Fx4 Flow rate on 55 gal freshwater tank

[DaddyDriveBy]

Hello! I'm brand new here and relatively new to fish keeping. (Parents had a few but this is my first one)
I have a Fluval FX4 on my 55 gal freshwater aquarium. I am generally curious is this is enough water circulation for a community tank (tetras, cory cats, pleco, and a few mollies) or do I need to add a powerhead/circulation pump?

The fx4 intake is in the left corner (looking at the tank) and the output is in the right corner (looking at the tank) with one nozzle pointed to run across the back of the tank (from right to left) and the other nozzle is pointed toward the front of the tank slightly downward.

The tank is lightly stocked and cycled. Just am curious if this is enough current since I went from a HOB filter to the FX4. Thank you for your time! ^.^

 

[Retired Viking]

For your tetras and cory, a gentle current is prefer they are soft water fish, your mollies are hard water fish, pleco can handle most water if farm raised-wild pelco come from soft water area. Pelco like faster more moderate current. I keep my cory and tetras in a soft water tank and my hard water fish like mollies in hard water tanks. Do you know what type of water you have? and the GH and PH readings?

 

[Lajos_Detari]

The Fluval FX4 is meant for aquarium up to 250gallons with a flow rate of up to 700gallons per hour(12.7 times your tank size) .
It's far too powerful/fast for your aquarium.
You might want to adjust the flow rate to the minimum.
Usually a flow rate of 5-6 times of your tank size is enough.
Also, as Viking mentioned some fish prefer slower current.

Here is your filter specs:

https://fluvalaquatics.com/us/product/fx4-high-performance-canister-filter/

Here is a discussion on FX4:

Reducing Flow for an FX4

So i attempted to use a Fluval FX4 on a 75 gallon discus grow out tank a while ago, only to find the current was to much for the fish to handle so took it down and have since been using sponge filters for all of my discus tanks. Well recently i bought my wife a Fluval Spec evo 5 gallon tank for...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

 

[seangee]

I agree. That is way more than you need and probably way more than you want. Filter manufacturers love to create the myth that more filtration is better and more flow is better - but it is just a myth. Having more than enough offers no benefits but does have several disadvantages. In my 55 I have a 250GPH pump and I have it turned to minimum flow because by tetras and cories don't like or need any more than that.

SO based on your description you don't need or want a powerhead or additional circulation pump.