Insufficient water flow?

T

thommyboy12183

Member
Just curious if its insufficient water flow or what?

When i feed my fish all the food settles to the bottom before fosh eat it. I see it get caught up in water flow and move around but eventually settles. How do i fix this and whats best way to clean tgis when i siphon it doesnt seem to get up the sand is lifted and i see the exces food listed but usually gets half way up siphon tube and stops does contiue up water flow into tube.

Any help would be greatly appreciated i dont think i am over feeding so i not sure. Should i move power head to bottom to push along sand as opposed to be set half way up the tank so food doesnt settle.
 
I am no expert but I can tell you any food that settles to the bottom in my tank is scarfed up by my CUC in a matter of about an hour or so. In fact it is amusing to watch the hermits come out of the rocks when the food hits the bottom. Maybe you need more of a CUC? I have 24 snails and 24 hermits and a cleaner shrimp in a 54 DT. FYI my lfs recommends 50 hermits and 50 snails but I haven't done that yet.
 
How many fish do you have?
How often do you feed?
How big is the tank?
How many, what type of powerheads do you have?
Do you know the turnover rate in your tank? (Total flow from return pump + flow from powerheads divided by the DT water volume)

My guess is that you are over feeding. Very little food makes it to the sand in my tank as the fish go crazy when I fed. Some heavier food does, like pellets, but that's by design. Shrimp and flake food gets taken long before it would hit bottom.
 
Try feeding smaller portions at a time. Instead of one big meal, feed 4 or 5 small ones over the course of 15 minutes or so. Nothing should be hitting the bottom IMO.
 
2 occelarius clowns, bicolored blenny, sea star, cleaner shrimp, 20 hermits, 20 snails

Feeding smaller portions ever few minutes seemed to have helped. I tried pellets to transition in case i go on vacation but nopne likes the pellets they sink to bottom and sit there. Frozen food is eaten in minutes.

If anything i thought i was under feeding looks like a bite on top of bicolored blenny
 
I turn all my powerheads and return pump into feed mode which is off for 10 minutes maximum. If you feel with them on it will sink the food faster. If you still have a lot of food on the sand, then I'd redirect a powerhead as that would mean you have a low flow area.
 
I recommended feeding little by little. For example, put a little bit of food in and let them eat that. Once that is gone put a little more in. So on and so on. When I do this, it usually takes about 4 times of doing the cycle. What little does fall to the sandbed is usually taken care of from my CUC.
 
There are probably a couple things happening...

1. Feeding too much -- just like everyone else said, try smaller feedings but more often.

2. Not enough flow -- nothing should be able to settle to the sandbed and stay there, and the very least it should be blown around the sandbed, but not stay in 1 spot. What size tank and what powerheads are you using?
 
thommyboy12183 said:
Sorry missed this reply 55G i forget and this power head http://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcos...ps-and-powerheads/petco-225-gallon-power-head

I was thinking of adding a few more
Click to expand...

Im just gonna be blunt. That powerhead sucks.

If you are on a budget go to amazon and get some Hydor Korillia Powereads. They have different flow rates so you can buy a small one for the back wall and then two larger ones for the side walls.
https://www.amazon.com/Hydor-Korali...TF8&qid=1479249242&sr=1-1&keywords=hydor&th=1


You need at least 10x the volume of the tank for flow so at least 550gph. If you are going to keep your powerhead then you need another one on the other side of the tank.

Id go with closer to 750 gph personally.


Make sure you dont get these too close to the sandbed. You want stuff moving in the water column but not so much flow that you start blowing sand all over the place.
 
davehead86 said:
Im just gonna be blunt. That powerhead sucks.

If you are on a budget go to amazon and get some Hydor Korillia Powereads. They have different flow rates so you can buy a small one for the back wall and then two larger ones for the side walls.
https://www.amazon.com/Hydor-Korali...TF8&qid=1479249242&sr=1-1&keywords=hydor&th=1


You need at least 10x the volume of the tank for flow so at least 550gph. If you are going to keep your powerhead then you need another one on the other side of the tank.

Id go with closer to 750 gph personally.


Make sure you dont get these too close to the sandbed. You want stuff moving in the water column but not so much flow that you start blowing sand all over the place.
Click to expand...



Dave, is this one good for 55G? I assume you can never have too much water flow?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003...ywords=Hydor+Koralia&pi=SX200_QL40&th=1&psc=1
 
I had 3 of these in my 55 https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00O...7570&sr=8-1&keywords=sunsun+800&pi=SY200_QL40 I think 10x tank volume is for flow through the sump, and 40 is a good starting point for in the tank. More than one head will help a lot in such a long tank too.

Too much flow would be scared and hiding fish, and damaged corals. If your fish are used to the still water it might be good to increase it slowly so as not to shock them. Some BB sps tanks have gph 100x the volume but that's a diff situation.

I agree with smaller portions too, I don't think food should be wasted on a CUC. More than one feeding a day is preferable IMO.
 
I just ordered a 4 pack of the Hydo Korillia 800 gph. Should be here tomorrow then i will slowing add increasing water flow.

Anyone have any suggestions on best arrangement?

Two on top(side) pushing water the length of the tank an then some on the bottom on the other side causing almost a circle flow?
____________
l <--------1&2 l
l----------------l
l 3&4 → _____l


or one of each side pushing to the center with two on the back pushing forward in the center?

_____________
l -----3 4-------l
l -----↓ ↓-------l
l 1 ----><----2 l
l-----------------l
l____________l
 
I like your second arrangement better. It's really individual to the tank, you can't predict where the water will bounce of the glass and rocks, and even a little change can toss everything around. It's totally unpredictable. But your first arrangement seems likely to create a vortex and that's not ideal for two reasons: 1) every whirlpool has a dead spot at the center so unless you are doing that on purpose to collect detritus in a single location for removal with a gravel vac, you will have an algae/cyano problem where everything settles; 2) coral don't generally like to be just blasted from one direction, rather they prefer to be fluffed gently in a random way (especially lps, less so zoa and sps so place your specimens accordingly). Like, best case scenario is water moving all over the tank to get crud off the rocks and sand and as coral poop their waste is removed, and no pockets of settling. This will take some playing with, but once you find the sweet spot it's very nice.

Iirc in my 55 I had an 800 on each side about the middle of the glass, and one in the center. All were as low as possible without tossing sand everywhere, and pointed upward. You want the surface moving to bring oxygen into the water for your fish, and also the bottom moving to keep poops and food from rotting.
 
Final set up with two pumps just not a fan of the cords need extension cord for one of them.
 

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thommyboy12183 said:
Final set up with two pumps just not a fan of the cords need extension cord for one of them.
Click to expand...

Im sorry I didn't reply the other day. I got lost in work.


I think your arrangement will work well I would suggest offsetting the two on the front. Have one higher and one lower. I would also suggest that one on the back be pointed toward the surface to cause a disruption of the surface to aid in oxygenation of the water (very important).

I also highly recommend going out and buying that black and blue background for your tank to hide the cords. Its going to be so ugly even if you get extension cords. Its partly because you are running without a sump (which is fine). But it gets messy back there quick with the cords and stuff you need to monitor the tank.
 
Thanks Dave,

I agree the last time i went into the saltwater world i have a baffeled sump set up but didnt get past adding water as my wife hated the sound of the running water down to the sump. So this time as a compromised to be allowed to have it i didnt go with a sump. I regret not spray painting the back black before i set it up and was hesitant on the black/blue backing as i heard it can look really bad(but i guess its still better then cords). I was hoping to slowly add more rock to cover the back.
 
There are ways to make no noise for a sump. Just FYI.


As for the black background paper, just make sure you have two people working on it. Pull it nice and tight and tape it down really well. and it should be just fine. Obviously it wont look as good as paint but it hides cords and looks just fine until the coralline starts growing in on the back.


Also, dont be suprised if its too much flow with four of those powerheads. You may need to wait to add the second one on the back wall until some of the corals start growing, or you may need to rearrange the rock work to make it less turbulent in the tank.
 
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