Is it the placement of my koralia's or just not enough flow?

[Rich42082]

What's wrong with my flow? I have 2 hydor koralia 1400 and a mag 9 return. I have hard and soft corals. The koralias are on a controller and they turn on at the same time for 15 seconds. Is it the placement of my koralia's or just not enough flow?

 

[Gregcoyote]

I would alternate them and try to create a surge action back and forth.

 

[Rich42082]

Ok I'll try that buy as far as flow is it enough?

 

[uh.oh...]

I think that depends on a lot. Do you have detritus build up? Are your lps fully extended? I see a lot of numbers thrown around, 50x turn over, 10x turn over.... It's all really relative. What works for them might not work for you. Unless we're talking about protein skimmer pumps or media reactors, its more important as to how you use it, than how much you have. Unless of course you had terrible powerheads, which you do not

 

[Mrc8858]

I think that depends on a lot. Do you have detritus build up? Are your lps fully extended? I see a lot of numbers thrown around, 50x turn over, 10x turn over.... It's all really relative. What works for them might not work for you. Unless we're talking about protein skimmer pumps or media reactors, its more important as to how you use it, than how much you have. Unless of course you had terrible powerheads, which you do not

10x is for fowlr 30-50x being a reef low end for a softy tank high end for a sps tank which is a pretty good rule of thumb to follow but you are also correct in the fact that every tank is different and not all brands are made equal. To be safe I'd try to make sure you have 35x tank volume for flow.

 

[Rich42082]

Ok, in my case my return isn't pushing too much flow in my DT. I have a slow water movement through my sump. I believe I have about 3000 to 3100 gph. If I add two koralia 750 would this improve my sps growth?

I'm getting too much ditritus build up on my sand. I just ordered 2 brittle, 2 serpant and a sand sifting starfish with hopes that it will correct the problem I'm having.

 

[danbstrong]

Ok, in my case my return isn't pushing too much flow in my DT. I have a slow water movement through my sump. I believe I have about 3000 to 3100 gph. If I add two koralia 750 would this improve my sps growth?

I'm getting too much ditritus build up on my sand. I just ordered 2 brittle, 2 serpant and a sand sifting starfish with hopes that it will correct the problem I'm having.

3000gph thru your sump??

 

[crister13]

Total he's talking about. He has a mag 9-head loss I guess it's a little over 3000. And how are we supposed to know without the tank size?

 

[Rich42082]

Good point it's a 90 gallon with a 30 gallon sump

 

[angelfish4]

Can you move your power heads to the left and right side walls and run them alternating? By pointing them at the front glass like in the picture you are loosing a lot of flow energy. I don't see your return in the pic but a smaller exit will increse the water pressure going in to the tank or bigger will flow more water at lower pressure.

 

[crister13]

Good call. I didn't even see that. I have 2 on each side of the tank and one in the middle pointing straight up. One in each side alternating will help a ton. Right now the flow is just hitting the front glass and dissipating.

 

[Rich42082]

Yeah, I'll try this again. That's how I had it before but I was getting a lot of detritus build up on the right side of my tank for some reason.

 

[uh.oh...]

I get that on my left side. I'm considering adding a powerhead in the corner to take care of it. Rock placement blocks all the flow

 

[Rich42082]

Ok I rearranged my koralia's and some rock work. Any suggestions on more flow? I dont know if I should buy another koralia at 1400 gph or 2 koralia at 750 gph each.

Right now I have 2 koralia at 1400 each for a total of 2800 GPH.

 

[Grizz]

Have you tried running both PH's at the same time I had much the same problem was using a wave maker and was'nt getting good flow I'm now running both (koralia mag 8's) and letting the flow crash into each other, nice random flows through out the tank

 

[Rich42082]

That's how I've had it for awhile now but I was advised to alternate the flow for better random flow. How long do you have the timer for? I had mine for 15 seconds running both PH and just switched to 15 seconds alternating the flow. I can't seem to figure this flow problem out.

 

[Rich42082]

Also now with the new rock work when I have both PH running I get small bubbles that form in the middle of the tank where the water from both PH's meet.

 

[Rich42082]

Not sure if these bubbles that form where the water crashes are good or bad.

 

[Grizz]

I ran mine @ 6 minutes It's my understanding that with a wave maker you cut your flow in half as only one pump runs at a time I have my PH's on the ends of the tank pointing at the front center it took me a while to find the sweet spot

 

[Rich42082]

With 6 minutes don't you let the ditritus build up when it's off for 6 min?