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Some of you may have seen my other posts... I'm in the process of putting together my 90 gallon tank (going Mbuna)... anyway, I figured tossing one of these in couldn't hurt, and now, before there's anything in the tank, would be the best time to do it. Just looking for some help with design.
Today I picked up some clear plastic tubing (about 20' of it) and more fittings than I know what to do with (elbows for the corners, T's for the jets, straight couplers just in case). I ultimately don't want to spend too much on this part of the project, so I only planned on using a couple of powerheads as my pumps for this (no fancy and expensive special submersible pumps)
I'm going to build around the egg crate... tank is 48"x18".
My idea was to split the crate in half, and have two halves... each as its own closed loop with its own powerhead. I figured then I could have one jet for each side in the middle (one toward the front and one toward the rear) - this is clearly getting a little complicated to explain - and probably just as much to understand my crappy explanation, so here's a crappy drawing to help.
The two squares inside the tank could be looked at as the two pieces of egg crate or the tubing itself (each piece of eggcrate would have plastic tubing all the way around). Either way would be accurate.
The huge circles are there just to give an idea of where I would have my rock piles, not that it would make a huge difference.
Anyway, that's just what I had in mind... I'd like to hear your ideas on how well this would work and if there are too many jets somewhere or not enough somewhere else...
I wasn't sure if I should have any on the rear, since that's where my powerhead and filter (canister and HOB) inlets/outlets would be...does it need 4 jets total (2 on each side) on the front?
I understand the idea behind the jets (avoiding dead spots, maintaining currents, keeping debris off the bottom, etc.), I'm just not sure what the best way to implement it is.
Again, I haven't done a thing yet but buy egg crate, tubing, and fittings, so suggest away.
Today I picked up some clear plastic tubing (about 20' of it) and more fittings than I know what to do with (elbows for the corners, T's for the jets, straight couplers just in case). I ultimately don't want to spend too much on this part of the project, so I only planned on using a couple of powerheads as my pumps for this (no fancy and expensive special submersible pumps)
I'm going to build around the egg crate... tank is 48"x18".
My idea was to split the crate in half, and have two halves... each as its own closed loop with its own powerhead. I figured then I could have one jet for each side in the middle (one toward the front and one toward the rear) - this is clearly getting a little complicated to explain - and probably just as much to understand my crappy explanation, so here's a crappy drawing to help.

The two squares inside the tank could be looked at as the two pieces of egg crate or the tubing itself (each piece of eggcrate would have plastic tubing all the way around). Either way would be accurate.
The huge circles are there just to give an idea of where I would have my rock piles, not that it would make a huge difference.
Anyway, that's just what I had in mind... I'd like to hear your ideas on how well this would work and if there are too many jets somewhere or not enough somewhere else...
I wasn't sure if I should have any on the rear, since that's where my powerhead and filter (canister and HOB) inlets/outlets would be...does it need 4 jets total (2 on each side) on the front?
I understand the idea behind the jets (avoiding dead spots, maintaining currents, keeping debris off the bottom, etc.), I'm just not sure what the best way to implement it is.
Again, I haven't done a thing yet but buy egg crate, tubing, and fittings, so suggest away.