Flow rate

[Angelscrx]

How do you know if you have enough flow in your tanks? How do you determine how much flow you need? Thanks

 

[reiple]

when no cyano grows on your sand/rocks/corals you pass the minimum flow rate and light spectrum requirements. does not mean corals will survive or thrive though.

 

[NaH2O]

IMO, you need to base it on what you are going to keep in the tank, and the type of substrate you will have will determine your flow pattern. The direction of flow is jsut as if not more important than the actual gph.

 

[wrightme43]

I try for 12-20 gal per hour per gal of tank water. I am not saying this is the only way, just what I use, because it works for me. I include all pwr heads, filters, and cut skimmer output off. Like this in a 75 two 802s @ 400 gph, one emperor 400 @ 400 gph. one rena XP3 at 350 gph, and one prizim pro deluxe at nothing = 1550 gph in a 75 = 20 gph. Just my humble opinion. Steve

 

[Angelscrx]

I have some dead zones in my tank and the power heads in my tank aren't reaching where they need to. I bought a new pump today and will see how it works. I had three 120 gph each in there in my 55g and red slime just keeps moving around when I change the pumps angle. I bought some phosphate remover bags and they are in the sump Will see how this works? Thanks

 

[reiple]

Angelscrx what is your lighting? problem might be there.

 

[Angelscrx]

Angelscrx what is your lighting? problem might be there.

Two PCs and two actinics

 

[reiple]

tank surface size and depth?

 

[Angelscrx]

tank surface size and depth?

48" wide, 12" deep, 20.5" tall

 

[reiple]

Tank is a bit too deep. at 20.5" tall, I guess your water column goes down around (with 2.5" clearance on top, 4" for DSB) 15-16". NO-VHO-PC work well up to 12". So beyond 12" the light intensity drops considerably.

Btw at this depth (16") an HQI or MH is recommended. In the IceCap website a reefer (Sandy Cohen?) got a great system using IceCap and ordinary NO GE daylight. http://www.icecapinc.com/
You might be interested in that method if you don't like the expensive HQI/MH.

However watt per watt a 150 HQI/MH penetrates deeper than a 150 PC/VHO/NO. Also are your PC rated above 10K Kelvin? 20K being better! Too much red spectrum promotes cyano.

Good reefing!

 

[Angelscrx]

Ok so what if I add the other two PC lights from another hood that I have for a total of four PCs and two actinics? Thanks

 

[Ritsuko Nashida]

For softies and most LPS, 4 x 96 watt PC's or a total of 4, 110 watt VHO's would do well I think. I have used 4 x 110 watt VHO's on a 55 gallon tank with pretty good results, just didnt get the full color potential or growth potential from SPS when I had this set up. Softies did very well under this type lighting for me. Your milage may vary though. For SPS you really want halides. Sure you can do SPS under the other two but you wont get near the results you could get.

For tank flow...I shoot for a turn over rate of about 10 times per a hour for SPS, about half that for LPS/Softies. Like I believe someone said earlier...type of flow is pretty critical too. Obviously you dont want any dead areas! If you got cyno-bacteria or localized chronic flare ups of algae in a particular spot then you need to address that. Random/irratic (sp?) water flow will go a long way in breaking up dead spots but its not a magic bullet. Random water flow is very important if you have SPS corals. Power heads that sweep or a wave maker type device can help you achieve that effect if you need it.

Just some possible suggestions given what little I know about your tank....HTH's

 

[Angelscrx]

Hey thanks all for the help. Will start working on your suggestions.