Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Filtration?

[tragikmagik]

Im planning a move from my 20 gal. over to my 55. At the moment its FOWLR but hopfully going to go reef in the future. For water movement I plan on having my skimmer, rated for 100 gal. My powerhead rated for 55 gal. and a canister filter rated for 60-120 gal. Im wondering if this may be unpleasnt to my fish, maybe blowing them around a bit?

1) Is this too much water movment? If I've added right thats about 8 times or more my tank size running at 400+ GPH.

2)Does the flow rate matter between FOWLR and a reef?

3)Does the flow rate effect the LR in any way?

 

[andywg]

1) It all depends on what you want to keep.

2) The flow rate is different, in FOWLR you just really need enough flow to ensure there are no dead spots in the tank (20x should be fine). If you go more advanced on the reefkeeping then you may find that you keep SPS corals which prefer higher rates (40x and 50x is not unheard of). There are a few fish which prefer a higher flow rate as well. Most of the lionfish prefer slightly less flow rate (they would not do well in an SPS tank for example).

3) As mentioned above, if LR doesn't get enough flow it will not operate as effectively. More important than just numbers though is where the flow is. It wopuld be uselss having 20x your tank's volume turned over every hour, but the flow only affecting a tiny area. You need to avoid deadspots.

I wouldn't worry about the cannister too much as this will just be used for cicrulation and then either putting any chemical media in, or filling it with LR to make a fuge.

So the short answer is, you should be fine, though some people prefer to skim at the rated level (or just below) when doing the less hardy corals whereas in a FOWLR predator tank you would ideally wat a skimmer a little bigger to help take care of their waste.