Flow for a soft coral tank

[Jlmod]

Hey everyone. I will have about 600 gph coMing from my return. Other tHan this how much flow should I aim for? Im going to use generic koralias off of ebay. Im looking at only have two pumps In tank. This will be for a 90 gal with about 130 lbs of live rock ill have zoos leathers rics and a few lps. I will split my return to hopefully have a more chaotic flow.

 

[RyanSweatt2004]

to give you an example, I run a mag 18 with an Eshopps 1000 overflow box set and 3-4 Maxijet 900's in my 75 gallon reef. Most of them will do just as well if not better in a high flow environment. I have sacrophytons growing so fast they start to stick out of the water. High metal halide lights helps too though. I would say you could add a lot more flow and not need to worry at all. The only softies I have out of about 37 species that prefers lower flow seems to be most of my mushrooms but they are still thriving.

 

[Jlmod]

Thanks for the reply I would like to have a little extra flow just to help keep things cleaner. So maybe I should go with two 1400 gph pumps? I was just worried about beating the crap outta my shrooms and other softies. You think they could handle 40x flow or would 2x800 be better? I will be running a 4x54w catalina t5ho fixture for lighting.

 

[thefurrywarrior]

Don't buy generic koralias!#!!@! bad mistake that I made in the beginning. They are LOUD, VIBRATE, fall off easily, (which in turn kills fish, trust me I know) and mess up after a couple months. My neighbor had one shorting out in his tank. FME they are a very bad investment. Either bite the bullet and get the koralias or try to figure out something else IMO.

 

[Jlmod]

Really? Ive read alot of reviews on them. All of them said they had stronger magnets and ran quieter. There were alot of people on this site that had good tHings to say about them. Anyone else have any feedback on these powerheads? Also did you use the ones with the suction cups or the magnet mounts?

 

[AaronM]

Weird. My Softies and lps are exploding under my koralia 2 and koralia nano 900 (55g). Nano 1600 would have been even better, but still everythings pumping hard. I'd go a pair of koralia 2's or 3's.

Isn't 30ish turnover recomended? In theory 2 koralia 1's is enough! In practice i don't think so. I'd go 2 2's, a 2 + 3 or 2 3's.

 

[Jlmod]

As long as my softys will do well pushing close to 40x thats the route I want to go More flow equals less dead spots imo

 

[AaronM]

I guess koralias are good because of the wide spread, how you can direct them, and cost. Lot's of flow is good, as long as its not pushing straight on som'n that 'no want'...as my Gf would say

 

[RyanSweatt2004]

more flow is great unless it causes any leather corals to flop over and form a crease. Its almost always asking for tissue necrosis to set in. Good rule of thumb is to have enough flow that they move and sway good but not so much that they are getting blasted like its in a tornado and stirring up the sand. I hate the Korilas, I think they are really cheezy. Maxijets are just as cheap and more reliable IMO.

 

[Jlmod]

Thanks for the advice ryan. Ill definetly keep that in mind when looking at my flow. I wasnt impressed with koralias either. that's why I'm looking at the generic version the last koralias I had gave me nothing but problems. One burnt out in 2 months. I figure I may as well go generic if the name brands are crap.

 

[ziyaadb]

i have 3 of the generics we get them branded as "sun sun" pumps here in sa. 12000lph they are in my tank for a few months nw about 7 no issues and they pump really strong. make sure u get the magnets as the suction cups are terrible.

 

[mfinn]

IMO soft corals like good strong flow. It just has to be a wide spread out flow that you get from prop driven powerheads.
I use 2 x Tunze 6105 and a Poseidon P4 on a closed loop.
These create a ton of flow in my all softy 240.

 

[biecacka]

mfinn where do you have your pumps located in your tank?
i have a 220 BB softy tank w a 6105 and a 6000 and a 6045 plus my return pump. i am struggling tho w the location of my pumps because the tank is BB and i dont want stuff settling on the bottom of my tank so i try to have the pumps lower in the tank to keep everything suspended in the water. but with softy corals growing along the bottom of the tank i cant just blast them w 3000 gph.........i dont wanna upset anyone!!

thanks for your help
corey

 

[Memeber007]

Just keep in mind that mushrooms hate water current.