need some help changing 90 gallon setup (substrat and filter)

[Medic_how]

hi everyone fairly new to this hobby.

I had a 20 gallon for about a year.(never did anything special with it) Then got my hands on a 90g, its been setup for a couple of months now, but the setup needs some tweeking. I have a couple of fish couple of guppies, a dozen or so daimen zebra, 4 playties, one of those suckers, 2 snails, very lightly planted with some large driftwood. for filtration I have a rena xp1 and xp4. so now for the questions

I am planning to change the substrate. my plan is to kneed in some laterite with potters clay and then flatten that out on the bottom. then top it off with some pea gravel. kind of thought about this after reading about the clay fertilizer balls.

1) Has anyone tried this?

2)How much laterite to use?

the xp4 is not setup yet(just got it).

3)what would be the best placement of the input and outputs(xp1+xp4)?

4)Spray bar or nozzle?

5)should i get a power head?

6)and how many gph?

thanks in advance.

Edited June 15, 2009 by Medic_how

[T Dawg]

3)what would be the best placement of the input and outputs(xp1+xp4)?

4)Spray bar or nozzle?

5)should i get a power head?

6)and how many gph?

thanks in advance.

Sounds like we have similar filter setups. I find even with the spray bar the current is quite strong, so I would recommend that over the nozzle. The two units should provide all the water movement and filtration you need.

As far as ideal placement I think the location of input and output depends on where the bigger items in the tank are and aesthetics. My goal was to create a lower current area for the fish to rest or hide but have all the water moved a bit, I was not concerned about hiding the pickups. I have my inputs along the back 6" and 1' from each end. One of the spay bars is horizontal along the top pushing lengthwise, the other is vertical pushing from back to front. I tried a few differnt setups before the fish were added.

[Medic_how]

3)what would be the best placement of the input and outputs(xp1+xp4)?

4)Spray bar or nozzle?

5)should i get a power head?

6)and how many gph?

thanks in advance.

Sounds like we have similar filter setups. I find even with the spray bar the current is quite strong, so I would recommend that over the nozzle. The two units should provide all the water movement and filtration you need.

As far as ideal placement I think the location of input and output depends on where the bigger items in the tank are and aesthetics. My goal was to create a lower current area for the fish to rest or hide but have all the water moved a bit, I was not concerned about hiding the pickups. I have my inputs along the back 6" and 1' from each end. One of the spay bars is horizontal along the top pushing lengthwise, the other is vertical pushing from back to front. I tried a few differnt setups before the fish were added.

i never thought of putting the spray bar vertical. such a simple idea to have water flow at the bottom. i think i will do that with xp4. Now i don't need to get a powerhead.

thanks

[darkangel]

I'm running 2 large canister filters on my 75 gal planted tank. I have the intakes in the corners, well hidden by plants and I have one spraybar about 2 inches below the surface pushing to the front of the tank and slightly downward, and one spraybar about an inch above the substrate pointed up the back pane and about 20 degrees to the front. Gives a good circular motion of the water and still gives a low movement area at the front of the tank. As far as the rest of it, I just use a 4 inch thick bed of 80/100 sandblasting sand and dry ferts using the EI method and i'm trimming the jungle every 2 to 3 weeks.