What is your salinity and flow level?

[Elite]

I found it's pretty interesting that Steve said the salinity should be around 1.022-1.023. The intense flow is about 15x total your tank volume (GPH).
I always thought the salinity should be around 1.025 and you can't have too much flow. I have around 30 times for my softy tank and for my SPS tank I will have around 40-70 times.

What do you think??

 

[sumpin_fishy_sfba]

This should be an interesting tread. I have always wondered what other people run...

The first question that I would ask is what are you keeping?

My specs... (mostly Zoanthids, and mushrooms)
Salinity 1.025 and I have 2 pumps on a 46 gallon tank. A 700 gph and 500gph. Now I haven't calculated the head loss of either of the pumps, but I am guessing that I have a little under 1000gph total so that would turn the tank over somewhere around 21 times an hour.

Now natural seawater is around 1.027 and the only reason we lower this, is to slow growth down. I have had this tank at 1.023 in the past when I have mostly softies, but now that I have Zoo's I want them to grown as fast as possible, so over the past year I have bumped it up.

As far as flow goes, I couldnt imagine having more flow in this particular tank. My Ricordia's and Feather dusters would be mad. If I had SPS I could see myself adding another pump or swaping one of these out.

For both of the paramaters you have mentioned, Salinity and Flow, I could imagine that we will see numbers all across the board depending on what type of corals, anenomes, invertebrates.... people keep.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Elite,

1.022-1.023 for best color, he said. So might not necessarily be best for growth.

Maybe if something is growing fast, the pigments take a while to catch up, and makes the colors less intense? I wonder if that might be partly how 20k helps corals to color up?

I've been running 1.025. Guess who went and added a bunch of DI water to his tanks last night?

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Hmm... if it's a growth vs. color issue, then it also could be that lower flow gives slower growth and more intense colors.

Then it could make sense to do a growout system, followed by a coloring up system, with parameters(not just lighting) optimized for each. Worth experimenting, I'd say.

 

[Thales]

I believe he said that 1.023 was a good middle ground to deal with fluctuations and that above 1.025 you could get color fading.

 

[GreshamH]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8343412#post8343412 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sumpin_fishy_sfba
Now natural seawater is around 1.027 and the only reason we lower this, is to slow growth down.

What Ocean? Around here, we're around 1.023

 

[sfsuphysics]

Well ask a different "expert" get a different response, someone like Calfo will suggest having a 30-50x turnover rate.

 

[Lordhelmet]

since i run at 1.023-24 and about 50x turnover and am looking to up that with another moded MJ. It has worked for me and i think I keep it.

And what about heat. he mentioned 75-82 F. who keeps their tanks at 75-76. if mine gets to 78 it starts to bother me. and plenty of people keep there tanks 82 and higher.

 

[GreshamH]

I try to keep mine at 76-77 W/O a chiller, that is the lowest I can run.

 

[Lordhelmet]

ok make me look stupid what do i know anyway. i just do this for fun, it's not my job or anything

 

[duec22]

I run my tank tring to keep the salinity at about 1.025. I've recently uped my flow from 33X to about 42X. Since upping the flow I've gotten much better clolor and growth out of my SPS, however just yesterday I had to pull out my Frogspawn because it was getting blasted and was not opening up anymore...now it's all lonely in the fuge...the rest of my LPS seem to be OK with the extra flow, but I don't think they would take much more. It's really dependant on how the tank is set up...I may have 42X flowing in the tank, but left bottom of my tank I've been able to keep fairly sheltered from most of the flow and most of my LPS reside there....if they were in sections of the tank with the full force of the flow they would probably be torn to pieces.
Temp right now is about 77...and should remain pretty solid all winter.

 

[Elite]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8345370#post8345370 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GreshamH
I try to keep mine at 76-77 W/O a chiller, that is the lowest I can run.

How do you keep it that low in the summer??

 

[orientalexpress]

he's keep his tank in the walk in refrigerator

How do you keep it that low in the summer??

 

[yamaha racer]

how do u calculate ur flow?

 

[Mr. Ugly]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8345032#post8345032 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Thales
I believe he said that 1.023 was a good middle ground to deal with fluctuations and that above 1.025 you could get color fading.

Yep, that he did.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8345370#post8345370 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GreshamH
I try to keep mine at 76-77

I lowered my temp settings after you gave us that tip on the tonga acros.

 

[Qwiv]

I shoot for 1.025. I have only casually observed negative impacts from keeping the tank at a lower salinity. My turnover should be around 55x if everything was on (wave timers). As far as temp, I let it drift over the year to save energy, but keep it +/- 2 degrees (use AC3). Try to keep it under 80 without a chiller. 81 my lights start turning off.

Yamaha, add up the flow from your pumps subtracting for head loss. Then divide by your tank volume. That should give you your turnover (estimated).

 

[Kinetic]

Would 80x turnover be too much?

my current turnover is 60x - 70x and the sailinity is 1.025

I have almost all LPS and softies, with a few montiporas and one acro.

the zoos are loving it, rics and shrooms, and so are my hammer corals.

In terms of color, the zoos and softies have amazing color, the sps aren't the most colorful, but have a good consistent color.