water movement in tank

[nh iceman]

Hi all,

I think I saw something on this in another thread but I cant seem to find it now. So if I am being redundant in asking what may have already been answered then I appologize.

I am curious about how much water movement to have in a tank. More specifically a 46 gallon bowfront FOWLR tank.

I have a really nice 400gph hydor korolia mounted to the side of the tank and it seems to make what "looks like" the right amount of flow for the tank. All inhabitants seem really happy at least.

But i thought I had read that it is important to have lots of flow so this evening I also put my penguin powerhead into the tank as well. Using both powerheads made lots of flow, in fact to me it looked like too much flow , so I removed the penguin and am again going with just the 400 gph hydor.

My question is, is this the right thing to do? I know they say having waves is good for oxygenating the water but my bak pak skimmer would be doing that pretty well I would think based on all the tiny bubble it puts into the water within it to make the foam.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

If you are FOWLR, then what you have is probably OK. Rule of thumb is 10x-20x tank volume / hour turnover... the low side being a minimum and the high side more for corals. With no corals, I don't see 400 gph as being an issue. And you're right... your skimmer is probably oxygenating the water just fine.

If everything seems OK, it probably is.

 

[lance]

You are on the low side. And your HOB filter wont help with water circulation. Your HOB filter does help though. The amount of flow depends on your stock. Your fish recieve oxygen from a gas exchange from the surface and water flow is needed for proper Ow exchange along with removeing unwanted stuff like ammonia. Whenever in dought added flow never hurts. But dont use your HOB as a flow source. I would double your flow from powerheads as many low flow problems take time from months to yrs to appear.