Dual 6095 and controller question.

[camaroguy]

I am currently running two 6095's on opposite ends of my 6ft 125 gallon aquarium. These powerheads have been great and seem to do exactly what they are told when they are told. I am controlling them with a Profilux controller and currently have them on a permanent opposite pattern with the following settings:

30% min
80% max
15 sec intervals with random reductions up to 20%
roughly 3" from the surface, pointed a little toward the front glass so they don't hit any coral directly. (it was killing some of my acropora when hitting it directly)

The tank is a mixed one with soft/LPS/SPS in it. I have been reading that it would be better to do one pump on constant ~35%, and the other cycling 30%-80% for about 6 hours then switching roles. Would the corals appreciate this more, as its more like a tidal pattern?

Is there any more tips you could give me about the pump setup? I don't have any other powerheads in the tank right now, and run about 1800GPH through my sump with outputs on each end pointed mostly forward.

 

[rvitko]

Most of this is based on a study by Ron Shimek, and the conclusion seems logical. Corals deploy their polyps to feed in a set direction, in nature currents are generally much like the sun, fairly predictable, sure their are cloudy days, storms, etc, but for the most part you can rely on it to rise and fall at a known time and have known characteristics of intensity. The general conclusion was that random chaos is not ideal and disrupts feeding, it may take a coral hours to get oriented to feed in a new current and it seems they have a basic "learned" schedule of when to face the polyps in which direction. I would agree that idleing one pump for several hours and having the other pulse gives the best simulation of the natural effects of waves and tides, I think the idea you have is a good way to go.