How's your flow?

[William_Liebbe]

I'm wondering what amount of flow everyone is using. It seems like I am constantly fighting issues in our pony tank that I would usually attribute to low flow. The main flow is directed at the corals but I think there are "dead spots" behind the rocks leading to accumulation of bacteria and such. I know I can't have the same amount of movement as in my reef but there has to be a happy medium.

 

[vlangel]

Bill, you are absolutely correct in that you do not want any dead spots in your tank. That can indeed be a recipe for encouraging pathogenic bacteria to begin to get a foothold.

When it comes to flow I recommend a minimum of 10 Xs turnover and 20 is better. Seahorses can handle more flow than most folks think. My little girl will actually swim headlong into the strongest flow in my tank and then body surf back to her starting point. Seahorses can swim in some pretty strong flow but they lack the stamina of fish.

I would suggest adding some powerheads, (with tight grating so no pony tails are injured by impellors) to get rid of the dead spots.

 

[bobman]

Power heads or on my tank I have a spray bar behind the rock. I dont always have it running full blast as it makes the return nozzles pointing toward my corals weak. I mainly run it about 25% (no idea how much gph is going through it) But a few times a week I turn off the return nozzles and crank the spray bar wide open for a few hours. Thats about 900 gph. Works pretty well