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?
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?
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