How much pump is to much?

[Salty D-O-G]

I was visiting a lady that grows and sells mostly corals and I was telling her that I have 2 1800's and one 1200 mag pump and she asked me if I was trying to power wash my corals of the rock. I have always read you cant have enough water flow. I"m using 8 returns with Loc-Line so I can direct the water flow all over and not have to use any kind of power head inside the tank. The current in the tank seems just right to me when I put food in, It doesn't blow it all over the place. Opinions?
Thanks in advance.

Jerry

 

[Scooterman]

If she is growing softies she would never want that much flow. It isn't lots of flow that is as important as well designed flow, big difference!

 

[Salty D-O-G]

Thats why I have the 8 returns. I designed it to flow water all around my reef so it won't have any dead spots.

Jerry

 

[shallowreef]

I have a dart pump that returns water to my tank through 7 lines and i have 4 TUNZE 6100s and believe my corals are not getting powerwashed. Plus it helps keep my tank cleaner by keeping detritus from seteling in little cracks and crevices. Plus my fish are all very strong swimmers. They look like they are all on steroids!

But seriously if you have corals that are not responding well to high flow stick them in some pvc with holes drilled in it to allow flow but restrict it as well. I don't think too much flow is a bad thing in a reef tank.

 

[LakeEd]

Like Scooterman mentioned, it depends on which type of corals a tank is designed for. Softies don't want higher flow rates, where SPS's do. None of the corals want a direct pressure flow on them, but good circulation... which is where the design of your flow is important.

 

[davidabrown66]

bump bump bump

 

[Brenden]

What size is your tank? Generally speaking you need at least 15-20 times your volume in flow. SPS etc can use more.

 

[Sherman]

And even more for SPS. I run 47x turnover, and have no problems, even with a DSB. I even have some softies and LPS in there, too. Flows brings food and washes away wastes, and those are both good things.

 

[SueT]

I was wondering what type corals this lady sells. It must not be sps cause they really need to have the flow. I run 50 times turnover and not one isn't lovin' it.

 

[Salty D-O-G]

She sells a lot of stuff and has a very beautiful display tank also. Here's the link, check it out.

http://www.aquacorals.com/default.htm

 

[tike]

Viewing the web site it definately looks like she is raising mostly softies so you don't want a HUGE amount of flow with them. The stonies(especially sps as noted) do tons better with lots of flow.

 

[Salty D-O-G]

Yea I see that now and I plan to have more SPS than LPS in my 180. Bout time to post some progress pics

Jerry

 

[Meche]

Thats a pretty good lookin' store! A couch and no salt creap, nice.

I use 3 LFS. One looks like crap, another looks like well maintained crap, and the other looks like a mad scientist's laboratory, except he sells fish. :lol:

 

[CarlaW]

I think the key word would be random flow. I was turning my 300 over 30x and I think I could have thrown a couple Tunze 6100 in there and not bothered a thing.