Moderate, Low, Medium and high Flow

[Mexican Hermit]

I hope this interests a lot of people and I am sure it will. Most people think of Moderate, Low, Medium and high flow in order to see where they are going to place their corals. The problem that I have is that have nothing to compare it with.

I hope you all can help me.

I have a Tunze Stream 6000 and I am thinking of buying another 6000 and a Multicontoler.

What can we "THE TUNZE LOVERS" consider as Moderate, Low, Medium and high flow as it needs to be for our inhabitants? I feel that there is High and extremely high flow in my tank (120 gallons). Now compared to the sea, what do I need to do to achieve the same affect with out blowing away my inhabitants? And I am not a believer in lowering the control module.

Thanks before hand.

 

[rvitko]

I don't really feel the low, medium, high flow terms are of much use and very vague. We are trying to come up with more concrete ways to explain the concept of flow based on location and type of coral I will try to get an image of some of our early work on this up tomorrow. I have been battling a bad stomach illness this week and it comes and goes so remind me if this thread slips and I will get the images scanned and posted.

 

[Mexican Hermit]

Roger, Thanks. The thing is that if you go to liveaquaria.com they recommend the positioning of the corals as mentioned above. BUt my doubt has always been: How much is to much flow. Now do you recommend this type of set up for my tank?

 

[rvitko]

I wouldn't hesitate to use 2 6000 Streams on a multicontroller in a 120. On a multicontroller should you feel it was to much you could run only one pump at a time. You could also run both pumps at reduced power. Lets say you had 12 traditional powerheads doing 300gph in a 120. This would probably be too much because all areas of the tank would have a high shearing force flow. The equivalent diffuse flow from the two Streams is probably OK in 90% of applications because it is diffuse. Further, these suggestions become really clouded and obscure when you look at all the growth variants of corals of the same species where the only difference is the flow they are subjected to. Corals seem to be able to adapt over a certain range by modifying their growth forms to suit the environment.

 

[Mexican Hermit]

Roger,
In order for me to get the whole picture. How close can I place a Neon Acropora Coral (SPS) to the outlet of my stream at full power?

 

[rvitko]

Here is what we have so far, most of this research is being carried out by Tunze France under Claude Hug. We hope to eventually have a book explaining that you need this pump for this coral and showing exact placement but this is some years away. Further we are continuing to invent new flow generating devices to more precisely duplicate the flow of each zone.

 

[rvitko]

When it is fully acclimated I would safely say 8-10" I would start with amuch lower flow though- keep in mind if it is transhipped the thing has had no flow except for the merciless throwing of the cargo container it was in for maybe a week. If it was tanked for sometime it was likely tanked under horrible lighting with a couple of cheesy pumps that were just enough to keep it alive. Start out with 50% flow and then work your way up but once acclimated full power at anything over 6" away should be fine.

 

[Mexican Hermit]

WOW, 6" away from the front of the Stream. That is a lot of flow. So I guess if I place Mushrooms at a distance of 32" and they still sway, that is perfect for them?

 

[rvitko]

Yes, if anything I would think the swaying is positive. Watch some of those national geographic films. The flow on some of those reefs is absolutely unbeleivable. Many of the leathers we keep would be almost continuosly swaying back and forth and we don't get near that in an aquarium.

 

[Mexican Hermit]

Roger,

Would you say that the multicontroler is 80% of the effect of the flow of currents in the tank? How much of a difference would you say there is using a Multicontroler for the inhabitants compared to not using a multicontroler?

 

[rvitko]

The main idea behind the electronic pumps is to pulse the flow. This creates a wave action and as the waves collide they further spread and diffuse the flow. The point is lost if the pumps are not pulsed. This can be done with the single or multicontroller but the multicontroller has the added feature of allowing you to only run one pump at a time.

 

[Mexican Hermit]

Roger,

Would you happen to have a close up of the multicontroler?

Thanks,