circulation advice needed

[orthokardia]

not yet free shipping from CA takes a while...i am getting excited. you have to come by soon and help me with some coral placement and nuc'n aptisia

 

[sal-t-dawg]

Ok.... so is there some sort of a simple formula to figure out how much flow and turnover is needed for a system? Maybe a good rule of thumb:thumbsup:

 

[nightfire]

you take the gph that ya equipment is pushing total that up and divide it by the amount of total water that you have....... so say ya had 2 powerheads pushinf 1,000 gph in a tank that has say 50 gallons in it you divide 50 into 2,000 and get 40 so ya turn over is 40......so total gph divided by total water volume = turn over

 

[poolkeeper1]

That depends on what type of coral you are keeping, SPS requires the higher flow rates and LPS Zoos and others prefer lower flow rates. And flow through your sump is different also at much lower turnover rates for a refugium/skimmer section. Also the type of flow is very important as you can blow the skin right off the coral with very strong direct flow like from a maxi jet verses the wide gentle current at random from a MP40 or Tunze. The more natural alternating current produced by Vortechs is far superior to that of a pump just blasting water in the same direction all the time. Your Coral will let you know when they are happy by great polyp extension and are healthy.
Bill

 

[fishdoc11]

Even my zoas even do much better in high flow than lower flow.

 

[poolkeeper1]

No doubt Chris, It'a a crap shoot as to how each critter reacts to flow as some thrive and others will try and move out of it's path.
With 2 MP40's 2 Tunze 6025's and a water blaster @ 1800gph for my return pump i don't see any dead spots and everything is moving.
Bill

 

[sal-t-dawg]

I will be running a fuge so I will need a turnover of 4x or so for the tank. As far as the flow rate goes it looks to be system specific? It just depends on what kind of critters youre keeping and how they react to the flow. Controllable flow seems to be the best way to go. Then at least you can see how everything is reacting and adjust accordingly.

 

[Pickupman66]

Fishdoc, I agree. my zoa's are going crazy with the high currents. the little tentacles on them are long and very colorful. everythign seems to really like the higher flow now. the little frogspawn frag I swear was a gonner is now having its best PE and the leathers love it as well.

Bart, Sure thing buddy. lets wait till gun season is off in december ok? otherwise I am going to be in the woods. just holler at me.

 

[orthokardia]

sure enough