Closed Loop or Tunze ?

bona42na

Member
Im in the process of putting together my first true reef tank. My Nanocube has bitten me bad and I need room to grow . Ive got a 50 breeder (36 by 18 by 18 ) on order drilled for four 1 inch bulkheads in the back wall. I plan to use 2 for the sump and the others possibly for a C/L system but am considering using the Tunze pumps (stream or turbelle) . My question to all here , if money isnt a factor in your decision what would you choose? I plan to have MH /VHO lighting but very little SPS . My dream tank will host zoos, blastos ,ricordia, mushrooms and mostly softies . I really want to do this right from the first time and using this forum and your experience will help me along. Thanks in advance. Peter
 

jauringer

Member
I would go with a closed loop. Tunze makes a great product, but it would be more noticable in the display.
The streams are made for very large tanks and are way to big for a 50g tank. i think the smallest stream you can buy pushes 1600 gallons per hour. those things would blow the side out of your tank :D
The turbelles would work, but they sure would be bulky.
close loop will give you a nice clean look.
 

robchuck

Active Member
My response will be biased, because I'm a fan of Tunze products.
As Jauringer stated, the Streams will probably be too much for your tank. The smallest controllable model, the 6000, will probably cause turbulance and kick sand up in your tank, as the stream it produces tries to spread out to a 4'x2' space.
As a side note, I currently have a 65, which is the same dimensions of your tank, except 6" taller. I also have two 6000 Streams and a Multicontroller sitting in my closet awaiting a move and a 150 later this year. I've contemplated putting these on the 65 (dialed way back) as an experiment to see how they do in a 3' tank. I'll post something here in the Reef Tanks forum if I do, it's just I don't have the time to install them any time in the near future.
The Turbelle electronic powerheads would be a good choice for your tank, and are very underrated pieces of equipment with all the hype the streams have gotten. They still have all the controllable cabalities that the Streams have, except the flow isn't as spread out. The 7300/2 (up to 792gph) and 7400/2 (up to 1056gph) models both have 1" outlets that allow the flow to spread out much more than the tight, laminar flow of smaller powerheads; which is much better for your corals, especially non-sps.
Another option if you like the flow pattern created by the Streams is the Seio pump line. Seio has two pumps that create high capacity, wide flow patterns on the market now, one in the 600gph range and one in the 800gph range. They're inexpensive, but don't have any of the controllable capabilites of the Tunzes. Around here, Golfish and Skilos1 have experience with these pumps.
 
S

spsaddict

Guest
on my 210 ill be using both, 2 tunze 6100's and 2 seperate closed loops. the benifit with a closed loop is you can get the flow to get behind the rocks and blast any detrious that may be building up back there, you also get nicerandom curents when using a cl in cunjuction with ph or tunzes.
ultimatley if i could use 4 tunzes i would but i they wont reach 24" down into the tank :)
 
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