is this too much circulation

marinefish

Member
7gallon bow front tank. have a 300gph proquatic filter and a 105gph proquatic filter circulating the water. is this too much circulation and is this too much filter? i have about 20lb of live rock and two inches of live sand. please give me some advice
 

broomer5

Active Member
Wow - you aren't mess'n around are ya :p
In a 7 gallon tank, with 20 lbs live rock and 2" substrate - you're probably down to around 5-6 gallons of actual water, or less.
Running these 2 filters - combined flows of 405 gph - would be about 60 to 80 turns per hour.
You got anything in this tank yet ? Fish ?
If so .... is your fish hangin onto the live rock with it's fin, looking out at you ? It may be saying to itself :eek: "how did I end up here?"
That's seems excessive to me in such a small tank, and I'd think the 105 gph filter would be more than enough to provide good water movement and mechanical/chemcial/biological filtration.
Especially with that much live rock.
What are your plans and/or what are you doing with this nano ?
 

marinefish

Member
I removed the 300gph proquatic external hangnign on back of tank filter after reading the previous post because YES my fish was just starring at me near the live rock with fins wondering how they got into my tank =). thanks for pointing that out. my questions are as follows.
I know i am over stocking it, but i have two clowns, 1 very small watchman goby, one cleaner shrimp and, pistol shrimp, 3 scarlet hermits and 2 turbo snails in this 7 gallon reef tank. these are only life form i will have in this tank. i have kept the tank running for about 7-8 months now. Thats an estimate, i know more then 6 months but less then a year. the two clowns and small watch man goby have been in there for about 6 month or less but i know for sure more then 5 months. i do a one gallon water change on a weekly basis. So far, none of the readings are in the danger levels yet. i think this is do to the regular water changes on a weekly basis and about 15 min of maintance time each day just to make sure everything is within normal. i havent add any corals yet, but i am planning to after the one year mark for my 7 gallon reef tank. I am also running on a 32watt 50/50 power compact lighting system. the temperature is kept at a constant 75 degrees F. what kind of corals will be good for my nano reef?
My question about the circulation and filter is, do i need a filter? how do i know if my water circulation is enough, too little, just right, or more then enough for my tank? and will my current circulation reduce to 105gph, will i be able to keep any corals in this reef (that is the kind of corals my lighting system permits)? my 105gph proquatics filter is an interal filter that is attach to the tank glass by two suction cups. is this filter adequate for my 7 gallon reef if? and will it be enough filteration if i added corals later on after one year ? please advise me asap. thank you all.
 

frankl15207

Member
The best answer that I can give you is that I have always targeted for 12 times tank volume for fish and 15 to 20 for a reef.
Filtration needs to be equated to water movement and oxygen exchange at the surface. Your goal should be to get the tank saturated with oxygen which means making sure that it moves from the bottom to the top of the tank.
You also need to balance that with the comfort of the fish. If they are getting blown across the water backwards, then you have too much circulation :) .
 
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