filter, improving water flow

If you have dead spots, you can add a powerhead.

Using the spraybar for intake wouldn't really help any.

hmm, I'm not so sure that it is dead spots, the main reason I think it is is because I keep getting blue green "algae" seemingly without reason, there for it could well be poor circulation.
without the addition of a power head what is the best way of improving water flow?

Get a bigger canister filter or add a second canister filter...lol.

Actually, you can try separating the intake and outtake and see if that gets you some better movement. Don't forget that plant mass can restrict flow...so don't expect miracles. The quick fix though is the powerhead. I would try that first just to see if the BGA goes away. This way you have an awareness of what is causing the BGA.

Also...by some of the info I have seen here, BGA is indicative of low Nitrates. Are you dosing? Whats your Nitrates levels? Keeping up with wc's?

sorry to anwser in such a rubbish way but if you find my Hc woe thread in plants it give a full discription of my dosing what how and when.
ill see if I can find a cheap power head somewhere, and move the filter and see what happens. I was hoping i could do it without having to add more equipment that's all

sorry never read the HC woes...

I am not saying the powerhead should be permanent...just try it for a while just to see if water movement will help prevent it. Then you can decipher a better way to reconfigure your permanent stuff. I figured the powerhead was the most portable thing to do without having to move all your filter lines and stuff.

Just a suggestion... don't hold me to it. Sorry I didn't read your other thread.

haha theres no need to apologise I wasn't having a dig at all! written word sometimes just doesn't work.
thank you for your help though, I've got a lot of things to consider and to change so we shall see

Low nitrates were the cause for my BGA problems in the past.

I think mine is either poor water flow or sunlight, once I've run a black out I'm going to screen the window clean the tank, filter and my room and trimmed everything back then if If BGA returns ill up nitrate and Co2 and add a power head. that should cover all the bases

Hey that sounds like a good plan of attack. just one more word of advise, but take this with a grain of salt and its only for documenting purposes. Make one change at a time...just to see the cause and effect of your mitigation. The only real reason i suggest this is this will give good incite in the future for those of us who may experience this problem and to know the direct line of preventative measure to resolve the issue. But again, its your tank so attack the algae as you see fit.

But from my experience to date, changing more than one thing at a time result in something else going wrong....and there is no way for me to decipher what may have caused the second problem even though "something" fixed the first problem.

But again...this is your attack not mine...so let "it" have it! LOL.

GOOD LUCK! and keep us posted with the outcome!

If you want to increase circulation area, you could try a hydor flo, or a SCWD.

SCWD?
10 characters

SCWD = Switching Current Water Director
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/11661/product.web

Basically it lets you have 2 outputs, and it will switch the water flow from 1 to the other.

nellis said:

If you want to increase circulation area, you could try a hydor flo, or a SCWD.

Click to expand...

I just picked up a Hydor Flo at my LFS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DfsWZiPAig&feature=related

Who says fish and marine life can't have fun? Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQwjlhUbFac&feature=related

Also removing the spray bar will 99% of the time increase a filters output GPH a good deal. Because there has to be some restriction in the spray bars design so that the water flows from the entire length of the spray bar and not just the first few holes.

Also removing the spray bar will create better current in the tank as well as flow from the restriction.

Sounds odd I know but try it and see for your self.

hybridtheoryd16 said:

Also removing the spray bar will 99% of the time increase a filters output GPH a good deal. Because there has to be some restriction in the spray bars design so that the water flows from the entire length of the spray bar and not just the first few holes.

Also removing the spray bar will create better current in the tank as well as flow from the restriction.

Sounds odd I know but try it and see for your self.

Click to expand...

I don't think I have a spray bar.

I have the inlet and outlet at opposite ends of the tanks, and use this device instead of a spraybar on all three of my tanks. Circulation seems to be very good, with no dead spots observed.

http://www.fmueller.com/home/aquaristic/125g/technology/aeration/

algae" seemingly without reason

Click to expand...

Have you been checking your tank stats? I was having completely algae free months, then suddenly had a big spike. It was my fault, I hadn't checked nitrates in awhile, and got a spike. Turns out goldfish grow really fast, and they were producing enough waste by themselves to keep the tank at 20 ppm nitrates (with 40-50% WC's a week), and then I was dosing nitrates into the tank! DOH.

I also find that i tend to get more algae near the end of a 2nd month cycle of the canister filter, as all the pre filters get clogged up and flow is greatly reduced. Make sure to replace the polishing media regularly, and squeeze out those sponges! (In tank water...not in the tank of course!!!)

Holy ghost bump batman!
I actually solved this issue by buying a filter better suited to the tank size, it turned out I'd been sold K2so4 instead of kno3 which didn't help at all.