Flow or lack of it

gearbox · 02-07-2006, 03:31 PM

Hope you can help, starting to feel that I don't have enough flow in my tank for some of my SPS, but don't want too much for my LPS, softies and clams. The tank is 121 x 62 x 51 cm and I don't have a sump.

Currently I have 2 x MJ1200, 1 x Stream 6060 (6000lph) and the spray bar from the canister filter.

I am looking at a TS07 kit (7000lph with single controller).

What I wanted to know is if anyone else with a simular sized setup has anything like this, I don't want to spend the money on it and then find that it blows everything out the tank.

thanks

Geoff · 02-07-2006, 03:59 PM

why do you think you need more flow? since you said softies and SPS there could be a chance of chemical warefare going on if you feel your SPS are not looking good. do you run carbon?

G~

gearbox · 02-07-2006, 04:12 PM

Yeah I always have carbon running. The softies and LPS I have are a couple of leathers, pussy, zoas, goni, spiny open brain, sun coral and GSP. I did wonder about chemical warfare and moved one of the leathers, but I guess that doesn't really do anything to help.

The only reason I say about flow is that I feel it looks like polyps on the SPS, such as montis are not being being blown around in the current. Also the plating ones seem to get detrius settle on them, which I thought should be blown away. My parms all seem to be good but they just don't grow as well as I think they should.

Geoff · 02-07-2006, 07:23 PM

that is a tough call. corals like Turbinia and plating Monti's are just downright difficult to keep clean without its own powerhead blowing on them constantly. even with a decent amount of flow i still felt like i had to turkey bast my montis once a week to keep them from getting dead spots caused by detritus. it sounds like you just need to play around with pump locations. as corals grow the flow pattern changes drastically if SPS are involved so you may need to adjust accordingly.

one of the biggest signs that you need more flow is that the branches/plates deep in the middle of the colony are starting to recede. this means the inner parts are not getting either enough light or nutrients, most of the time i have found that it is flow that is the cause.

G~

gearbox · 02-08-2006, 03:32 AM

Thanks for your help.

I guess the to start with I should just try the turkey baster option, I can eaisly do that when I have finished feeding my Sun Coral (and defending from my cleaner shrimp while it is being feed)

Reason I thought about the ts07 kit is I can turn the stream down to about 2,500lph which I thought might help as it shouldn't be too fast. Also acros seem to do well for about 3 months and then start to die back and I was wondering if that was flow related.

Typically when I test the results are Mag 1250, Calc 420, Nitrate and Nitrite 0, phosphate 0, PH between 8.0 and 8.4 and salinity is 1.027 at the moment, been using a swing arm and have just bought a refratometer so will bring that down slowly to 1.026. and temp between 26 and 27.

Geoff · 02-08-2006, 08:47 AM

sounds odd that your acros are on a 3 month type cycle. you might want to try documenting this to double check the time frame.

G~

gearbox · 02-08-2006, 10:42 AM

Arcos do seem too though, they have good growth to start with then the tips die back and then they just strip shortly after.

I will have a look at how long they last next time I get one.