question on water flow.

loopy101

loopy101

Member
I am looking for opions on where i should place my power heads.
its a 55 gal tank . i have a rio 600 g/h located at one end on the bottom of the tank, i do have it T'ed so he blows water in front and behind the rock wall i have. also have it all covered up with live rock just so you cant see it. but then at the other end i have a korrilla #4 to disturb the top of the water collum for gas exchange and to try and push a little bit at the flow coming its way. there is alot of water movement which is what i want to accomplish to keep things in the water collum to be filtered out.
is there any thoughts on how you would set it up?
the reason i asking is cuz i just added a cinn clown which i have wanted for a long time but he just doesnt seem to have the strength or ambition to chase after food. wheni feed the corals with everything off hes first in line to be spoon fed and eats like a pig. but all my other fish just luv swimming in front of the korrilla and get blown to the other side of the tank they do it over and over again like a slide at the water park. just feel sad for the clown struggeling against the currents and the pep shrimp occasionally find themselves having problems going against the flow.
 
geoj

geoj

Active Member
Well I have to say that this is one of those choices that have to be made in a mixed salt tank, you can’t have it all. You have to make some trade offs as you go… I just down sized to a 25 gal and have some things to work out with flow also. My two power heads are too much if I run them so they push together. So I moved one to the other side of the tank and will keep trying different places moving corals around till all are happy…
Just keep changing things till you get the best set-up
 
thatwireguy

thatwireguy

Member
I put one powerhead on the back facing lengthwise of the tank then the other shoots towards the front and creates a nice current. I have 2 clowns (cinnamon, clark's) that do not go in the current but my chromis love it. I had to move the powerheads around 3 or 4 times to get it perfect. Of course my clowns have anemones to play in. I don't know if that helps...good luck.
 
loopy101

loopy101

Member
i would tend to agree with you on a #4 being to much for a 55 gal tank ,
but it doesnt shoot out one stream of water it comes out in a wide spray, dont know how else to describe it.
and thanks for the opions! i did change the direction of the#4 and everyone seems to be very happy even the new clown which is now slowly swimming around with the other fish
 
natclanwy

natclanwy

Active Member
k4 is no where near too much for a 55g, I run a K4 and a K3, plus I have another 600gph coming from my return pump and canister filter total of 2600gph. Currently I am contemplating replacing the k3 for another K4. Clowns are reef fish and are very used to fast currents, my clowns tend to hang out near the GSP coral they are hosting, but they will swim through the currents as well.
The minimum flow rate I would recommend in a 55g would be 1100gph (20x turnover) which is just under the flowrate for one K4.
 
fau8

fau8

Member
Though I will not dispute the 20x turn over rate for the what ever size tank volume, you can not expect great results with all the flow coming from one source. I think a number 4 is like putting a jet engine in too small of a confined space. So great you have your flow but its not practical. He would be better off with an combination of power heads strategically placed at both ends of the tank. I would probally go with a 2 and a 3, or maybe 2 3s depending on the rock work.
 
natclanwy

natclanwy

Active Member
The K4's don't project very far into the tank, they are too much if you are trying to place them on the back wall of the tank but if you place them on the sides it works extremely well, it is stronger flow in the upper region of the tank on the side that PH is but there is sufficient flow in the rest of the tank as well. I agree one k4 PH isn't enough but two with one placed on each side would work fine. Two k3's would work well also but the flow would be fairly weak in the center region of the tank. K2's and K1's would have to be distributed along the back of the tank and IMO it would take at least three to get adequete flow throughout the tank.
 
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