Water movement in a BAre Bottom

[Icebox]

Hello everybody. I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Since I had company over anyway I put them to work. We picked up the 180 and set it on its stand. Man I miss the weight on a 75.

I am really getting excited about it now. Anyway, I am still kind of figuring out How I am going to set it up. I am leaning towards a Bare bottom setup even though I have about 200 pounds of SD sand.

I was originally going to install a closed loop for water circulation, but do to issues, I am not going to do a closed loop at this time.
#1 lack of place for the pump (the sump is not going in the basement as the basement is not finished),
#2 My ampmaster is frozen,
#3 Pain in the butt to get holes drilled
#4 All holes would have to be in the bottom, and ends since tank is viewed from both the front and the back

I am debating getting a tunze or possible 2 of them One on each side. I was thinking about putting one maybe 6-8 inches off the bottom and towards the front, and the other up closer to 14-18 inches up and towards the back.

QUESTION TIME:

How much water movement will I need to get and keep the crap off the bottom of the tank?

About 200 lbs of LR at this time. I may add some more later, but I may not. I want the middle of the tank to be sort of open.

Do you think that would keep the crap in the water column till it reaches the sump?

[Little Luey]

IMO a closed loop is best because you can have a few different outlets pointing in different directions, but if you cannot have one at the time is always good to have a plan B.
How much water do the Tunze move? remember you will need at least 10x the amount of water, so probably 1800gal/hour. Probably go with a few ph so all the water is not comming from just one direction, you want to create turbulance not just one stream of water.

[Reelheel]

Icebox, I have some experience with this exact setup. My current 180 is bare-bottomed, and uses a large closed loop pump for the majority of the circulation. I do not have any addtional powerheads or pumps in the tank.
If I were you, however, given your situation, I'd go with a pair of Tunze streams instead of the closed loop. Since setting up my 180, I invested in a pair of 6100s and a multicontroller for my 265g prop system. I think they would just about perfect for a 180g. They put out a lot of flow (over 3000gph each) but it spreads out and is far from a direct jet of water. Also, with the multicontroller, you get complete programmability, which is like the ultimate wavemaker. I'd look very seriously at the Tunze, especially if you don't want to go with a closed loop.

[cheeks69]

How much water movement will I need to get and keep the crap off the bottom of the tank?

IMO the corals your planning to keep and the placement of the LR will dictate how much flow you'll need. I would avoid the rockwall scape because no matter how much flow you have there's going to be stagnant areas that will allow algea to flourish. I would try to make islands and place them in a way that flow will move thoughout the tank without impediment JMO.

[Icebox]

LL this is the way the water flows out of a tunze. I am looking at the 6100 which advertises a flow rate of "Flow rate: 4,000 to 12,000 l/h (1,056 to 3,170 US gal./h)
Energy consumption: maximum 45 W"

If I were to only get one at this time, and add it to the 1500+ GPH I hope to get out my sump. That would be over 4500 GPH flow. About 25x turnover.

RH, are you a Tarheel Fan? Thanks for the info. That is what I really wanted to hear. That it would not be a whirl pool if I did that. I guess with their programability if it is too much, you just turn them back a bit.

cheeks, That is a very good point. I know what I am invisioning with the rock, and I may have to come up with something to shoot the stuff out of the corners, and out from under the rocks.

Thanks again for the suggestions and info.

[Reelheel]

Ice,
Yes, I'm a Tarheel! Went to school there, met my wife there, I even worked for the University for a couple years. You'll love the Tunze...they are truly awesome! You could start with one, but I think two would be perfect. And you're right - with the multi-controller you can always dial them down if you think they are too much flow. I pulse mine continuously from 40% to 100%, about every 8 seconds. They hardly use any electricity too...awesome pumps.

[Icebox]

Go Heels...

[Woodstock]

Go Heels!!!!!

[mps9506]

I think you will be quite happy with the tunze setup. Might even want to look at the wave box Very cool watching stuff sway back and forth.

Oh yea, Go Heels (even though I turned them down when I had to choose which college to go to).

[Yarr]

I love my Tuzne Stream. Lovely pump.

[Little Luey]

The only thing about the tuzne is that they go in the tank, I prefer to see my pets in the tank instead of cords and electrical gadgets, I try to minimize the equipment in the tank.