Lets Talk about FLOW and SPS!

[Charlie’s Frags]

No worries, and I hope you know, aside from the palytoxin note, other comment was made in jest.
* cheers

Of course. You obviously know that I hate them and they’re the only corals that my wife likes.

 

[stanleo]

I have been wondering if my birdsnest has grown at all in the month that I have had it. I would say that my tank is low flow. 120 gallon standard. I have the return from the sump pump and two powerheads, one on each side. The one on the left is lower and on constantly and the one on the right is higher and plugged into a timer that goes one hour on and one hour off. The birdsnest is positioned about 6 inches below the water line near the return and about 8 inches away from the right powerhead so it gets hit by both. I took a pic of it as soon as I put it in the tank so I took another pic today at the same angel to see if there was growth. It has grown and I hope it has grown well so I think this works, for now.

I am saving for a wave maker and two more pumps. I want two of the EcoTech marine Vortech pumps. (Working it to get at least one for Christmas )They are expensive but so nice. I want them on each side and I want to move the existing pumps to the back, one in the middle and one at the top on the left pointing to the surface. Might be a while but I think my corals are doing well and can handle the wait.

October 9

November 1

 

[Guttersnipe]

Indeed there is such a thing!



I have never found any of those metrics to be useful. Well turnover can be, but only in regards to filtration, not to flow (having more turnover than you skimmer can handle seems counter productive). I think flow in a closed system is like weather microclimates in the Bay Area - impossible to generalize. I look for flow to have different phases (see below) and also to be easily changeable to deal with coral growth blocking flow. How much flow is always an interesting discussion, and my answer would be an annoying "the right amount". After doing this a long time and watching/studying flow patterns on many wild reefs, I like flow to alternate and be adjustable. I like to grow coral on every possible surface so I generally go for flow that changes over the day.

Most of the flow for the animals in my systems comes from internal water motion devices - my living room display (mixed reef, SPS, LPS, some softies, and NPS) has 2 WAV pumps, 3 gyres, one small Jabeao, and 4 or 5 imputs from a closed loop (two of those inputs go at the back of the tank facing each other from the corners, and the rest are above the surface via locline and have spinstreams on them). This allows me to punch flow to spots that wouldn't normally get flow due to aquascape and coral growth. The return pump is just to get flow to the skimmer and dosing stuff in the sump, one return line is static and the other is like the closed loop with a spinstream.

The static return line adds a constant flow direction for part of the tank.
The internal water motion devices are controlled by an Apex and are programmed to behave differently throughout the day and are generally grouped into right side and left side.

I usually have them set to broadly mimic tidal changes - high flow one direction, calmer flow, high flow the other direction, calmer flow, as well as periods of random flow. I also have all the pumps come on full every three hours in this sequence - one side for 5 minutes, both side for 5 minutes, the other side for 5 minutes...with these cycles starting on alternate sides via virtual outlets. There is different programming for each during different times of the day - sometimes linear, sometimes more from one direction, sometimes more random, sometimes high, sometimes low, sometimes wave action, sometimes slow pulses.

Here is a pic in blue light of the tank during a high flow period:


Here is a vid of how coral growth can block flow:


Here is a vid of the tank from a few months ago during a low flow period:

That is an amazing tank, wow!

 

[HotRocks]

That is an amazing tank, wow!

Especially that Fem Wrasse!

 

[jda]

This is general, but if your fish stay skinny, do not last too long and otherwise do not grow and are not nice and thick, then you might have too much flow. Fish should need to swim, but should not be swimming at full blast all of the time.

 

[Thales]

This is general, but if your fish stay skinny, do not last too long and otherwise do not grow and are not nice and thick, then you might have too much flow. Fish should need to swim, but should not be swimming at full blast all of the time.

Yes! I also worry that people don't feed enough in an effort to lower nutrients. Fish feeding becomes even more important in high flow tanks.

 

[Thales]

That is an amazing tank, wow!

Especially that Fem Wrasse!

Thanks!

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Yes! I also worry that people don't feed enough in an effort to lower nutrients. Fish feeding becomes even more important in high flow tanks.

I believe this is way more important than flow. Depriving your corals of fish poop by limited feedings or water stripping is way more detrimental to sps than limited flow will be.

 

[HotRocks]

I believe this is way more important than flow. Depriving your corals of fish poop by limited feedings or water stripping is way more detrimental to sps than limited flow will be.

Sure I agree with you an I have had low nutrients before and it takes about three days to tick off the acros and then weeks/months to get them back...

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Yes! I also worry that people don't feed enough in an effort to lower nutrients. Fish feeding becomes even more important in high flow tanks.

True, in the last tank I had the fish had to swim a LOT but I fed a ton and they stayed very fat and happy. The male anthias were the most colorful I have seen before too. I think flow is a huge factor underneath type and amount of food being fed to the fish.
Honestly if your sps have long skinny branches or are growing funny shapes, flow should be increased. Otherwise I don’t think it’s going to matter much. Except for the few acropora not many keep that are very thick branched like Humilis and monticulisa and the like.

 

[Andrew Kueng]

I have yet to run into an issue where I have had too much flow for SPS. I had montiporas and acros right infront of a full blowing MP and they did great with poly extension

 

[LARedstickreefer]

Of course. You obviously know that I hate them and they’re the only corals that my wife likes.

I’ve got them too. Fortunately they have behaved themselves. They look nice when they stick to just one rock on the bottom.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

This is general, but if your fish stay skinny, do not last too long and otherwise do not grow and are not nice and thick, then you might have too much flow. Fish should need to swim, but should not be swimming at full blast all of the time.

Mine are starting to form pot bellies from all of my increased feedings.

 

[carmodpg]

@Thales awesome tank, unreal setup and great explanation. That looks too hard for me to figure out!
I have a standard 120 with 2x MP40s on the sides and 2x MP10s on the back on both sides. I have a mixed tank with plenty of LPS, torches, hammers, zoas, and Acans along with acros on the top portion of the tank. Needless to say dialing in flow is a challenge. I find it almost impossible to obtain a nice speed for the SPS without having the torches and other LPS blowing around. I am currently at about 25% max speed running reef crest and tidal swell throughout the day. Needless to say, these MPs aren’t really getting a work out.

 

[adtravels]

4 mp40 qd and two tunze return pumps on my 120 standard tank. All doing well at the moment

 

[Thales]

@Thales awesome tank, unreal setup and great explanation. That looks too hard for me to figure out!

Ha! Every system has its own eccentricities!

I have a standard 120 with 2x MP40s on the sides and 2x MP10s on the back on both sides. I have a mixed tank with plenty of LPS, torches, hammers, zoas, and Acans along with acros on the top portion of the tank. Needless to say dialing in flow is a challenge. I find it almost impossible to obtain a nice speed for the SPS without having the torches and other LPS blowing around. I am currently at about 25% max speed running reef crest and tidal swell throughout the day. Needless to say, these MPs aren’t really getting a work out.

You may have them placed in a place they shouldn't be. Can you move them to where there is lower flow? I recently moved stuff around for the same reason.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

@Thales awesome tank, unreal setup and great explanation. That looks too hard for me to figure out!
I have a standard 120 with 2x MP40s on the sides and 2x MP10s on the back on both sides. I have a mixed tank with plenty of LPS, torches, hammers, zoas, and Acans along with acros on the top portion of the tank. Needless to say dialing in flow is a challenge. I find it almost impossible to obtain a nice speed for the SPS without having the torches and other LPS blowing around. I am currently at about 25% max speed running reef crest and tidal swell throughout the day. Needless to say, these MPs aren’t really getting a work out.

I wish ecotech had a surge feature or way to customize their gyre settings. I would love a way to set the gyre to pulse for 2 or 3 seconds with 4-6 seconds in between.

 

[wrasse hole]

I'm having great acropora growth using only a gyre XF330 on my 20g long. Running random mode on 50%.

The flow shoots across the top of the tank before hitting the far glass and creating a turbulent zone on that side. The corals closer to the gyre receive medium/low flow as the water sweeps back towards the bottom of the gyre.

 

[C. Eymann]

I wish ecotech had a surge feature or way to customize their gyre settings. I would love a way to set the gyre to pulse for 2 or 3 seconds with 4-6 seconds in between.

Ecotech does have this capability, (blue mode) where it can act as a actual wave maker, when tuning the wave settings, you can "tune" it way over size for the tank and essentially have what you are describing.


What are you guys referring to when you say "gyre settings" ? Because, other than the style of pumps, a true "gyre" is a spinning doughnut of water, like Gyre tanks that actually modified large shelf and pumps and educators strategically placed to create a mass water motion (river loop) effect.

 

[King Turkey]

4 mp40 qd and two tunze return pumps on my 120 standard tank. All doing well at the moment

random flow? aqua scape is top notch by the way looks great!