Need Advice on Water Flow for My 13.5 Gallon Saltwater Aquarium

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I’m seeking some advice on whether the water flow in my 13.5 gallon saltwater tank is adequate. Here are the specifics of my setup:



• Pump: Sicce Syncra Silent 1.0, rated at 251 GPH with a 5ft head.

• Wave Maker: Jiebao Mow3, rated at 1300-3000Liters per hour .



My main concern is determining if the flow from my Sicce Syncra pump alone is sufficient for my tank. I have a wave maker (Jiebao Mow3), but it seems too powerful even at its lowest setting—it turns my tank into a whirlpool, which I believe is not ideal for the inhabitants. I’m not running the waver maker at all.



Additionally, I have some questions about my return water flow generator:



• Can someone take a look at the attached picture and let me know if I have placed them in the right position?



I’m also struggling to understand which areas of my tank have strong or weak water flow. I’m trying to create a balanced environment where the water movement is enough to keep the tank healthy but not so strong that it stresses the LPS and RBTA Any advice on adjusting the flow or the placement of the flow generator would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[slogan315]

Can we get a pic from the front?

In my experience, the hardest thing with a nano isn’t the amount of flow, it’s the type of flow. It’s how do you get a strong push from one direction, and occasionally have it change direction. With standard nozzles on a constant speed return is going to create a relatively constant flow pattern. Having random flow generators combined will help disperse the flow, causing it to have more random patterns. Having another pump across from the return, that changes speed will add even more randomness. But, like you have discovered, you can quickly get too much flow in a small tank.

For my Fluval 13.5, my first change was adding a random flow generator nozzle to the return. This helped with flow variation. I’ve since added an extra pump I had laying around to help with coverage.

Your corals look healthy and like they’re growing. So may not need to worry about it.

 

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Can we get a pic from the front?

In my experience, the hardest thing with a nano isn’t the amount of flow, it’s the type of flow. It’s how do you get a strong push from one direction, and occasionally have it change direction. With standard nozzles on a constant speed return is going to create a relatively constant flow pattern. Having random flow generators combined will help disperse the flow, causing it to have more random patterns. Having another pump across from the return, that changes speed will add even more randomness. But, like you have discovered, you can quickly get too much flow in a small tank.

For my Fluval 13.5, my first change was adding a random flow generator nozzle to the return. This helped with flow variation. I’ve since added an extra pump I had laying around to help with coverage.

Your corals look healthy and like they’re growing. So may not need to worry about it.

Thank you , here is a font pic of my tank . I think mine is a random flow generator ( I got it from pervious owner ). But i don’t see much of movement on corals .

 

[slogan315]

Unless you just put those corals in or are noticing specific problems, I wouldn’t do a thing. Your corals look great!

 

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Unless you just put those corals in or are noticing specific problems, I wouldn’t do a thing. Your corals look great!

What a relief, thanks ! Yesterday I added a frag of blued trout sps. I wanna double check see if I have enough water flow . I will keep monitoring. So far they are doing great. Only one Yuma mushroom has been shrinking for the pass few days

 

[slogan315]

Yea they look good. If you start having trouble with the sps, be careful chasing it. Wouldn’t want to mess up the good thing you have going with all the LPS and softies. Aside from flow, it’s hard to keep an Sps that needs 250 par and a mushroom that needs 50 happy at the same time, in a tank that’s only 12ish inches tall

 

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Yea they look good. If you start having trouble with the sps, be careful chasing it. Wouldn’t want to mess up the good thing you have going with all the LPS and softies. Aside from flow, it’s hard to keep an Sps that needs 250 par and a mushroom that needs 50 happy at the same time, in a tank that’s only 12ish inches tall

Yeah . I feel the same . My priority are those LPS.