Power Head help!

[PurplePolyp]

Anything that moves water. I have 3 powerheads, a protein skimmer, and 2 filters all moving water. We have several different types of current and move a total of 3500 gph in my 90 gallon.

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[jjh302]

Do your corals do ok with that much?

 

[mr_X]

Ok this caught my interest. So with this logic my 96 gallon corner reef aquarium should be flowing about 3000gph? If this is true I should also take in to count the flow that my return pump is pushing back in correct??

Don't forget to account for head loss.

 

[jjh302]

My only issue is I bought my setup used and have no idea how many gph my pump is pushing.

 

[mr_X]

What markings are on the pump? Take a picture of the pump.

 

[jjh302]

I will this evening after work.

 

[PurplePolyp]

My corals are doing better now than when I was running 2300 gph. I started out at 2300, then added a dual head 1200 gph on top of what I had and they all perked up a little.

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[jjh302]

So it is almost hard to have too much flow?

 

[huma-huma]

IMO flow direction is more damaging then flowrate. the direction of flow, # of points of origin, and their flow pattern (tight,wide , in between) will dictate how effective the flow is. youd be surprised with the difference in similar flowrates with different nozzles/setups.

 

[jjh302]

IMO flow direction is more damaging then flowrate. the direction of flow, # of points of origin, and their flow pattern (tight,wide , in between) will dictate how effective the flow is. youd be surprised with the difference in similar flowrates with different nozzles/setups.

Please explain a tad but more. What would be good? Not so good?

 

[huma-huma]

heres an example. lets say you have a 10g tank (for easy numbers). now lets say you are aiming for 40x turnover. that would put you at 400 gph. because of the size of tank, you opt to use a return pump rated at 400 gph (tank has a sump below for this example)
and you only run 1 standard return nozzle. this would blow substrate ALL over the place, destroy prob every coral, and more than likely knock rocks over. now if you took that same setup, split the return line into 2 (one for each side of the tank) than put wideflow nozzles on each side, youd have a wider distributaion of the 400gph across the entire tank, not just one entry point. corals would be happy, water would be contained, and rocks would be stable.

 

[huma-huma]

thats also strictly an example, i know people are going to mention that "this and that shouldnt be done that way" but its meant to be used mainly as a means to express my point

 

[jjh302]

Ok I have a 96gallon corner tank. My return pump has a Y on it and I have two power heads one in each upper front corner kinda pointed at each other. This setup was bought used so I don't know the gph. As a new saltwater/reef tank keeper I'm just trying to make things as kosher as possible.

 

[huma-huma]

If theres no info listed on the return pumps and powerheads, snap a good photo of eah and upload them. im sure we can id them

 

[jjh302]

Will do this evening after work

 

[jjh302]

Here is my return pump and my power heads. There are two power heads.


There are no labels of any sort.

 

[PurplePolyp]

Power head looks to be between 600-750 gph if I had to guess. Looks about the size of a fist or so. Mine are 750 and the size of my fist. Return pump is hard to say.

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[huma-huma]

return pump looks like a Danner Magdrive pump, if you can get the dimensions from yours, you can compare them.
as for the powerheads, they look like Hydor Koralias of some sort, the shape and the red mounting pin gve them away.

 

[huma-huma]

link for some magdrive info
Mag Drive - Bulk Reef Supply

not so sure about the powerheads, im positive they are hydor koralias, but i couldnt help much more than that, they appear to be a slightly older model, so i wouldnt be able to tell what model or flowrate they are.

 

[jjh302]

The photos are misleading. The power heads are are about the size of my 4 year old daughters fist. Lol