Planning new tank...questions on the Stream

[Grapevine]

I'm in the conceptual planning stages of a new tank. It'll be dyi acrylic, measuring 48"L x 24"w x 20"h (100g). But 12" of the length will be sectioned off by a divider for the refugium so the actual display area is 36"L x 24"w x 20"h (75g). There will be no sump or return pump. The water will flow from the display area into the refugium via slots at the top of the divider, and returned by air lift. I may use some more airlifts in the refugium to increase internal flow in there. Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m mostly going to house soft corals and clams in this tank, with a DSB. Besides the turbulance from the return airlifts, Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢d like to use a Stream as the only means of water flow in the display area. The questions that Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m juggling:

1. Would the smallest controllable Stream (6010 kit?) be suffiecient for this? At its low flow settings, would it still be too much for the sand bed?

2. My cheaper option idea is to use the 6060 and glue another divider at its ouput, essentially sectioning the output into 8 or 12 sections instead of the 4 there now. The reason for this is that Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m afraid the flow will be too stong as is for such a short tank. I remember reading that any blocking of the output would reduce the flow significantly, hence I would section off the sections into smaller sections to reduce the output. Do you think this will work? I know I would need to experiment with how much to section off further, but I just want to make sure that doing so wouldnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t harm the pump.

3. Or another option would be to increase the height of the tankââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s walls to 24ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚, but leave the water level and refugium divider at the 20ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ mark. Then if I put the Stream high on the tank and leave it at the high output, would the wave it makes push the water over the divider into the refugium (that'd be quite cool)?

Since I havenââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t built the tank yet, thereââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s a bit of leeway in the dimensions of the tank if you feel changing any of the dimensions would make things work better.

 

[rvitko]

I have been testing the 6010 in an aquarium of 36" by 18" by 21", it seems to work fine outside of some disturbance of the sand. Positioned 4" below the surface I don't see it moving water over the partition, above that my concern would be a vortex pulling air down into the pump outlet. The test tank is a mix of SPS and LPS and the flow pulses between full power 1850gph and low power 650gph.

 

[tapper of spines]

I too have been considering a Stream for a 36" tank (yet to be set up). However, the tank is a little shallower than your test tank, as it is 36" x 18" x 16". When you say "some disturbance of the sand" what exactly do you mean? Can you describe it? Do you think this would be significant problem in the tank I'm planning?

TOS

 

[rvitko]

If you used coarse gravel maybe, I think a shallow aquarium such as this is usually used to propagate frags, with no substrate you would do well also. In general I would lean toward using a 7210/2 or a sea swirl 3/4" with maybe 600 gallons per hour, your aquarium is not that large that a Stream is necessary and you will have problems if you have fine sand.