Water movement for a soft coral tank?

[Electrobes]

After looking at my stock, and what I want in the future.. I realized that the majority (except for maybe one acro but I aven't even decided that yet) are all soft corals (leathers, mushrooms, frogsawn, hammer, ricordia, brain coral, xenia, etc). I just recently stuck in a temp internal filter with nothing in it (filter media) to use as a powerhead and it seems to be moving the corals that are in the tank fairly well, surprisingly. I mean its not pushing THAT much water at all. This got me thinking about what powerheads I really should order... I WAS going to do a Maxi jet 900 and two 1200's... but I am wondering if I should do another combo with lower powered power heads? what do you think?? Thanks!

 

[reefrunner69]

except for maybe one acro

Be prepared...they are like lays potato chips, you can't stop with just one. The majority of the people I know that do not admit to SPS being their favorite corals are people that have never kept SPS.

frogsawn, hammer, brain coral

These are hard corals, LPS.

The thing about flow is...you want turbulence and turnover, not velocity. Velocity is what tears the flesh from the corals. Get a diverse group of PHs or closed loop outlets and mix the water up as much as possible, you want to shoot for a min of 10 X turn over per hour, including your return pump and max somewhere close to 20 X per hour or more, for soft corals and LPS, I think you will be fine 10 X 15 X per hour flow.

 

[Electrobes]

so what powerheads would that be more of less.. I see placement.. and I understand what you mean by mixing up the water and not using velocity to wreck the corals. If I go with three Maxi 900's... I'll get about 14x rate with the power heads alone. Should I go with a specific combo in your opinion.. or stick with three Maxi 900's?

 

[reefrunner69]

Specific combos are hard to come up with without seeing the tank, I think 3 MJ 900s will do fine, you want to vary the height and direction of the flow, I might go with a MJ 1200 to blow behind the rocks to keep detritus from settling there.

 

[Electrobes]

hehe I got that - SHould I be aiming for a chaotic typ flow.. o should I look for a swirl type flow?

 

[reefrunner69]

Deinitely go with chaotic over swirl.

 

[Electrobes]

cool thanks!

 

[ocindustries]

power heads...

I have soft coral in my 40 gallon tank. What type of power heads should i get? I think they might need more current.