Technical support please

[andreasch]

Hello friends,

am new into saltwater/coral reef tanks and i need some help please. I used to have only freshwater tanks so far.

My current tank is a 600 liter tank (2m x 50cm x 60cm), which was a discus tank till now and i decided to try my luck in coral reef
My aquarium is working with an overflow glued on the side of my aquarium and a sump. At the moment am using a low power return pump (3000 lph)
My overflow has dimensions of 25cm x 15cm x 30cm(height) with 1 pipe 32mm which drain the water into the sump.

I know that i need a much stronger return pump.

My questions are:
1. how strong pump i shall get? i was thinking to buy a 10000 lph with a controller. Is that a good idea? Is it too strong? What is the minimum and maximum flow i must have?

2. If i buy this strong pump, i must make a bigger overflow to handle the water or having 2 pipes of 40mm each to drain the water to the sump would be enough with the current size of overflow? Does size matter (in that case ) or just the pipes i have from overflow to pump?

 

[Bender19]

To increase flow in your tank, you want to look at getting a powerhead or wavemaker in the tank itself, not neccesarly increasing the flow to your sump. Some of the better brands would be tunze or vortec. Cheaper being Jaebo or Korlia.

Also, the amount of flow will be directly dependant on what type of corals you want to keep.

A general rule of thumb:

Softies - Low Flow (You would probably be fine with what you have)

LPS - Medium Flow (Around 20x Tank Volume/ Hour)

SPS - High Flow (50+x Tank Volume / Hour)

Remember, these numbers are for flow in your DT, not flow to your sump and back.

 

[whosurcaddie]

You're already turning over your tank volume about 4x an hour which is pretty good. Ideal is 5x but you will be fine with 4x.

Just like Bender19 stated adding some powerheads to increase flow is what you want.

If you want to increase your turnover I would add a second overflow instead of making the one you have larger.

 

[andreasch]

Thanks for the replies guys.

about the powerheads i know and already bought these.

Because i am new to coral reef and generally in saltwater tanks, i was reading around for information and i found out that if i want to be good for a fully stocked tank and with any kind of corals i must have a return pump minimum 10 times my volume. So since my aquarium is 600 liter, i need minimum return of 6000 lph. Is this a myth or something i misunderstood?

And about the overflow.. Because i have no space to add a second one, i can only make changes to the existing one. So to handle more liters per hour, i must get a bigger overflow, or is enough if i have more pipes draining the water down to sump and not be necessary to affect the overflow size?

 

[Ou8me2]

Thanks for the replies guys.

about the powerheads i know and already bought these.

Because i am new to coral reef and generally in saltwater tanks, i was reading around for information and i found out that if i want to be good for a fully stocked tank and with any kind of corals i must have a return pump minimum 10 times my volume. So since my aquarium is 600 liter, i need minimum return of 6000 lph. Is this a myth or something i misunderstood?

And about the overflow.. Because i have no space to add a second one, i can only make changes to the existing one. So to handle more liters per hour, i must get a bigger overflow, or is enough if i have more pipes draining the water down to sump and not be necessary to affect the overflow size?

You are confusing things I think and as explained above here is what is important.

You need a tank turnover of 5-10 times which means going through the overflow through the sump and pumped back up to the tank with the return pump. You don't have to have 10 times and many people run only 5 times and I've seen some say they do 3-5 times only. So to answer the first question.

No, you don't need a minimum of 10 times turnover and you are right where you should be with 3000lph and that's if you are indeed doing 3000lph. Please don't confuse this with creating flow inside the main tank for corals, fish etc. That's what powerheads are for that requires different flow needs. Bender19 gave you a good basic on flow in which corals need above.

Second, if you are turning over 3000lph I don't think you need to add and other piping to increase the flow of water to the sump. Obviously, you could add another drain line if needed but you have to make sure you have a pump that can handle the extra flow. If the pump can't keep up with the flow then you will have a mess on your hands. I think you are just fine if what you say is true above.

 

[andreasch]

thank you very much for your help.

 

[andreasch]

Hello friends,

I want to ask something else now.
Am thinking to buy the "Current Orbit Marine LED" (http://current-usa.com/aquarium-led-lights/orbit-marine-fixtures/orbit-marine/) and my questions are:

1. Does anyone has an experience with these lights? Are they good?

2. Since my tank is 2 meters long, 60cm depth and 50cm width, if i take 2 LED that fits aquariums between 24'' - 36'' will be sufficient? Or i need 2 LED that fits aquariums of 36'' - 48''?

 

[SFish]

10x is old information. That use to be the standard now it's more like 3 to 5x. People found out you don't need that much flow going through the sump.

 

[andreasch]

anyone could help me on the size of the leds pls? With my tank size, 2 of 24'' - 36'' inches long will be enough or i need the bigger ones?

 

[Ron Reefman]

anyone could help me on the size of the leds pls? With my tank size, 2 of 24'' - 36'' inches long will be enough or i need the bigger ones?

You will want a more powerful fixture than the Current Orbit. They use 0.3 to 0.5 watt leds and they work OK over shallow tanks of 12".

Your tank is 24" deep and you really need 3 watt or 5 watt leds like almost every other brand on the market (other than Current and Marineland).

I believe you have access to EverGrow fixtures in the UK? They are good. Here in the US we have Reef Breeders which are made by EverGrow but sold & serviced by Reef Breeders (as well as having some different spectrum of leds).

 

[andreasch]

You will want a more powerful fixture than the Current Orbit. They use 0.3 to 0.5 watt leds and they work OK over shallow tanks of 12".

Your tank is 24" deep and you really need 3 watt or 5 watt leds like almost every other brand on the market (other than Current and Marineland).

I believe you have access to EverGrow fixtures in the UK? They are good. Here in the US we have Reef Breeders which are made by EverGrow but sold & serviced by Reef Breeders (as well as having some different spectrum of leds).

Am actually in Cyprus, not in UK so my options on good leds are limited. ill try look for something else then. But about the length of the LED fixtures, are the 24'' - 36'' enough for 2 meters tank if i use 2 of them?