Assistance Understanding Filtration and Circulation, Please

[GPounda]

A lot of articles and videos talk about circulation as if it can only come from filtration. and that you should have anywhere from 4-10 times circulation per hour.

However if you have a planted tank you do not want all of the "fertilizer," to end up in your filtration system, but you do want clean water.  SO, where I get confused is if the water needs to be circulated for healthy plants and minimal/no water dead spots, can the, and if so how much of the  4-10 times per hour circulation can come from powerheads?

Hope that isn't too confusing. 🙂

[lefty o]

ideally you do want some water movement. where people come up with the needs to turn a tank over X amount of times an hour, i have no idea. a little flow is nice, and if you have fish with lots of waste, more flow can help keep it off the bottom where it can get into a filter. IMO, dont over think it, dont get too excited about what all the "experts" say, and just find a nice balance of flow that works in your tank. every tank is an individual, and should be treated as unique.

[Pepere]

I have found higher filtration and flow and servicing the filter monthly makes it easier for me to control algae…

I tried the whole wavemaker to increase flow more, and frankly I found them an eyesore and they were a pain to keep clear of vegetation that would clog the grills…

powerheads attached to sponge filters is not a horrid idea though. Coarse sponge filters would prevent the grid fouling by plant leaves and provide biological filtration..  plumbing the outlet to a spray bar would equalize flow more across the whole tank.

 

Alternatively connecting powerheads to UGF plates would give biofiltration capacity approaching that of canister filters.. and quite honestly, nobody looked in a tank and said “I really like how your Sponge filters look.”   They take a fair amount of floor space…And pulling them out of a tank to clean without making a mess is a pain..,

In any event, I went through quite a few different filter schemes before I broke down and bought a canister filter…. And some people start with canister and pull them out to replace with something else.

Reading and discussing only goes so far until you have hands on experience yourself to see what you like and prefer…

Edited August 2 by Pepere

[face]

Imo just set up the tank and see if you need/want more flow unless you have very specific fish you want to keep that need it your filter is probably enough but you might want more for other reasons 

[Pepere]

Iirc, this is a used tank you are buying that comes with an oase biomaster 600 right?

 

If soI would get it and see what replacement parts the Oase needs.  Assuming it isnt more than $100.00 in parts I would get the parts and install it and then go with a powerhead or two either with coars sponges on the intake or ugf plates to start with.  The Oase has pretty much enough biofiltration by itself.  I would just use powerheads to supplement flow.

 

Depending on fish and plants you could always add a second canister at a later date if you decide you prefer that…

[quikv6]

Flow (or lack of flow) is often a factor that is stressed when trying to replicate a particular species' natural environment.

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/2/2024 at 1:30 PM, GPounda said:

A lot of articles and videos talk about circulation as if it can only come from filtration. and that you should have anywhere from 4-10 times circulation per hour.

However if you have a planted tank you do not want all of the "fertilizer," to end up in your filtration system, but you do want clean water.  SO, where I get confused is if the water needs to be circulated for healthy plants and minimal/no water dead spots, can the, and if so how much of the  4-10 times per hour circulation can come from powerheads?

Turnover rate = how "often" does the water filter through the filter. This is purely done with math and pump volume, not technical analysis.

Filtration simply means a method for removing things from your liquid as well as supporting your bacterial colony in this context. Each setup and each method has it's own advantages, disadvantages, and flow differences.

Circulation means how well does the water in the tank itself "move" and do you have stagnation or high/low spots in water movement.  In short, YES we all have spots of high and low flow.  There is no way around this due to having hardscape in your tanks.  One of the main things you can do here is add an airstone to the far end of a tank and see how that changes your circulation.  Mr @Bentley Pascoe has an awesome series on circulation, pump layout, and tank filtration layout that really helps demonstrate this for people.  This is why stuff like "side-mounting" your HoB can actually run your filter more effectively due to how it pushes water across the tank.  This, of course, varies with what your tank dimensions are!
 

 

[mynameisnobody]

I’ve never heard of a filter eating all your fertilizer. It’s still in the water unless you’re talking about root tabs. I agree with whomever said this above, get the tank setup and the fish that will live in there. With observation, you should easily be able to tell if you need circulation. I wouldn’t even go through all the steps to ramp up circulation because if you ever need it, I’m sure you’ll post a thread here when the time comes.