Current?

[L2]

How much current is too much current?

My clown seems to like fighting the currents in my tank. They look pretty strong. My substrate/sand swirls around a little but never doesn't really become water born. I've got the return pump going and a small powerhead which i have tried to position so that its water flow hits the return pumps water flow. I just want to make sure the fish are happy though and there isn't too much current in the tank. When I turn off the additional powerhead it doesn't seem to reduce the current by much. Inact the water seems to swirl a little more seeing as those is going the opposite direction. Do fish like current? Dislike?

Thoughts? Advice?

Thanks!!!

 

[Devilishturtles]

My fish are always swimming in the powerhead. I wouldn't worry about it. Do you know roughly how many GPH you have on your tank?

 

[TheRealFF]

My clownfishes swim against one of my 120GPH powerhead's current all day long. They are small and look really weak but they enjoy doing it. Weird hehe

 

[malkore]

10 x per hour turnover is considered the minimum flow for a SW tank. YOu wanna go higher if its a reef setup.

Example, a 55gal tank should have enough powerheads to deliver 550gph turnover. Your skimmer's pump does NOT count.
If you have a sump, you CAN count the return pump towards total gph, but do account for the loss in gph due to head clearance.

 

[L2]

Well my filters return pump is rated at 200 GPH from down in the back sump area... and I've got a small powerhead inside the tank that's directed against the flow of the return pumps powerhead which is rated at 100 GPH. I've got a 12 gallon Nano Cube.

As for directing powerheads. Is it better to have one powerhead in the backdirecting water flow against the back of the rocks? That sort of follows the current of the other return powerhead. I've seen those setups most when I look around in stores. Right now I have mine directed towards of the front of the glass... Just like my return pump so they meet in the middle and the flows collide... Is that better?

Thanks for the advice!