powerhead question

[cjke77418]

hello i have a 55 gallon tank and was wondering what is a good flow setting for this size tank

 

[theatrus]

Depends what you have, but for general marine tanks somewhere between 20-80x hourly turnover is suggested. For a 55gal, that is about a 1000gph flow. You can do less, but no less than 10x.

 

[jeff@zina.com]

Flow is also relative. You want about 3-5 times the gallonage as a per hour flow through the sump, but you'll need more flow on a lot of corals and other sections of the tank. Since you asked about power heads, I'm assuming you want to add flow in the tank and not through the sump. You can change this flow by using multiple power heads, and in fact a more turbulent flow from opposing heads is often beneficial. For example, two Koralia 2 units, at about 600 GPH each, facing each other across the tank, would probably be a good choice. You could use some cheap MaxiJet/MiniJet power heads for spot flow, since they're usually about 150 GPH or so.

Jeff

 

[singold]

I used 2 -- Koralia 3's in a 55 gal with good success.