Reef Flow Question for a Newbie

[0CoolG]

Hello

i am very new to the Reef and Saltwater Aquarium. I wanted some advice/help about creating a good flow so in the future i can put create a Reef tank
My setup (black Friday was a good day) -
75 gallon tank
Fluval FX4
Oase Biomaster Thermo 600
1 wavemaker Jebao SOW-4 (at the moment
I have put in water and got the salinity to a good level, and just put in the live sand. Rocks are next in a few weeks, the design would be 2 rock towers in the meddle of the tank with a gap between them. i am thinking of setting the flow with both water outputs pointing up and put 3 wavemakers

the idea is that the water will meet in the middle and go down the center and back around

if anyone can give me input on this idea or if there any suggestion how to redo the flow (i also was thinking that the Oase output could point straight down), i want to make it so the reef would have a flow that would moves with the waves

Thank you

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Welcome to RC, 0CoolG!

That sounds like a good start. It's impossible to say if your flow scheme will work the way you want it to. I will say that pointing outputs straight down are likely to disturb your sand bed. Play around with it until you get what you want. Ideal flow in a tank changes over time, so you'll want to make changes occasionally.

Good luck with your new build! You might start a build thread if you want to get more people interested.

 

[taillonjohn]

welcome to RC. IMO water flow is trial and error if you have sand. I would suggest to point your wave makers upwards, and then slowly start pointing them down to where you want. if they point too low you will send sand flying everywhere. Its not easy to get good flow on the lower part of the tank without disturbing the sand . Good luck

 

[0CoolG]

Thank you
i am trying to load a pic so i can show what i was thinking

 

[0CoolG]

here is the pic

 

[0CoolG]

 

[0CoolG]

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipM2UmiJMhnpaMCPvgoMHBUfwjj9ydUYSn45KWJWlhnoYCpHn2Vc0Nfz2YKrP-A8ig?key=RVdOdjZzQmI0N01KM2pmV1FxM3QyNWZXWW5USnFR

 

[0CoolG]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/myVDJTFCCH7hwHw28

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Nice illustration, 0CoolG. Looks good, but you won't know much until you run it with rocks and sand. It's a great starting point though. Set it up and try it out. Adjust from there. Have fun!

 

[0CoolG]

Thank you - Visio is a good tool for Work/Fun
I have the sand in place i will post a pic to show the status

 

[0CoolG]

here is my tank
https://photos.app.goo.gl/U6zbUr9XFQuQXRCt5

 

[0CoolG]

here is the flow https://photos.app.goo.gl/G1VVtBKdzEfB8yen9

 

[0CoolG]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pz8BhXLiyQdrqjSt6

 

[jlmawp]

In theory, this seems right, but have you put anything in to the current to see if it's actually doing what you hoped? Maybe put a little sand in at the surface in different spots to see where it ends up, and adjust accordingly.

 

[0CoolG]

thank you trying that now

 

[0CoolG]

so something new has happened
did a 20% live water change and got 2 clowfish and strated to get brown/red spots on the dry rock - i think its a good thing but need help to find out what that is

 

[taillonjohn]

so something new has happened
did a 20% live water change and got 2 clowfish and strated to get brown/red spots on the dry rock - i think its a good thing but need help to find out what that is

it is diatoms, a type of brown algae. You can google "new tank syndrome" for more info. It is not bad though, for me it lasted about 2-3 weeks, then it replaced by the green algae, which is much harder to get rid of. I am still fighting it after 2 months

 

[0CoolG]

John thank you I think I need a cleaner crow
I changed my light time and got 6 blue leg crab cleaner shrimp with a orange spotted goby and 2 chromes

I hope that they will help