Water circulation and DIY backgrounds

[bayst]

How do I ensure that the water flow for my filter intakes is good and I don't get a lot of junk stuck in front of the fake rocks??? I want to hide everything in back of it.

here's the deets:

DIY styro/concrete background for my 75 gal mbuna tank.

- anchored to the bottom of the tank with a plexi sheet (like a footing) a few inches from the back of the tank.
- it'll be in sections; probably 3 pieces, so there will be some small gaps between them.
- "rock" design will have caves/gaps going all the way through
- running an eheim 2217, AC110, and a ML 350 biowheel, intakes roughly spaced equally in tank.

thanks!

 

[the_deeb]

You could add a substrate level spray bar at the base of your background. This would blow any debris away from your background and keep it in suspension so your filters could pick it up. You could plumb the spraybar into the outlet of your eheim, or power it with an additional pump.

 

[bayst]

You could add a substrate level spray bar at the base of your background. This would blow any debris away from your background and keep it in suspension so your filters could pick it up. You could plumb the spraybar into the outlet of your eheim, or power it with an additional pump.

That's a really good, (and simple!) idea! Thanks. I already have a spraybar for the eheim outlet, so maybe I will just position it low. Hopefully there won't be much sand kicked up.

I kept thinking I need to add more suction somehow, but I guess anything that creates flow would do the trick (???)

 

[manlyfish]

perfect for that type of fish