Closed loop quickee

[Icehockey_whino]

I'm finally done with my CL and ready to install. Since it has more flow than what my tank is used to, should I use the ball valve and slowly ramp up the flow rate? kind of the same idea when you add new lights on a tank.

 

[Krish]

IMO, it's not necessary. The only reason I would see to add a ball valve inline, is incase you would have way more flow than your tank can obviously handle and you needed to slow it up some, but other than that, I see no other reason. Corals need to be acclimated to light and temp, but I've never heard of it being so with flow. Just like the ocean IMO...It could be flat calm today, and be hit with 15ft seas the next day. Just my personal opinion though...May not be necessarily correct, but I figured if people pop all sorts of powerheads like Seio's and Tunze's in their tanks all the time (sometimes more than doubling the flow) without controllers on them to tone them down, then I think it should be cool

 

[Brenden]

I would make sure you are not stirring up substrate. If you did not use locline on your CL I would highly recommend it.

 

[ronj]

i put ball valves on my loops, but i have them full blast, even when i start them..i have BB tanks though, so i don't have to worry about sand storms

 

[Zen Reeferer]

The ball valves sure make removing the pump for cleaning a breeze.
How would you remove the pump for cleaning, with no unions or ball valves?
I've got a 60 cube with a 15 gallon sump. It's got a Mag Drive 500gph pumping thru the sump, and a Sequence Dart (2850 gph, plus or minus) powering the closed loop. I personally think that it would be a true bummer to not have the ball valves installed, but really need them.

p.s. I have 4" of .5 - 1.0 arragonite substrate, but also have loc-line fittings and nozzles that allow me to keep direct flow off the sand, but since there's plenty of 'swirl' throughout the tank, it keeps the detritus from settling.
Boatloads of flow, and no sand storms at full throttle.