best way to hide water circulation???

[bensreef]

ok, what is the best way to hide water circulation? I cant stand to look at powerheads any longer. What is a closed circut circulation, and how does it work.
thanks for the input
BEN

[drscheck]

A closed loop is an external pump that draws water out of a tank and then returns it without it going through a filtration system. Most people drill their tanks to install a closed loop, but there are ways to use a closed loop with drilling.

Without drilling you are still going to have intakes and outputs in the tank.

With drilling you will have screened bulkheads for intakes, which can be hidden easily, but you still need to place outputs in the tank somewhere

HTH

[andycook]

I use a spraybar system for water movement. It is pretty much out of sight unless you are looking up at the tank from the floor. The white pvc is becoming even less noticeable as things grow all over it.

[Toutouche]

IMO, if you want randomflow, use Sea-Swirls. Other than that, a spray bar at the top, or behind the rockwork works well, and not too noticeable. I, along with lots of other people have spray painted all the PVC, and plumbing parts showing in the tank, a matt black, and this does an amazing job of hiding the stuff real well. It is completely safe, just let the parts dry real well for a day, or two.

[hwsva]

Toutouche,
What type of paint do you use that's reef safe?

[Toutouche]

Hwsva,
I just use a typical outdoor spray paint. The particular brand I used was called "Krylon", and I used a matte black finish.

[chrizg]

How many holes did you put in the spray bar. Which sides of the spray bar did you put the holes in. Did you do them all the way around the bar, or just ones pointing up... I made mine already, but I put holes in all sides of it. I am wondering if it will spray to much water down towards the sand, and stirr it up bad, and there won't be any sand below the spray bar. Also, how big did you drill your holes. I want to put enough holes in the bar so the powerhead doesn't burn up because it can't push water like it needs to.

[hwsva]

TouTouche.....thanks for the paint info....I'm familiar with Krylon paint:D

Should the spray bar be the same diameter has the return pipe? I have a 20 gal sump/refugium going back to a 37 gal main tank. The refugium tank is approximately 4 ft below the main tank. I was planning on using a half inch diameter pipe for the return water....is this sufficient or should I use a 3/4" pipe? Oh, I am using a Magdrive 7 pump which pumps 700 gph as the return pipe. The overflow box will be the Lifereef single prefilter/syphon box (since I've read so much positive comments about Lifereef).

[hw]

"matt black", i would have thought crushed coral beige or coraline algae pink/purple would be a good colour? :D

[Toutouche]

Hw,
Hey! maybe you're right. The colours would blend in nicely however, I used the black because the tubing is up against my black glass built-in overflow, so it hides nicely that way. Actually, the coralline sticks quite nicely to the paint, and I couldn't seemuch black at all in no time.

[hwsva]

Hey ...any opinions about the questions about the spray bar holes and pipe diameter and stuff? :(