Water Cycling/powerheads

[FraggleRock]

I'm looking into buying some new powerheads because mine are out of date, and I think it may be affecting my corals... I have a 125, prob. 100 gal of water... any suggestions on what powerheads to buy? I was looking at two of the Koralia 2's, which would cycle 600 gph each or 1200 total. Is that appropriate for my reef or do I need more/less cycling? I thought you were supposed to cycle a reef tank about ten times per hour, but I could be wrong. Anyone know?

 

[trido]

I thought you were supposed to cycle a reef tank about ten times per hour, but I could be wrong. Anyone know?

The general rule of thumb is a minimum of 30X per hour. If you have softies then 3000GPH will be fine. For SPS shoot for closer to 6000 GPH.

 

[burning2nd]

Tunze 6060's

 

[Krish]

Never used the Koralia's but I like the Tunze streams. I had (2) in my 75gal that produced about 3450 gph combined (1 @ 1600 gph and 1 @ 1850 gph) and was happy with it along with the other flow I already had. Kinda pricey compared to other powerheads, but are definately one of the best for many reasons

 

[FraggleRock]

Wow, thanks. Glad I didn't buy the two was going to! Would have been a waste of money! Now I'm looking at buying about four of the Tunze 6060's? Seems like that is a lot of pwerheads to put in my tank....

 

[returnofsid]

The general rule of thumb is not 30X per hour. It's actually 10X per hour with most people trying for somewhere between 10X and 20X per hour. If you've a lot of soft corals and LPS 30X per hour will probably be too much flow. If you've got SPS, you basically can't have too much flow. Having RANDOM flow is more important than the amount of flow.

 

[ronj]

i would build an over the top closed loop for a tank that big... it would cost less than four Tunze's...for a 125g, a Reeflo Dart or Barracuda would be great!!! i had a 125 and i had a Dart running mine.. i would have preferred the Barracuda or Hammerhead pump with my Sps...if i do that size tank again, i would go slightly bigger.