Water Circulation In A Planted Aquarium

This is something that I discuss with customers time and time again but in all honesty a lot of hobbyists don't realise how important it really is. Water circulation in a planted aquarium is really important.

Picture this - your aquarium is heavily planted, you infuse CO2, add excellent fertilisers like AE Design Aqua Nourish and Aqua Nourish+. You have good lighting and perform regular large water changes but...you only have one filter pushing around the water, CO2 and fertilisers. And for some reason you have algae - anyone been in this situation?

The reason you have algae is insufficient water distribution. Whilst you get full marks for everything else, in a planted tank that is CO2 infused, you have to get everything right otherwise, algae grows. If you only have one filter pushing water around and you probably have wood/rocks so there will be quite a few dead spots or certainly areas that don't get much if any water flow due to the deflection they cause. Water flow is the life blood of the system - it carries nutrients and CO2 to the plants and if circulation isn't up to scrath, your plants don't get what they need and algae responds. When diffusing CO2 into your tank, you literally have to see the bubbles everywhere and if they're not in every nook and cranny, you can bet the plants will be struggling in that area.

Water circulation pumps don't need to be particularly large, in fact some are quite small and powerful. Let me introduce you to Hydor Pico Evo Mag 650. This amazing tiny piece of equipment moves 650L of water per hour and it's only 4.5x3x6cm which means that it can sit in your tank and barely takes up any space. It contains a magnetic suction cup so you place it anywhere and the idea is to direct it towards the areas in your tank, which don't get enough water movement. If you have foreground plants, you would need to direct this onto them - in fact this is one reason so many struggle with them. Because they are at the bottom of the tank, they don't get much water movement and therefore not much CO2 and fertilisers. By pointing a Hydor Pico Evo Mag 650 towards them, it will push the necessary water, fertilsers and CO2 onto your foreground plants forcing them to sway in the current (perfect!).

Ensuring you get your water movement just right, removes so much stress from your planted aquarium. If you want to see our other range of water circulating pumps then visit this link here.

If you are having problems with your aquarium, why not ask a question on this blog and I will respond.

In addition I have managed to find an excellent image of a larger planted aquarium in which world class aquascaper Mark Evans demonstrates perfectly why a circulation pump is required.