# Powerhead placement in a planted african tank



## teddy76 (Jan 30, 2009)

I plan to put in at least one powerhead in my new tank right now its empty other than rocks and gravel I am thinking about replacing the gravel with onyx gravel and sand. Thoughts on this would be appreciated as well, as once again I am new to Cichlids, I use to raise them when I was in college however that was 12 years ago. Anywho, back to my query, where would be the best place to have the powerhead pointed? Should I conceal it under the rocks and have it come out of the rocks like a vent or should i aim it midlevel. 
I was also wondering would one particular " bossy" type of cichlid such as the electric blues or yellows take this vent up as a territoy?. I am going to try to plant the tank with folliage the cichlids find distastful some swords and some from the anuebis family. I am using a 29 tall vs a 30 l however if this works out i plan on selling my Nikon and moving up to a 55 or 75 where I can really have the space in which to get creative and to have more fish of course. I hope I am not wasting anyones time and appreciate any helpful hints.


----------



## califjewls (Dec 28, 2008)

IMO you don't need a powerhead in a cichlid tank. Your filter ouput nozzles are sufficient for water movement.

In regards to taking up territories, you can never predict who will do what in a cichlid tank, I can say that my electric yellow's are down low on the bossy list, now I did have an electric blue for 1 day he was evil! My kenyi is the boss right now, but little does he know I have plans for a bigger tank and more cichlids... :lol:


----------



## natalie559 (Dec 6, 2007)

Power head placement really depends on the rest of your setup, i.e. other filters, rocks, etc. and your goals.

In my tank I have a HOB filter to the left of the center brace and a canister to the right of the brace. My heater is to the left of HOB. My goals with the power head was to move the heated water and poo to the filters intakes so I situated it to the left of the heater pointing across the back of the tank.










A lot will be trial and error, finding where waste collects and where the dead spots are.


----------

