Struggling With Flow 20l

NaanDu

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 17, 2024
Messages
28
Reaction score
8
Location
60115
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I've had a 20long tank up and running for a little over a year now with a mix of corals and a couple small fish. I decided I wanted to turn this long shallow tank into just a coral garden and bought a larger tank to do essentially fish only, and moved all of my fish over to that. I then purchased some more coral to fill out the tank more.

I'm really struggling with the flow in the 20long though. I got the tiniest wave makers I could find (3 watts and rated for 5-10 gallon tanks), and I have a hang on back filter. None of the corals I have in the tank require a crazy amount of flow (blastos, micromussa, a golden hammer, a goniopora, some zoa's and a paly, gsp, a maze coral, candy cane, favite, a duncan, a leather, and some firework clove polyps). I've always read from low to moderate flow things should gently sway in the water, and if they're rocking back and forth pretty fast or always going to one side the flow is too strong.

Well even with the filter on one side and one small wavemaker on each side, about 1/3rd of the way down and mounted on the back half of the tank, pointed towards each other and also up towards the surface of the water and front of the glass, the gsp, goni, leather, and hammer all look like they're being absolutely blasted. Even the clownfish that I still have in there finds a corner and just hides there. When I turn one of the wavemakers off though (the one on the side of my filter since I figure that creates some turbulence on its own), it looks like there's hardly any movement whatsoever, and certainly not any swaying by any polyps.

I'm kind of at a loss of what to do. If I turn both wavemakers off then everything is pretty stationary and the goni starts to really slump and look deflated and sad. Is there anywhere else or any other way I could position my wavemakers to achieve a healthy amount of flow without it being too much?
 
Last edited:

Mr. Mojo Rising

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 14, 2021
Messages
8,196
Reaction score
9,313
Location
Toronto
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
My 15 gallon softie tank (zoa's and mushrooms mainly and a few lps) has 2 sicce voyager nano's. I find them perfect for small tanks since they give a wide stream which is not too strong, but provides wide area of flow.
 
OP
OP
N

NaanDu

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 17, 2024
Messages
28
Reaction score
8
Location
60115
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
My 15 gallon softie tank (zoa's and mushrooms mainly and a few lps) has 2 sicce voyager nano's. I find them perfect for small tanks since they give a wide stream which is not too strong, but provides wide area of flow.
I just edited my original post, for some reason half of it disappeared. What's the GPH on those? The ones I have say 792g/hr.
 

Mr. Mojo Rising

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 14, 2021
Messages
8,196
Reaction score
9,313
Location
Toronto
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I just edited my original post, for some reason half of it disappeared. What's the GPH on those? The ones I have say 792g/hr.
The smallest size is 270 gph, but I use the 530 gph ones. It sounds like a lot, but like I said, the flow is wide and weak, so nothing gets blasted and a lot of dead spots are eliminated.
 
OP
OP
N

NaanDu

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 17, 2024
Messages
28
Reaction score
8
Location
60115
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The smallest size is 270 gph, but I use the 530 gph ones. It sounds like a lot, but like I said, the flow is wide and weak, so nothing gets blasted and a lot of dead spots are eliminated.
Gotcha. I wonder if I put them on the back wall and just aim them at the surface of the water instead if that'll help break up the stream enough to create more gentle turbulence.
 

Mr. Mojo Rising

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 14, 2021
Messages
8,196
Reaction score
9,313
Location
Toronto
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Gotcha. I wonder if I put them on the back wall and just aim them at the surface of the water instead if that'll help break up the stream enough to create more gentle turbulence.
lol I might try that myself, sounds interesting....
 

RedReefer

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 10, 2013
Messages
3,077
Reaction score
8,128
Location
Nc
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
I have the sicce wifi wavemakers for sale. One on each end of the tank would be perfect.

 

FUNGI

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 2, 2023
Messages
2,086
Reaction score
1,837
Location
COMPTON CALIFORNIA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I would put this on one end of the tank, set it for M3 - Reverse Wave....and call it a day.
1733959008391.png
 

HOW ARE YOUR ACROS DOING TODAY? SHARE A PICTURE IN THE COMMENTS!

  • Surprisingly amazing!

    Votes: 10 10.4%
  • Not so surprisingly amazing!

    Votes: 4 4.2%
  • They're doing pretty good right now!

    Votes: 37 38.5%
  • They're not doing great, but they could be doing worse.

    Votes: 9 9.4%
  • They're not doing so good today.

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • I don't want to talk about it...

    Votes: 3 3.1%
  • I don't have any Acros.

    Votes: 28 29.2%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 4 4.2%
Back
Top