Enough Flow?

RyanG027

New member
I am relatively new to SW and want to ensure I have enough flow in my tank. I have a 75g FOWLR with approx 80 lbs each of live rock and sand.

Adding to the flow:
2x Hydor Koralia Nano (425 gph ea)
Coralife Super skimmer 125 (500 gph)
Marineland Penguin 350 BIOwheel Filter (350 gph)

From what I've read it seems to be more the sufficient based on the gph #'s, but there seems to quite a bit of detritus collecting on the sand, and not enough crap being pulled out by the protein skimmer.

The tank has been running for about 3 months, and currently is home to a Melanurus Wrasse, Coral Beauty, and a few Cerith Snails


Thanks!
 
Coralife skimmer have a bad rep. I have one on my 55 and it works great. But I have also modded it. Do you vacuum your sand bed when you do water changes?


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Skimmer taking water from and back to the DT like a HOB skimmer? If not, it doesn't count in total flow. If it is you are looking at about 20 turns and in a FOWLR that is enough. Reef tanks wit hard corals need 2 or 3 times more, but not an issue for fish, IMHO.
 
Coralife skimmer have a bad rep. I have one on my 55 and it works great. But I have also modded it. Do you vacuum your sand bed when you do water changes?


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I have heard this - I got the skimmer from Craigslist and at first it was not working at all. I took everything apart and noticed the impeller shaft had cracked in half, and there was something loose in the pump, so I ordered a brand new return pump. It's been working MUCH better in terms of producing bubbles, but it's still not producing as much skimmate as I imagine it should. Could it be because there isn't much bioload yet with only a couple small fish?


Skimmer taking water from and back to the DT like a HOB skimmer? If not, it doesn't count in total flow. If it is you are looking at about 20 turns and in a FOWLR that is enough. Reef tanks wit hard corals need 2 or 3 times more, but not an issue for fish, IMHO.

That is correct - I have it running as a HOB skimmer right now, as I do not currently run a sump.
 
I haven't vacuumed the sand bed yet - I've only had the tank stocked for about 8 weeks so there's not an extraordinary amount of detritus, but I imagine that will be a next step if I can't get the skimmer picking up more.
 
Well since your tank is only 8 weeks old it's still having algae blooms so I would try to keep as much out as you can. As for your skimmer how long have you had it up and running. It's gonna take some time for it to develop the film inside the neck and then it will. It took mine about 2 months to actually get it dialed to where I wanted it


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Well since your tank is only 8 weeks old it's still having algae blooms so I would try to keep as much out as you can. As for your skimmer how long have you had it up and running. It's gonna take some time for it to develop the film inside the neck and then it will. It took mine about 2 months to actually get it dialed to where I wanted it


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The skimmer has been running with the new pump for less than a month. I originally had it running during the initial cycle, but took it down after I realized the impeller shaft was cracked.

I think I am going to do a quick vac when I do a water change this weekend - thanks for the tip
 
I would double the flow. Many large fish needs serious exercise throughout the day to stay in good health.
 
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