night.

I'm aware the BBA is caused by different issues (in my case trouble with my co2 kit and lack of maintenance due to personal issues). It's getting better, I think the balance is back and I'm using a clouding treatment with easy carbo to remove the bulk and seeing from there how it will go in the coming months. The main reason I mentioned it is because I notice the BBA is growing first and fastest on the places the waterflow is best (where it hits the stones first), making me think a higher waterflow overall will help the BBA grow everywhere if I don't get it under control. But we will see. The better water distribution I hope to achieve with the circulation pump should help improve the live of my plants distributing the co2 and fertilizer better.
The main goal of the propeller/pump is to increase the flow so that CO2 and nutrients are distributed all over the tank. Even if you transform the tank into an whirlpool with extra pumps you will end up with spots where detritus will accumulate. There is no way around that except vacuuming those spots during regular maintenance.

Try to keep CO2 stable, provide sufficient nutrients, and a not too long photoperiod (there are plenty of threads on this forum on how to profile pH and stabilize CO2; also read this about <gaseous exchange>). Having an healthy plant mass along with regular maintenance and water changes is the best weapon against algae. If you just increase the flow and do not manage the other variables then anything can happen - but the culprit will not be the increased flow...
 
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