too much water movement?

[marinenut]

I'm wondering whether or not I have too much water movement in my 90 gallon reef tank. I have my return pipe from my sump on one side and a Rio 600 on ther other. They are pushing water toward one another to create a kind of wave effect. Is this possibly too much? I have some leather corals, a long tenacle anemone, purple nudibranch, Gionopora, chili coral and green mushroom corals. I just don't want to be preventing growth or stressing out anything. Thanks.

 

[ctgretzky9]

Originally Posted by marinenut
I'm wondering whether or not I have too much water movement in my 90 gallon reef tank. I have my return pipe from my sump on one side and a Rio 600 on ther other. They are pushing water toward one another to create a kind of wave effect. Is this possibly too much? I have some leather corals, a long tenacle anemone, purple nudibranch, Gionopora, chili coral and green mushroom corals. I just don't want to be preventing growth or stressing out anything. Thanks.
If anything, I would say not enough flow! The gph on the rio 600 is around 200, and you need to add now the gph from your return to that.
Even if your return is say 500 gph...that is 700 gph total. You are only turning over at 7x.
Most reefers say around 15x tunrover is what you want, give or take a bit.
But if everything looks good, dont worry about it.

 

[rujelus22]

I run mine at about 20X two power heads and a sump return

 

[marinenut]

wow, I didn't think that it might be too low! My return is a mag drive 7 at 700gph, and the Rio 600. I'm not having any problems right now. I can't imagine running double the water flow in this 90! It seems like the corals would just blow right over, and the fish and inverts would be twirling all over! What would the side effects be on the corals, if the flow was too little. What are some tell tale signs?
Is the placement of the power head appropriate? On the opposite side from the return, facing toward the return? I originally had it on the same side as the return blowing in the same direction as the return, but I thought it would create a more natural flow with it on the other side.

 

[pyro]

In my 30, I have an emperor 400, a Rio 600 (return pump from sump), and a maxi-jet something or other in my tank now. I recently had a huge algae outbreak and cyano problems. I beleive the underlying problem to be not enough flow still. I'm gonna order a couple of the smaller Rio powerheads and put them in there and see if it helps.
I know algae does like low flow normally. Look for any excess waste buildups aswell.

 

[marinenut]

Interesting. I've recently had a slight build-up of brown hair algae, but it appears to be subsiding now. Maybe I'll pick up another powerhead. I can't believe, my post is gong in the complete opposite direction!
I've contributed the algae build up to be from a haitian pink tip anemone that suddenly disappeared (croaked). I've tried at end to find him, but no luck. Did multiple major water changes over the past week to combat it. Hopefully the shrimp got to the remains.

 

[king4345]

Not to hijack or nothing but... I have a flow in my 180 of approx. 6800 gph. If it isn't nailed down it doesn't stay long... This is good and bacd of course. But I like like it and so do the residents... :happyfish :happyfish :happyfish

 

[dmjordan]

Originally Posted by marinenut
wow, I didn't think that it might be too low! My return is a mag drive 7 at 700gph, and the Rio 600. I'm not having any problems right now. I can't imagine running double the water flow in this 90! It seems like the corals would just blow right over, and the fish and inverts would be twirling all over! What would the side effects be on the corals, if the flow was too little. What are some tell tale signs?
Is the placement of the power head appropriate? On the opposite side from the return, facing toward the return? I originally had it on the same side as the return blowing in the same direction as the return, but I thought it would create a more natural flow with it on the other side.

Any turbulance you can create using powerheads facing each other is best. As far as placement goes try to avoid any dead spots in water movement. Also some corals do not tolerate direct flow. Google each coral you have to see which type of flow they need. I have a 55 gal doing 1100 gph.

 

[dburr]

Originally Posted by marinenut
wow, I didn't think that it might be too low! My return is a mag drive 7 at 700gph, and the Rio 600. I'm not having any problems right now. I can't imagine running double the water flow in this 90! It seems like the corals would just blow right over, and the fish and inverts would be twirling all over! What would the side effects be on the corals, if the flow was too little. What are some tell tale signs?
Is the placement of the power head appropriate? On the opposite side from the return, facing toward the return? I originally had it on the same side as the return blowing in the same direction as the return, but I thought it would create a more natural flow with it on the other side.
You need to take in account the head of the pumps also. So your mag 7 is 700GPH minues the head. It's more like 300 at 4 foot head. Power heads count as turnover too.(if you have any)
I have 23X in my 90.

 

[marinenut]

good thoughts by all of you. Perhaps I'll swap out the powerhead I have with something larger, and maybe even an additional one.
Thanks.

 

[ctgretzky9]

Originally Posted by marinenut
wow, I didn't think that it might be too low! My return is a mag drive 7 at 700gph, and the Rio 600. I'm not having any problems right now. I can't imagine running double the water flow in this 90! It seems like the corals would just blow right over, and the fish and inverts would be twirling all over! What would the side effects be on the corals, if the flow was too little. What are some tell tale signs?
Is the placement of the power head appropriate? On the opposite side from the return, facing toward the return? I originally had it on the same side as the return blowing in the same direction as the return, but I thought it would create a more natural flow with it on the other side.

With your 700 gph, remember, you are losing some of that flow by the time the water comes out the other side.
On my 60 hex, I have appx. 15-18x turnover. As far as your q about placement, I have a HOB wet/dry, devoid of any filter pads etc that creates surface flow (along with a downward flow), (2) maxijets facing the same way within the tank to create a "swirl", which contraadicts with the downward flow of the HOB...it makes a pretty wild ride.
The corals in my tank are placed appropriately, depending on the flow they like.
If the flow is too little, you aren't moving enough water over the surface of the LR, which is the best bio-filter, you allow debris to build up in low flow areas, many corals will not get enough "food" passing over them, the surface of the water does not have as good gas exchange etc...more reasons than I have off the top of my head others could tell you.
Your flow sounds good at what you are doing. And if it isnt broke, dont fix it. Just keep your low flow in mind for the future...with corals you may want that require very high flow, or if you start having algae problems etc....then you can adress it with more flow

 

[wax32]

Your flow is OK if you aren't having cyanobacteria problems and your corals are growing.
I have 40x+ in my 70 and my corals/fish are doing fine, so the 7x in your tank isn't too much.