How much is enough water flow?!

cuttie100

cuttie100

Member
Hey guys...A bit concerned about water flow. Right now I have powersweep 228 and a 80GPH small pump in my 20gallon high tank. Do you guys think this is enough flow? I have tryed green star polyps in my tank about 3 times and have had no luck with them at all. They open up but never spread and grow. After a while they just get loaded with hair algae and start to shrink. Some people tell me its flow, some people tell me its water condition. Can anyone help me?!
 
framerguy

framerguy

Well-Known Member
I for one think you could bump up the flow a bit. It's hard to have to much flow....you can, just most people don't. A LPS/softie reef should have somewhere in the neighborhood of 10X flow in the DT, 5X in the sump and fuge. That means a 20g tank should have about 200gph flow in it. That can include sump pump turnover and powerheads combined. I don't think you have that but am not sure what a PS228 puts out. An SPS could have up to 40 to 50X where a mixed reef could be somewher in between(20-30X). Can you tell us what's in your tank and what your water conditions are? Remember when asking for help it's important to give water conditions even if you think we know them. Ca, Mg, Alk, NH3, NO2, NO3, Sg, Temp, pH, source water, etc. Hook us up for some help!;^)
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
PS228
Specifications:
For aquariums up to 75 gallons.
Flow Rate: 270 gph.

I think you could use more flow. I LOVE flow.. in my 10g I have 1 Koralia Nano Flow Rate: 240 gph1x Koralia #2 400 gph and one MJ600 Flow Rate: 160 gphI had (key word HAD) that in my 10g... it stopped sweeping after a few weeks and required 2x-3x week cleaning to keep it sweeping. I upgraded to Koralia pump and LOVE them! I LOVE FLOW :)

Hair Algae taking over your GSP's really wont be helped much with increased flow. We need to figure out where your HA is feeding from.

Like Greg said we need current water parameters to be able to help you most.

We need to know what type of lights, how old are the bulbs and also more about the tank itself. what's your stock in it? How often do you feed and how much? WHAT do you feed?

How often do you do water changes and how much at a time?
 
cuttie100

cuttie100

Member
There is a lot in stock. Mostly softies. One flowerpot which is shrinking in size slowly Its been in the tank for about 7 months now. Green open brain is growing way to fast. It grows about 1 inches a month. Everything in the tank is growing happy but the flowerpot and the star polyps. Here is 2 full tank pic's.

43400314.jpg

43400318.jpg


lighting: 175watt Reefoptics 14k bulb
calcium is about 420ppm
alk about 9 dkh
PH is at a stable 8.0 sometimes 7.9
Nitrate and nitrite are all 0
temp. 78-80 degrees
0 ammonia
salinity is 1.024
Dosing the tank with kalk in my auto topoff. 2 gallons in about 7 days.
Before using the kalk my tank was about 380ppm.
Flow is. one 80 gph pump and a powersweep 228
Water changes are done every month. Sometimes once every 2 weeks.
Water charges are done with RO water
The tank only house 3 fishes at the moment. 2 damsels and a lawnmower blenny.
 
F

fatman

Has been struck by the ban stick
Corals need good water flow for many reasons. Chiefly to remove their wastes and to bring them food and to provide their symbiotic algae with CO2. With out getting into the technical aspects just realize that there is no magic number for water flow in relation to a tanks size. There are just to many variables. A few of those variables are: pumps flow output, pumps outputs water velocity, shape of tank, position of pump (power head or return nozzle), aquascaping rock arrangement, corals placement.

However with out going into details explaining how to rate or judge whether your flow, and velocity is adequate through out the areas with corals I will here just say, "I generally recommend flow rate of at least 15 X for fish only, 30 X for mixed reef and 50 X to 80 X for SPS dominant tanks."
 
framerguy

framerguy

Well-Known Member
That's a gorgeous well stocked tank. I'm kinda with Varga on the "if it aint broke" theory, but a koralia to provide extra flow certainly couldn't hurt. (A small Koralia Nano or K-1.) JMO.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
Very nice looking tank. Impressive!!

For some reason (probably water quality issues) many reefers have trouble maintaining a Flower Pot coral long term. I can only GUESS but I think it may be that many of our tanks are TOO clean.... we remove more nutrients than that coral would like... I've seen some BEAUTIFUL Flower Pot corals just slowly dwindle over the course of 6-12 months. Just a guess though!

Personally I'd like to see you add another PH like a koralia #1 or something for flow in there. They go a long way to moving water around without being too "direct" about it.

Again great looking tank.
 
cuttie100

cuttie100

Member
Thanks for the comments guys....I will purchase another 228 powersweep and experiment with it. What should I use to raise the Ph? I dont want to increase the dose of the kalk which may raise the calcium to high. Any suggestions?

I really really love the star polyps. Specially when they spread and cover the rock work. Alot of people seem to complain about how they grow out of control but I cant seem to grow it at all. They open up fine but after a while they start to shrink and algae starts to grow on it. Is there a specific element they will trive on? Maybe they do better with powercompacts instead of MH? Maybe I need to do weekly waterchanges?
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
I am a HUGE fan of weekly water changes. This helps to replenish elements that your tank "Takes Up". At the same time it removes toxins and other accumilated items in the tank. The water change is VERY critical to a stable and healthy tank especially a smaller tank. Are you running a skimmer?

It's possible that the algae is just out competing with the GSP's for space.

It's very common for GSP to take over a tank and become the WEED of the REEF!!
 
cuttie100

cuttie100

Member
Ok I will do the weekly water change routine and see how that turns out. No I am not using a skimmer. I thought maybe because its a small tank, skimmers are not recommended but I could be wrong....
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
Some people will say that.. but if you DON'T use a skimmer then you REALLY have to stick to the weekly water changes. That's how you remove "DOCs" Dissolved Organic Compounds from your tank. Do you ever see a "Film" on the top of the water?
 
cuttie100

cuttie100

Member
lol all the time. There is actually a film now. The film go's away after a waterchange but comes back after about 7-8 days later.
 
framerguy

framerguy

Well-Known Member
Whoa, yeah, Al is dead on. If you are skimmerless then stepping up the water changes at LEAST weekly would be a good idea. Another very easy way to keep up with changes is to do about 1/2 gallon a day for yours. It takes seconds to do and works great.
 
cuttie100

cuttie100

Member
yikes thats what im trying to avoid cause I really dont have the time to do much to the tank everyday....Can I purchase a protien skimmer and continue the 2 week waterchange routine?
 
coleBB

coleBB

Member
I would diffenitly buy a skimmer if thats the case. I am a pretty religious water changer though even with a skimmer.
 
cracker

cracker

Well-Known Member
A decent skimmer would make life a lot easier for everybody involved! Nice looking tank as well!
 
F

fatman

Has been struck by the ban stick
There really are not a lot of good choices in the way of protein skimmers for small tanks. The few good brands that are available are typically almost as expensive as those made for larger tanks. If there is any chance that you plan to upgrade to a larger tank, I would not buy a small skimmer. Instead I suggest that you buy and use a filter like a small canister filter and buy or make a slotted skimmer box to use to draw the water to be filtered from the waters surface. The canister filter would pull the water to feed itself from the skimmer box where the DOC's would be filtered out through the use of granulated activated carbon (GAC). It would also help provide better lighting to your corals by removing the color in your water caused by organics. It would also provide increased water flow. Skimmer boxes are commonly added to hang on back skimmers to increase their efficiencies. Typically hng on back skiimers, as do canister filters, draw the water rom several inches below the surface which is very inefficient.

A place like glass-holes.com could provide you with a box that could be designed based on whatever you bought for a canister filter, as the pumping capacity of the filter would allows box to be sized no larger than needed so as not to be obtrusive. Or you could buy one of their standard small overflows, and adapt it to your needs so as to save money.

Their link is: Glass-Holes.com dope aquarium stuff
 
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