Help/opinions on locations for power heads

[Sophie1213]

Alright, so I've been pretty bummed out on the amount of corals I've had die because of poor water flow. Not cheap. A lot of my rocks are against the back of my tank, so I'm not sure if I should stack them differently or where the pumps should be placed since only a couple spots get good flow. Opinions would be great!

 

[Munch]

What sized tank is that?

 

[Balz3352]

And what kind of power heads do you have?

 

[Sophie1213]

It's a 75 gal. And they aren't name brands but the double headed is 3200 gph and the small one is 800 gph.

 

[Munch]

Also, how old is your tank?

 

[Munch]

I run them at opposite ends of my tank, for better coverage. Your sand on the left looks better than that on the right. Might move one to the right side...

 

[Sophie1213]

My tank is almost 2 years old, I used to have a 55 and about a year ago I transferred everything over and got new sand. Do you typically have the currant run over your rocks or do you have them hit certain parts of the rock?

 

[Munch]

I have two heads on one side, and a third across from them (in my 75). I have them alternating, so I get some good movement on my rocks, and all around the tank in general.

 

[zombie]

This is what I would do personally. Get 2 wp25 or rw4 for the right side. Set one to wave and the other to random. Leave the existing powerheads where they are. You can also try the diy sweeper that was posted recently to get even better coverage.

 

[Sophie1213]

Do you think I should move my rocks at all? I'll definitely see how much I can spend on those. Do you guys have pictures of how yours are set up

 

[SkyShark]

Are you certain it is flow related? What kind of fishes do you have? I think I see a trigger and a Toby, both of which may be eating coral. Have all water parameters been stable (including alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium)?

 

[Sophie1213]

Occasionally the trigger picks at algae, but I've had them since my tank was done cycling and have never had any problems with them. I haven't tested for those, but I have noticed that in certain areas star polyps and Xenia do better and if they aren't directly in a current they shrink down to nothing

 

[SynDen]

I run a wp25 and a wp10 on my 75g. Both on opposite sides of the tank. The wp10 I have angled so it moves the water behind the rocks and the wp25 moves the water in front.
But Id agree with skyshark, corals dieing maybe from numbers being out of whack or a fish nipping/eating them. I'd start with checking all your number especially alk, calc and mag. And yah I would move the smaller pump to the opposite side and have it push behind the rocks as much as possible and have the other pump push across the front of the rocks.

 

[Sophie1213]

I'll definitely pick up some testing kits. And move those. I'll update you guys as soon as I have the kits. Thanks!

 

[SkyDiv3r17]

One thing you might want to do is make sure theres no dead spots where detritus can accumulate. What I did on my 75g was lay my Foundation rocks about 3 to 4 inches from the back wall. Then the 2nd layer lays on the first, but back up against the glass. That way theres a tunnel that runs through the back. Then I had a 750 koralia on the very left corner pushing water across the back wall so that nothing would get stuck back there. Then I just had a wp25 on the left wall pushing movement through the open water column (not against any of the rock). Worked like a charm!