Flow Rate Musing.

[sacramonel]

After some research in regards to flow rate in the aquarium I have understood that the flow for a LPS/SPS tank should be in the range of 20-40x turnover, or even higher if possible. I also have read that proper reef flow should somehow incorporate surge, turbulence, and laminar flow.

In order to incorporate all three types of water movement I would like to encorporate the following. Please note that I a standard 48inch 75 gallon aquarium.

Surge - Either a Tunze Wavebox or a Vortech w/timer

Turbulence - On either end of the tank and facing each other, two tunze 6055.

Laminar Flow - On the back plane of glass and behind the live rock spaced on on either end, and one in the middle, 3 koralia nano's.

This set up, is currenly hypothetical as I have not set any of this up. I am attempting to find the best way to incorporate all three water movement parameters.

Any comments or suggestions on the above would be highly helpful.

 

[SkiFletch]

Well the vortech is going to probably be a little big for a 75, probably better off going with a Tunze Wavebox, even the "smaller" model they're just about to come out with.

Otherwise your plan sounds pretty good. You'll have to keep your LPS in some "sheltered areas" with that much flow if you have long tentacled ones... Some LPS can't take the pounding SPS can in terms of flowrate.

 

[sacramonel]

i agree completely with the LPS. I do have a longer tentacled hammer coral right now and the flow is blowing him around pretty good.

One of the things I have been debating is how the flow is distributed. I see a lot of folks using one or two powerheads to provide the 40x flow. But something doesn't seem right there. I think this causes too many dead spots. The alternative would be one larger powerhead, with 5-6 smaller powerheads (ie the nanos, or koralia 1's) in specific spots of the tank sending flow to specific areas.

 

[SkiFletch]

A tunze wavebox would definitely eliminate a lot of deadspots