Getting more water movement

[bavass]

OK so I have 2 Hydor Koralia 2's in my 55g. I just don't think I am getting the water movement that I should have would a 3rd be to much. I have tried amny ways and or positions and I just don't seem to have the flow that I see in most reef tanks! I was thinking of adding a 3rd and having it run along the back glass behind the live rock? That way it would come out of the live rock towards the front and cause more turbulance.

 

[pat8you]

Each one of those power heads is supposed to put out 600 gallons an hour. That should be a lot of water movement. i would say something is wrong with your power heads. Why do you think you are not getting very much movement?

 

[bavass]

I put a few macro algaes in the tank the otehr day and on one side of my tank they seem to sway good on the other side of the tank not so good.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Each one of those power heads is supposed to put out 600 gallons an hour. That should be a lot of water movement. i would say something is wrong with your power heads. ...

Not necessarily. 600 gph with a Koralia is very different than 600 gph with a Maxijet. The Koralia flow is waaaaaay more dispersed. I have a Koralia2 in my tank and using the "hand in the water a few inches in front" method of sensing flow, I'd say it's more like a Maxijet 900 (230 gph) when it comes to generating current in a tank. Yeah... not very scientific, but you get the idea.

Bavass... don't necessarily base your flow requirements on what you see in other folk's tanks. Base it upon your own needs. It's not a bad thing to have some low flow areas of the tank - there are a lot of corals that don't like a lot of flow, and that gives you a place to put those. If all your tank is like the ocean in a hurricane, it really limits what types of corals you can get. With that said though... I don't think 2x K2 in a 55g is too much flow, depending on your rockwork. I can easily see putting another one in there, no problem. If you do and you don't like the effect, then you can always pull it back out and just use it as a spare for the others!

 

[bavass]

Thats kind of what I was thinking too, that if I add it and don't like it I could always take it out. The power heads are only a few weeks old. Here is a pic of my rock work, reef rock was added a few weeks ago.

 

[Bige]

You could add a third in the middle. You could also add a wave maker. JBJ Ocean Pulse Wavemaker. I have one and it works great.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

If that's a return coming out high and center, you could angle that more downward so it's blowing toward the bottom front. Then you could add another K2 down low and to the right (as I'm looking at the picture), behind the rocks. That one would be angled up and to the left, so that the flow was just coming through that little low spot in your rocks. So the return and the new K2 flow would kind of cross in an "X" pattern in the middle of the tank.

Just a thought.

Nice aquascaping, by the way.

 

[bavass]

You could add a third in the middle. You could also add a wave maker. JBJ Ocean Pulse Wavemaker. I have one and it works great.

that would be an awsome addition to the pumps however when I bought the pumps I did not get the controlable ones does that make a difference?

 

[bavass]

If that's a return coming out high and center, you could angle that more downward so it's blowing toward the bottom front. Then you could add another K2 down low and to the right (as I'm looking at the picture), behind the rocks. That one would be angled up and to the left, so that the flow was just coming through that little low spot in your rocks. So the return and the new K2 flow would kind of cross in an "X" pattern in the middle of the tank.

Just a thought.

Nice aquascaping, by the way.

now that is a thought I had tried. Thanks! Thank you for your comment on the aquascaping

 

[thincat]

A few weeks ago I took a second look at the flow in my tank. I had a total of 5 pumps(4 ph's & 1 return pump) in the DT. I got a decent price on an MP-10 and installed it two days ago. I removed two ph's and I am seriously thinking of removing a third. Talk about flow. all I can say is Wow!

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

that would be an awsome addition to the pumps however when I bought the pumps I did not get the controlable ones does that make a difference?

For the Koralias, yes... it does make a difference. You don't want to run a regular Koralia on a wavemaker. Burns them up, from what I understand.

 

[thincat]

Try these layouts.

 

[bavass]

For the Koralias, yes... it does make a difference. You don't want to run a regular Koralia on a wavemaker. Burns them up, from what I understand.

Yeah thats kind of what I was thinking! Thanks

 

[bavass]

Try these layouts.

awsome diagrams I will try these out! Thanks!

 

[mdaniel2882]

I personally wouldn't add anothe K-2. maybe a K-1. try putting the heads on the side glass so they blow more across the tank and collide in the very center front glass. I know they are more powerfull but if I can't run my K-3's like this because they make my frogspawn look like it is in a hurricane. 2 K-2's set up like this should be fine.

 

[bavass]

The diagram really helped me get better water flow. I think I can do better! If you look at the pic on the first page of my tank. My sump return is right in the middle. I am think of getting Loc-Line system running a Y split and pointing the water flow from directly in the middle to where the digram shows the two sump returns hitting the glass. Just that make any since? LOL! What do you all think of this idea!

 

[thincat]

That sounds okay, just remember that when you split the line you half the flow out of each side.

 

[bavass]

That sounds okay, just remember that when you split the line you half the flow out of each side.

yep would be about 350gph coming out of each side. at the moment its 700gph coming straight out and hitting the glass