flow - powerheads - my plan....thoughts?

[Eisen McD]

Hey all, I'm working towards getting a 29 gallon reef going. This will be an aqueon 29 gallon rectangle tank from Petco.

Looking for thoughts on my water flow plan!

when looking at tank...

• top left - sump return pointing forward and up towards surface (Sicce Syncra 1.5), 230 GPH after head loss
• Low left (behind rock, blowing right across rock) - Koralia Nano 240 (240 GPH)
• Right side wall - around middle and pointing up towards surface - Koralia Nano 425 (425 GPH).

Total GPH - 895 GPH - 30.8x turnover

Ultimately, will be looking to initially house soft coral and those that look for moderate flow....which my turnover certainly covers. Possibly able to do higher flow corals in certain spots possibly?

So, any thoughts on the above list...mainly the two powerheads (as I already have the Sicce pump). a 240 & a 425 Koralia Nano? I considered two 425s instead of a 240 + 425...would give 1080 total GPH / 37.2x turnover (seemed too much possibly)? or what if on the right, I used a 565 Koralia nano instead of the 425? so a 240+565+230 (return pump) = 1035 total / 35.6x turnover?

I hear some doing like 60x turnover which just sounds extreme....but me being new to saltwater, maybe I just don't know! Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Ghost25]

I have a 30g long and started with two Koralia 425 both 2/3rd up the back wall on either side of the tank, level or slightly down facing and pointed a bit to the center. This worked pretty well but then I replaced one with a PP-4 which is quite a bit more powerful so I run it fairly low and face it a bit up.

Be prepared to play around with the placement a bit.

 

[billdogg]

IMHO, you will get the best overall flow with whichever power heads you use by placing them about 1/3 of the way down on the back glass, one centered on the left half, the other centered on the right half, and both angled upwards towards the front and in towards the center. This will provide both fairly random chaotic flow and it will serve to agitate the surface where the lions share of oxygen exchange occurs.

 

[Eisen McD]

Thanks for the feedback guys! Interesting thought on having them both on the back glass. I was originally thinking one could go against back of the rocks, while other grazing front of rocks....with the latter facing up. And the return facing up too. Do I need to be worried about hitting the rock work...or will that just happen on its own I guess