Placement of Wave Making Powerheads

[DLANDINO]

Hi, I am very new to the marine / reef environment but had a fresh water 55 gal. for about 10 years. I am in the process of building a reef aquarium and have the following so far.

46 Gal. Bow
Penguin 350 Bio-Wheel Filter
Coralife Compact Fl. lighting with true blue, 10,0000 daylight and moon light.
35 lbs of live rock soon to be 50 lbs.
80 lbs of live sand giving about a 4 inch rise on the sand bed.
Just about to come out of the cycle process, infact, probably already am.

I recently purchased a wave maker and 2 maxijet 900 powerheads. my question is what is the best placement for these powerheads to get the best overall wave patterns. I realize that once I begin adding corals etc these patterns may need to be adjusted. Thanks!

Dave

[Pmolan]

I have my maxijets tucked behind the rocks with a hose on the output routed through the rocks and pointed at the front glass. I find that the flow crashing on the front of the tank creates a chaotic pattern and is not directly on any corals.

[DLANDINO]

Thanks you, that makes perfect sense. I'll give it a whirl.

[landlord]

Off your original topic but related to your cycle. As soon as you add the additional 15 pounds of liverock you will increase your cycle time. Just a heads up.

--landlord

[DLANDINO]

This is why I joined the boards. Thank you so much. I have been slowly adding the rock over the past few weeks and there is a noticible change in my tests indicating more cycling time. I will add the last of the rock and then wait it out again. On a related topic, in the future should I want to further build the reef with more live rock, will this cause a mini cycle again. I am using fully cured rock from a local LFS. Thanks again.

Dave

[reefkeeper135]

I think you might want to ditch the bio-wheels as well, they will become a nitrate factory.

[DLANDINO]

That is easy enough, I think I just remove them and run the filter as is, right?

[reefkeeper135]

Thats what I would do.