Too much flow?

JoeTSI

New member
Yesterday evening I replaced my two PowerSweeps (worthless) with 2 Koralia 2's in my 37gal FOWLR. The only inhabitants are my tomato clown, coral beauty, and clean up crew of snails and crabs. I almost purchased the Koralia 1's, but one of the employees/owners at CRA swayed me to the 2's. Now, my clown is hiding between 2 rocks to avoid the flow and seems stressed. I'm not getting a snowstorm effect, but there is definitely current now. On the bright side, at least I no longer have dead spots with detritus build up. Should I have purchased the 1s?
 
Well, came back from church and both fish are dead. What could have caused this?? Would the additional flow have stressed them too much? My inverts seem fine.
 
If you'd had really bad dead spots and detritus build up, I'd test for ammonia or nitrite just to see. I've seen clowns swim directly into tunze streams. The new flow might have scared them some but wouldn't think enough to kill them.
 
I am with Siffy on this one, I doubt the flow caused stress to kill the fish. I also highly doubt stress would have killed the clown and angel that fast. I would venture to say check your chemicals. As for flow my tank rumbles pretty hard especially when the surge kicks in on the controller. I am turning over about 32 times an hour at 3000gph on a 90g tank (thats what they say anyway) with just the power heads. But also turning flow in my tank is the mag 9.5 return pump, and also the Magnum 350 canister. At first the fish are a little scared but they catch on after a day or so and now swim like there is no flow in the tank. Its possible that the flow had stirred up alot of old stuff which could have caused an an ammonia spike. Hope that info helps, as for the recommendation at CRA I would say he recommended the right size powerheads for the tank, as most folks say turn over about 30-40x an hour .
 
Yeah, had an ammonia spike. Oddly, my clown is still alive. Thought he was dead but he was gasping on the bottom. After a 20% water change and running carbon, he seems better. I am fairly certain that the powerheads were only pushing detritus and uneaten food into areas which were stirred up by the Koralias. Lesson of all this is to buy right the first time. Thanks all.

PS: CRA rocks. First time I had ever been there, but definitely a life long customer.
 
Agree with the CRA qoute was in that store once but the store was very well kept and the prices were good as well. They also support the NARC which is a good thing. Only downside is they are Avid Alabama Fans, guess nobody is perfect. LOL
 
I have a Koralia 4 and a seo 1100 in a 40 breeder.. Thats about 57 times turnover not counting my Return pump.. My 92 has about 44x turnover! My 180 only has about 30x turnover.. lol anyway 32x turnover is by no means to much for fish.. Plus the Koralia's have a really soft flow. I like them, but I think you need alot more turnover if you use pumps with such a wide flow..

Will
 
Well, this was a learning experience and something I'll remember for this winter's 120 build. Flow, flow, flow!!!! Hate that I lost my coral beauty over it though.
 
Sorry about your fish..Hard lesson to learn.. Detritus can be a huge problem if its allowed to get built up. Thats why you hear so much about trying to get flow in dead spots. Thats also why sps tanks tend to have Crazy flow and Bare Bottems. IME 25x turn over or so is a pretty good start, But really though I just try to get as much flow as I can without blowing my sand bed around.. Changing current Helps alot to.. Even though my 180 only has 30x, It comes from an ocean motions. So most of the current isn't static in one part of the tank. It moves across the tank from several outlets that cut on and off.. So each 1 foot section of the tank gets blasted with 4500GPH every few seconds.. This really gives the effect of alot more then 30x turnover.
 
It would be a good idea to remove cyano as well. I would do a large water change after the lights out period.

If you see the algae disappear, it's going somewhere. It's turning back into phosphate and nitrate in your water. The water change would be a good way to remove this.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10440051#post10440051 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Nitroq2
Only downside is they are Avid Alabama Fans, guess nobody is perfect. LOL

Rabbid is more like it!:rollface:

I expect some day John will erect a statue to the Bear.

Some one told me that John and Forrest were classmates.:bum:
 
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