I'm not entirely happy with the outflow of my aquaclear mini into my 3g Eclipse
because of the center brace on the tank, I can't move the AC mini past 1/2 way

So the outflow is at about the 1/3 point, left of center
and the intake is up against the left side of the tank

the result is a more or less circular pattern that makes high flow on the left, but little flow on the right.
I did add a sump and a slow return pump, the outflow and return are on the right of the tank, so there is some flow-- but still pretty gentle. the return drops down into the back corner to help "flush" stuff forward.

I'm playing with the idea of cutting a hole/notch in the Aquaclear return chute such that some of the flow goes straight down. It'll actually hit some rocks and disperse, I think.

Has anyone done this?

The only downside I can see if that it might somehow leak if I cut too high. But I doubt it.

Anyway- it isn't an expensive filter, but I hate to ruin something. If you have thoughts, please share.

Modified the Aquaclear mini

I'm not even sure that "modify" isn't sorta topping the nob in this one. I glued a small chunk of plastic to the outflow. now water goes forward and also to the right instead of just forward.

It moves water throughout the tank better and reduces the amount of sandblasting that was happening.

I re-used some plastic packaging. Cut a small rectangle and hot-glued it to the ACmini overflow to divert some current towards the rest of the tank. It works really well. Now there is less sandstorm and also more flow in previously slow parts. Took longer to let the heat gun warm up than to do the rest of the modification. Easy to reverse by cutting it out w/ a razor. One could make the effect weaker or stronger by mounting the plastic diverter higher or lower on the overflow.

I think that this would scale up well for people using AC70s as a 'fuge on pico reefs.