aaron eli Posted April 5, 2023 Share Posted April 5, 2023 hi all i need some help fixing the circulation of my tank as it seems none of the food is going on the pre intake sponge and most of the water it just being blocked. i drew some lines to try and show how it’s flowing, the fan is on as you can tell by the java fern i tried moving it to the middle seemed like the same effect occurs and i tired lowering the flow to no success i’m kind of in a rush to fix this so anyone got a fix? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted April 5, 2023 Share Posted April 5, 2023 Awesome, this will be a fun one to solve! Can you please share what equipment is on the tank so I can get a better idea of how to help with the setup. What filters? What air pump? What size tank is this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted April 5, 2023 Share Posted April 5, 2023 On 4/5/2023 at 12:34 AM, nabokovfan87 said: Awesome, this will be a fun one to solve! Can you please share what equipment is on the tank so I can get a better idea of how to help with the setup. What filters? What air pump? What size tank is this? @nabokovfan87 Perhaps this is a good opportunity to post your guy-with-the-whiteboard video. That was a good one. 🙂 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron eli Posted April 5, 2023 Author Share Posted April 5, 2023 On 4/5/2023 at 12:34 AM, nabokovfan87 said: Awesome, this will be a fun one to solve! Can you please share what equipment is on the tank so I can get a better idea of how to help with the setup. What filters? What air pump? What size tank is this? hey thanks for the reply i realize now i should of took a better picture but i don’t have a spray bar where my heater is is where the water from my fluval 50 comes back into the tank you can see the intake to the left and on the right side i have a aqueon circulation fan and a air stone powered by a tetra air pump (i don’t remember the exact models but whichever ones are rated for 50 gallons) this is a 40 although 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted April 5, 2023 Share Posted April 5, 2023 (edited) On 4/5/2023 at 7:32 AM, aaron eli said: hey thanks for the reply i realize now i should of took a better picture but i don’t have a spray bar where my heater is is where the water from my fluval 50 comes back into the tank you can see the intake to the left and on the right side i have a aqueon circulation fan and a air stone powered by a tetra air pump (i don’t remember the exact models but whichever ones are rated for 50 gallons) this is a 40 although Alright, so 40G tank, you'd want an AC70 size filter. Basically what you could be experiencing is just the undersized pump. There is a few things going on and there's some questions still. It seems like a fluval/aqua clear filter and those are notorious for the pumps not starting up right. Please just verify the waterfall is working and the impeller in the pump is working. Sometimes people have to turn into and use a small poker to get it to start to spin. Don't damage the pump of course just something to start it spinning if it isn't. Second, the circulation fan placement. Please provide some more photos or maybe video of the situation so we can visually see the strength of each. Here is a quick video of another thing to check. On 4/5/2023 at 6:51 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: That was a good one. 🙂 Edited April 5, 2023 by nabokovfan87 autocorrect fluval 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted April 8, 2023 Share Posted April 8, 2023 @aaron eli Any idea what was going on? Did you get the pump working any better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron eli Posted April 12, 2023 Author Share Posted April 12, 2023 hey man sorry for the no update still no lucky yet as the filter is working fine and i’m not sure where i would change the placement of my circulation fan / my air stone with the other video i just got back from the trip that i was on and i have a video with the fan on (all the food is fresh because i recently fed them) but here’s how it circulates 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 Were you able to verify the HoB filter pump is clean and that the intake tube is installed fully into the recess? It looks normal, just undersized for the tank. Here is how I would layout the tank: The filter being "undersized" is of course subjective. If you're seeing a lot of detritus, not a lot of water circulation across the substrate is one thing. If you are seeing the HoB filter unable to pull that detritus into the filter to be mechanically filtered, then it would indicate to me that you don't have a strong enough pump. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennie Posted April 12, 2023 Share Posted April 12, 2023 I would put it in on left side of the tank and airstone next to the outflow of the hob. This is what works the best for me in general. I get better turnover and flow, airstone bubbles pop in the surface and helps to get rid off from biofilm on the surface, and hob circulates oxygen around the tank well. airstone alone barely causes any circulation really Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron eli Posted April 13, 2023 Author Share Posted April 13, 2023 On 4/12/2023 at 4:11 AM, nabokovfan87 said: Were you able to verify the HoB filter pump is clean and that the intake tube is installed fully into the recess? It looks normal, just undersized for the tank. Here is how I would layout the tank: The filter being "undersized" is of course subjective. If you're seeing a lot of detritus, not a lot of water circulation across the substrate is one thing. If you are seeing the HoB filter unable to pull that detritus into the filter to be mechanically filtered, then it would indicate to me that you don't have a strong enough pump. hey thanks for the drawing helps a lot also about the undersized filter in all honestly i would love to upgrade it but there’s ummm no way my mom would be on board with it. Also i would like to ask where should i angle the fan? I want to make sure i get the placement for everything right lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted April 13, 2023 Share Posted April 13, 2023 On 4/13/2023 at 4:15 PM, aaron eli said: Also i would like to ask where should i angle the fan? I want to make sure i get the placement for everything right lol Diagonal across the tank, meaning the opposite diagonal corner. Keep an eye on the substrate, if you see any dead spots then adjust it. If you can, turn the fan down so that the filter is still encouraged to do the work it needs to and get the stuff out of the tank to be mechanically filtered out. If the diagonal direction pushes the flow directly into a plant or something it could encourage algae. Not a big concern, but just something to keep in mind. We're you able to verify the tube and all that is setup correctly on the HoB? It was shown in the video linked above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron eli Posted April 14, 2023 Author Share Posted April 14, 2023 On 4/13/2023 at 7:39 PM, nabokovfan87 said: Diagonal across the tank, meaning the opposite diagonal corner. Keep an eye on the substrate, if you see any dead spots then adjust it. If you can, turn the fan down so that the filter is still encouraged to do the work it needs to and get the stuff out of the tank to be mechanically filtered out. If the diagonal direction pushes the flow directly into a plant or something it could encourage algae. Not a big concern, but just something to keep in mind. We're you able to verify the tube and all that is setup correctly on the HoB? It was shown in the video linked above. yes i am able to verify that the tube is correctly on and unfortunately no way to tune down the fan, but also would diagonal not create a dead spot in the bottom left corner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted April 14, 2023 Share Posted April 14, 2023 On 4/14/2023 at 1:58 AM, aaron eli said: yes i am able to verify that the tube is correctly on and unfortunately no way to tune down the fan, but also would diagonal not create a dead spot in the bottom left corner? the output of the HoB gets pushed to that corner. You'd want to keep an eye on things and track where dead spots are. Generally it is the way to set it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron eli Posted April 15, 2023 Author Share Posted April 15, 2023 On 4/14/2023 at 2:43 PM, nabokovfan87 said: the output of the HoB gets pushed to that corner. You'd want to keep an eye on things and track where dead spots are. Generally it is the way to set it up. ahhh okay i understand, got the last question for ya does the circulation fan point downwards or should i just make it go across the top of the water? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted April 15, 2023 Share Posted April 15, 2023 On 4/14/2023 at 7:06 PM, aaron eli said: ahhh okay i understand, got the last question for ya does the circulation fan point downwards or should i just make it go across the top of the water? Having it point slightly up (placing it slightly below the water) would increase surface movement and encourage gas exchange. If you have it point down to the bottom of the opposing side of the tank this helps with circulation the most, but just make sure you're not blowing it directly into a plant or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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