Circulation ?

[KNUTE]

Is the return from a Mag 12 enough circulation for a 65? In an effort to clean up the asthetics of the tank I took out the 2 powerheads and went with a Mag 12 with a 30 gal. sump. I have the return hooked up to a manifold with 3 snakelok spray heads. The heads are the ones with double flares and are 1/2''. It doesn't have quite the circulation I was hoping for and I'm thinking of putting the powerheads back in. I may have messed up by going with the 3-1/2'' double spray heads instead of 3 singles or 2 singles and 1 double. I was trying to get circulation going behind the rock. Should I have gone with 3- 3/4''single spray heads instead? Or just put the powerheads back in? I also think I messed up by using ball valves for the outflow instead of gate valves. The ball valves are tricky to adjust just right. I'll swicth to a gate valve tomorrow. I had read here about using gate valves but was in a hurry and unable to find the right size at the time I was hooking things up. Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated. TIA

Knute your Mag12 should pump in the areea of 900gph at around 4' 3 returns split in half would be about 150 gph thru each one so its not gonna come screamin out of each return point, rather set up a soft steady current thru out. You could add one or two powerheads on timers to really randomize the current flow. Unless you have SPS and need ripetide conditions I would think thats fine if you can find placement that gives you a pattern you like, HT

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I thought I was me, but we were wrong
email: geeflipr@internetcds.com

[KNUTE]

Thanks alot for the info HT. Lots of books on corals and fish but not much on this kind of thing. Not that I'm aware of anyway. Since the return from the Mag 12 is 3/4'' am I restricting it by using 1/2 connectors for the spray heads? Should I go with the 3/4'' heads? Also what do you think would be best, use the powerheads and hide them in the bottom rocks as that is where the current is lagging? Or get a Mag 7 or so and hook it up to some Sea Swirls. I do have some SPS but mostly LPS and softies. Asthetics is one thing but I want whats best for the critters as well. Also, is there some way to quiet my outflow to the sump that I missed. I had the hang on CPR and an Emperor and things were quiet and the tank was doing great. Now I have a 30gal sump, thanks by the way whoever posted just using another, smaller box inside the sump as a divider, works like a charm and I was so close to buliding dividers etc; anyway it is a little noisy, really have to fiddle with the valve to get it right, and my evap has gone to about 2 gal. The pump works great, don't even hear it, and the skimmer works better in the sump than on the back, thanks to who mentioned just adding pvc to the pump on the CPR to make it longer, works better than ever. Thanks for any input to these probablly very basic "to you guys" questions. TIA

Knute you might get a little more volume by incresing the return lines from the maniflod to 3/4 inch. I( just finished the return manifold for my Sen 900 using 3/4 Tees . The center has 3/4 barb pointing down the hook to the pump, then one on either side with the ends capped off and 1/2 coming off the Tee, they ball valve then a 1/2 Y fitting on each one. From there 4 lines return to the tank ending with the curved over return fittings fron a magnum canister filter to direct water flow to different parts of the tank. As I sit here and look at this I think I will get a couple of 45 deg fittings and make smoother radius elbows to replace the capped off tee fittings and reduce friction loss. Eventually I want to add a couple sea swirls or a homemade occilator to the mix. I will leave one power head in attached to a spray bar along the bottom but if I need to add more circulation I may end up with a couple more small PH's hide behind the rock stack changing all these out to maxijets and using a wave strip to create the random current effect.
My drain lines are 1 inch pvc pipe coming from the backdrilled bulheads and running at an angle into the sump and dumping just below the surface. Not noisy with the small pump on it now but may increase when I hook up the sen.

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I thought I was me, but we were wrong
email: geeflipr@internetcds.com

[KNUTE]

Thanks again for the input. I did the same thing, changed from capped off T's to the elbows. Today I'll put a powerhead or 2 low in the rockwork with a flare head. Angling the drain did help a bit but I still need to get a gate. Those ball valves are difficult to get just right. KNUTE