SPS Flow Videos?

[israel.kendall]

I've read many many hours online about lighting, water quality, and flow and how important they are in keeping SPS. The lighting and water part seem easy enough to learn through reading, but the flow is harder to grasp through reading and photos. It's hard for me to tell if flow is just right or too little or what. Does anyone have any good videos that show what proper flow should look like for various SPS corals? Perhaps a video of what strong, medium, and low flow actually look like? Maybe even a video showing what too much flow looks like, if that's possible?

I've browsed through youtube, but can't really be sure if the people posting the vids have proper flow going without some sort of validation. Any links would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[dudley moray]

how big is your tank?...l x w x h and gallons?

 

[Brian Chong]

gotta factor in tank dimensions, rockscape, animals.
I have a 24x24x20 cube with 2 mp10s on the sides opposing each other slightly angled from each other and two 750 koralia evos in the back aimed toward the center front at slightly different heights. That gives me 93x turnover.
i read some ppl saying flow can be too strong that the polyps retract. as long as it's not laminar and directly aimed at the coral, the more the better. I will open a youtube account and post a video soon to disprove the 'you can have too much flow' myth

 

[israel.kendall]

Not sure of the measurements, but my tank is a standard 55 gallon. I'm not so much interested in the turnover rates and all that as I've already read tons on this forum on that topic. I'm more interested in seeing what its supposed to look like, as in how the polyps move in the current. Thanks for the replies, I'm looking forward to the video!

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[Brian Chong]

my polyps are fully extended 24/7. moves down then up then right, then violently right then violently left, occasional circling, then back and then violently foward, violently right and then stands upright. maybe not in that order but you get the idea.
i'll title the video mp10 flow

 

[Brian Chong]

i'll do it tonight

 

[SwitchedToLinux]

93x turnover? Wow

I have a 180 with one magnum 8 and sea swirl running 3000 gph on the other end. I cant keep from having a cruched coral storm when they are both running. Thats 6000gph, 45x per hour?

Are your vortechs running 100% 24-7?

 

[cbianco]

Did I hear something about TOO MUCH flow? My corals have been changed but the wave is still rocking!

Sorry but I couldn't resist.

Christopher

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[israel.kendall]

Thanks for posting the video, that's some crazy flow. I'm looking for closeups of SPS polyps swaying though, do you have any footage like that?

 

[Brian Chong]

here you go. bad quality but you can still see how hard the polyps are blowing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9hPGYaFXE8

 

[Brian Chong]

btw, check out worldwidecorals infamous 300 gallon video. way better quality

 

[Brian Chong]

93x turnover? Wow

I have a 180 with one magnum 8 and sea swirl running 3000 gph on the other end. I cant keep from having a cruched coral storm when they are both running. Thats 6000gph, 45x per hour?

Are your vortechs running 100% 24-7?

Yes they are running 24/7. i have a picture of the pink lemonade in the video posted in my album. no detrimental effect on coloration either.
750x2=1500
1575x2 =3150
1500+3150=4650gph/50gallons=93
this is an approximation to give you an idea since the gph on reefcrest mode is less.

 

[Brian Chong]

pink lemonade frag

pink lemonade frag

here is the pic

 

[israel.kendall]

Thanks for posting that video, Brian, I appreciate it. Your corals look really healthy, they must like the flow. Is this what the flow looks like in the average SPS keeping tank?

 

[Brian Chong]

Thanks for posting that video, Brian, I appreciate it. Your corals look really healthy, they must like the flow. Is this what the flow looks like in the average SPS keeping tank?

Thanks. My fish love it too. most successful sps tanks have random turbulent flow rather than waves or laminar flow. strong flow helps break down dissolved organics, helps with nutrient transport by keeping detrius suspended in the water column, and helps with stn/rtn by allowing beneficial and needed nutrients and elements to reach the entire coral. so i figure the more the better. My aquascape is low profile. This allows more surface area to fit more sps and allows me to turn up the flow as much as i can by having the flow blow above them rather than towards them.
Hope this helps.

 

[Brian Chong]

btw, i think its pretty safe to assume the corals in the wild are accustomed to stronger flow
than our powerheads could produce but we are limited by the size of our tanks

 

[Brian Chong]

my friend just told me it helps your corals grow faster as well

 

[israel.kendall]

This is all good information, I was worried about blowing the tiny polyps around too much. Would you keep birdsnests and pavona in this kind of flow as well?

Also, would you say this is good polyp extension, or should they be as long as the ones in the video you posted?

 

[Brian Chong]

thats a nice sarmentosa. Definitely yes with the birdsnest. they require stronger flow as they grow out because they form into a thick intricate cluster. Not sure about the pavona. never had one, but i say go for it!

 

[Brian Chong]

Thats great polyp extension. That depends on the species. prostratas, certain nasutas, milleporas and so on have really long polyps while torts and austeras and so on have shorter polyps.