please help with figuring out flow

BadRoma1

New member
i'm trying to set up 125g reef tank. i have different kinds of corals and fish. i think it's 25x as far as how much flow. however, i was wondering what is the best placement of the powerheads would be in the tank and how many gallons per hour each powerhead should be if i don't want little fish sucked into powerheads and wouldn't drill into corals, but also it wouldn't be like tons of powerheads but reasonable amount. thank you
 
Chaotic flow patterns. I point my powerheads at corners of the tank so it bounces off and creates chaotic flow. I usually use two powerheads pointed at each other to get random flow, sometimes alternating the pumps. Surge devices are also something I have always wanted to try.
 
As far as fish getting sucked in, many PH have pre-filters, the Koralia, the Tunze, and Seios have more of a fan feel(like the ocillating ones we use to cool off) and don't really suck fish in, at least what I've seen. Also those PH fan the water out so its strong yet gentle, just like me!
 
You can have as much flow as you like until your fish start doing this:









flowtankgif.gif
 
I would consider trying to acheive a circular flow. You get more bang for your pump buck and the increased water movement in the tank overall creates kaotic flow. There is a great article on Reefs.org on this. Most Corals in Nature are subjected to mass water movement. Power head placement would be dependant on your rock structure, which you want to avoid if possible with the flow of the power heads. That way you get more water movement because nothing is blocking or deflecting flow. I think just two good size pumps would work for you, depending on the coral type of course. Good Luck
 
I agree wtih mboley. Most tanks do not have enough bulk water movement. Chaotic flow does not replace total flow. if there is not enough bulk flow to flow through the corals adding more chaotic does not do any good. Do a google search on Gyre flow.

Kim
 
that's the name/method/article I was thinking of but couldn't remember the name. The Gyre flow method explained in the article makes perfect sense. Best article I ever read on water flow. Stir up some sediment in a tank with this set-up and see the constant motion. You will be impressed. You don't need the partitions shown in the article. Just open area around your rock structure
 
I don't like the idea of putting in the divider like they say in the article, but getting good total with a gyre type of flow I think is much much better than lots of chaotic movement. In my 180, with just my return pump a T4 with an eductor on it, in the back right corner, I can put food in the front right corner and it will come back around the tank in about 20 sec's. I think that is pretty good flow. I do have more flow than that total, but with just that one flow device I have enough movement in a 180 gallon tank for most soft corals and LPS corals.

Kim
 
can somebody give me a link to that article about flow, please? i'm not happy about my flow at this moment, because some areas almost have no flow. i'll look into surge tanks, i have room on one side of my tank, but if it's hundreds of dollars then i can't get
 
I see no mention of what you are trying to keep, your current positions/set up, problems you are seeing.


Tuning in flow with Ph's takes a lot of time, and to be quite honest with 25X, your not going to have lot going on.

Simple answer: get 2-4 Tunzes or 2-3 Vortechs and you will be good to go.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13042542#post13042542 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BadRoma1
can somebody give me a link to that article about flow, please? i'm not happy about my flow at this moment, because some areas almost have no flow. i'll look into surge tanks, i have room on one side of my tank, but if it's hundreds of dollars then i can't get

you can make a surge device out of some 1.5"pvc and a 5 gallon bucket for less then $15.

link: http://www.aquarium-design.com/reef/csm.html

My surge device made out of a old eclipse aquarium.
IMG_0792.jpg
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13041460#post13041460 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BrokeColoReefer
im a big fan of the surge tank, if you have room there is hardly a substitute.

x2

DSC_0013-1.jpg

20g high tank split into 2 surges.
 
sounds great. i can totally try to make one. i have different corals like fox coral, yellow and green pollips, incrusted corals, soft corals, brain and bubble corals, several frogspawn, mushrooms. i'm looking into about 20x and have been looking into just getting couple of larger powerheads instead of several like i have now. i just been looking into 2- 4 Hydor but hear about loose current issues with them. so far i have the flow going around which seems to work best. no flow meets anywhere because it didn't work well. going to work on surge as soon as i finish moding my skimmer. i forgot to check my post for some time. i still have one small area that is not getting flow there.
 
Back
Top