Water flow question...

[Scuba Josh]

If your extra power heads are on timers...Is it better to have more flow at night when the light or off or during the day?

I have a few sinus and a lot of shrooms. Problem when shrooms are expanded they blow around with the extra heads on. :eek1:

 

[BeachBum843]

Shrooms prefer low to moderate current, and don't extend very well in areas of really high current. As far as having your powerheads on an appliance timer, i'm not sure what your trying to accomplish by doing that. It'd probably be better to arrange the number of powerheads you need in a pattern which prevents dead water zones (areas of no water movement) and just let them run, being careful to keep your low to medium water flow corals out of the direct path of the current.

 

[Sarcophyton874]

It seems to me that you're trying to simulate natural tides for the corals. Soft and LPS are fine with a low to moderate constant flow. SPS of course needs high flow. It would be impossible to simulate the tidal range of the corals' natural habitats. Just leave them on all of the time. For a 30 gallon tank, you dont need much more than 2-3 pumps (including filtration).

 

[drummereef]

I leave my flow on 24/7 in my 40 mixed reef.

 

[goldmaniac]

I use two SQWD's, one on both of my return pumps, for a total of four returns. I alternate the return flows on the back of my tank, reading from left to right, pump A, pump B, Pump A, Pump B.

I get alternating current between the two returns on pumps A and B, and the alternating isn't exact between Pump A and B, so it's truly random current. Has worked well for years.

I have an 1600 GPH overflow to handle the current, and my two RIO's 4600 or 4700's (I forget) max it out, creating a good amt of current.

And no hardware visible in the display tank, except the overflows.

 

[goldmaniac]

and with two of everything, everything is redundant. If i have a piece of hardware fail, I can still limp along with one set or working returns and there's no emergency.

 

[drummereef]

Forgot to mention I have 30x flow with polyps, shrooms, softies, lps, and sps. Basically a mixed reef.