i need more flow what is better?

[enriqueb]

i have a 29 gal with a wet dry that came from my friends 55 or 72 bowfront. the pump that came with it stopped working but i had an extra pump that pumps less gph. i have been using it for a bit but i have had cyano recently and feel like im not getting enough flow. so my question is should i get a powerhead to just move the water inside the tank or a stronger return pump for the filter. is there any difference? please let me know. thanks

 

[dmjordan]

it is best to have water movements coming from more than 1 location. 2 or more powerheads in addition to a lower gph pump for your filter provides better tank circulation than 1 strong or high gph pump for your filter.
as for the cyano....check your nitrate and phosphate levels as thoise might be the culprit.

 

[enriqueb]

thanks for the imput. do you think 2 ph and the return flow is overkill in a 29 or would that be significantly better than one ph and my return pump flow?

 

[fbm]

I would definately go with 2 ph and one return, I don't think you need to get a new return pump just use the one you got. But get 2 more ph and put at each corner of the tank, 2 smaller ones is better than one big one. I would shoot for 15 times your tank in flow. So I would shoot for about 500 gph of flow thru all 3 at once.

 

[enriqueb]

is there a rule of thumb for how much flow you should have based on the size of your tank?

 

[1journeyman]

For fish only minimum of 10x your gallons. So for a 1 gallon tank you'd want pumps adding up to 10gph for instance.
For reef tanks around 30x per gallon.
I think that's correct. Anyway, you want strong, chaotic flow for a reef tank.