How long to leave Powerhead on

jfarris

jfarris

Member
My wife and I are new hobbyist. Had freshwater for years, but only have had a saltwater tank for about 2 months. We have a 55 gallon tank, with 9 medium pieces of live rock, 15 hermit crabs, 3 emerald crabs, 6 turbo snails, 10 smaller snails, a spiny oyster clam, a cleaner shrimp, 2 green chromis damsels, 1 scissor tail goby, a scooter blenny, and a lawnmower blenny.
We also have a two filters, a protein skimmer, and one 295 gallon per hour powerhead. We have recently put some coral in our tank, and when we put it in we got the powerhead. How long should we leave the powerhead on, because when it is off our colt coral just lays down, but when it is on it blows our xenias almost parrallel. By the was the coral we have are xenias, mushrooms, and colt coral. I just want to know how long should I leave the powerhead on and should I get another smaller powerhead to place on the otherside of the tank to could of balance out the water flow. Does anyone know how much water flow xenias need?
 
uberlink

uberlink

Active Member
Not sure on how much flows xenias need, but I'd strongly recommend you buy a Hydor Rotating flow deflector. (google "hydor rotating flo"). They're about ten bucks, and they fit on the output of your powerhead. They break up the water's flow a bit and slowly rotate so that nothing gets blasted constantly. That way you can leave your powerhead on all the time (which is better for the tank) without anything getting too much flow.
By the way, it's generally better to do multiple small powerheads instead of one big one.
 
chadman

chadman

Active Member
does the deflector actually move or is it just something inside of the deflector which redirects the water around?
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
24/7 but you need at least one more powerhead. Put them on the sides of the tank pointing toward the front glass so nothing it getting "direct" flow.
Your tank is VERY young for a scooter blenny. Make sure it is eating whatever you feed and make sure it is getting enough of it. Scooters are slow eaters and naturally feed on pods and such... most will take to prepared foods but he needs to be watched closely.
 
uberlink

uberlink

Active Member
Originally Posted by chadman
does the deflector actually move or is it just something inside of the deflector which redirects the water around?
It makes the water come out at a 45 degree angle from the powerhead and slowly rotates. Kinda like an oscillating fan. Spreads the flow around the tank and keeps anything from being constantly buffetted. Makes for nice wave action very cheaply.
I do think you should get a second powerhead. Right now it sounds like you're turning your water over (between powerheads and other filtration, etc) about ten times per hour, which is really the minimum for a fish only tank. With your corals, you should be shooting for more like 20-25 times per hour.
 
chadman

chadman

Active Member
that is what i heard and i went and bought another maxi jet 1200 to add to my box and my maxi600 but when i put it in it was way too powerful for my tank....
 
chadman

chadman

Active Member
when i told people that i had like 23turnover rate in my tank people thought i was crazy and that that was way too much
 
rubberduck

rubberduck

Active Member
i have 3 maxi jet 1200 and one 600 in my 55 gallon. I am supporting hard coral though. So try to bounce it off a wall of the tank to make it more soft and wider in its spread. I would recomend one more 600 to be safe. cool hope this helps.
travis
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
My 55g has 4-Maxi900 on a wavemaker plus a mag 7 for a sump return... about 25gph turnover if everything is running at the same time. All soft and LPS corals... everything happy and healthy.
 
mikeyjer

mikeyjer

Active Member
Originally Posted by JFarris
How long should we leave the powerhead on, because when it is off our colt coral just lays down, but when it is on it blows our xenias almost parrallel. By the was the coral we have are xenias, mushrooms, and colt coral. I just want to know how long should I leave the powerhead on and should I get another smaller powerhead to place on the otherside of the tank to could of balance out the water flow. Does anyone know how much water flow xenias need?
Xenias require low-medium flow, too much flow would cause them to get blown around. Place powerheads to where it needs the flow, don't place the powerheads because the direction of the flow is hitting your Xenia, move the Xenia to a lower flow area. This recently happened to me when the flow attachment on my maxi-jet 1200 fell off, it was giving strong blow towards the LPS side, where the Blue Xenia was too. The LPS weren't affected as bad as they just retract, but for the Xenia, it damaged it pretty bad and causing it to die on me. I'm fixing to do some DIY replacement parts for the attachment as the ones that comes with'em suxs. I still have a Pink Xenia left, I like the Blue one better though.....
 
jfarris

jfarris

Member
Thanks everyone for the quick replys. I will definitely go buy another powerhead for my tank. Again thanks I will let you know how it is going.
 
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