Water Circulation

[smartiranx]

I have a Juwel 260 marine tank(corals plus livestock). Current circulation is provided by maxi-jet mp 600, tetratec cannister filter and built-in juwel filter, i am lookin to add a koralia 2 pump - any thoughts please !!!!!!!!!!

[scoop]

Welcome to TRT! I'm not familiar w/ the Juwel tank, how large is it (in gallons)? How long has it been set up? What types of corals do you have? It doesn't sound like you have very much circulation right now, but this info will help us help you.

[fihsboy]

Unless your tank is about 10 gallons......thats not enough. The more the merrier.

[smartiranx]

tank is 57g bow front, housing large juwel filter, external tetratec 1200 cannister filter, maxi jet 600.

Tank has been going for 16mths, stock of 9 fish and assorte soft coral

[fihsboy]

two koralia 2's and you would be in business.

[fihsboy]

Are you running a skimmer? Thats another must. What kind of fish?

[smartiranx]

yellow tang x1
pink tailed trigger fish x 1
clownfish x 2
2 x wrasse
2 x cromis
1 x blue reef fish
2 x boxer shrimp
1 peppermint shrimp
1 blood shrimp

and i am running a hang over the side protein skimmer

[smartiranx]

will the addition of more circulation/water flow, help with cleaning sand substrate

[fihsboy]

yes, it will help keep particles suspended long enough to get them through your filter. It will also help your nitrates and phosphates, which with your bioload im sure you have. Do you have a lot of algae? If you can afford a MP40.......its awesome. I would highly recommend it over any other powerhead. But if your on a budget....two koralia 2's will be more than enough.

[Phishnoob]

Yep I think you need flow in addition to circulation. I was worried about too big of a return pump for my sump on our 75g build then realized that flow was just to support what the skimmer can do.

We are going to put a couple of Tunze's (probably the same as Koralia's functionally but really fancy) in there to really keep things flowing and junk suspended.

You can get really cluttery with a bunch of tiny powerheads or something so just get the Korallia everyone advises and go to the larger side. If there is too much flow you can always bank it against the front first or something.

[smartiranx]

thanks for the advice , I have been struggling for months, having being told by local stockists i had enough flow/circulation. This after telling them was plagued first with cyano, then hairy green algae.

I take it circulation/flow will help with nitrates????

[Phishnoob]

Not really the big factor. I have been there and battled cyano, and my causes were overfeeding and poor water quality.

As soon as I switched to RO/DI water instead of tap (or now I use distilled from the supermarket for my nano, but will be getting a new unit) my problems with that were gone.

I feed now just every other day despite how hungry the fish look as well.

If you have any kind of filter media that has stored up phosphates that is what feeds that nuisance algae.

[smartiranx]

Thanks - your advice has been most helpful

[fihsboy]

Also the added flow will help your corals......fish...and rid problem algae as well as cyno. The better the flow the less deitritus that settles......and that makes for an all around cleaner tank. I like to see my water circulating.....My fish will deposit wastes(poop) and it stays suspended for a good 2-3 minutes.....most of the time it gets pulled out by my filtration....but sometimes corals get a hold of it....and sometimes it goes into the rocks. but that will help your whole system health.

[fox2589]

i have a 20 gallon with about 1600 gph flying around it..to me the more flow the better..-drew