water movement in tank

[Viv]

ok, I guess another dumb question arises from brain to fingertips...how do I know what kind of flow I have in my tank? I mean -what I consider high flow in my tank might be low flow in anothers... if I have a sand bottom that isn't blowing all over how do I keep detritus in the water column to get out? And is there a standard that stores use? They sell corals by high flow - high light to low flow -low light and mixtures of both. How do I figure out what my tank does to what is correct to the corals I want? Also, I understand to use powerheads to prevent dead spots, but doesn't that just increase flow in the area its pointing at; how do make flow at the bottom and all over the tank without creating a storm?

[Twitterbait]

I only use flow for the corals, not to keep the sand bed clean. I have cucumbers, crabs, and stars to keep the sand going.

[BigDaddy]

well sadly in my new tank there has been a sandstorm raging for the last week! I am hoping with my reaquascaping and with time the sand should reach an equilribrium with the flown and no longer 'storm'.

that said, what exactly is your question? How to measure flow? because you can't do it. What you might be able to do if youre so inclined is get some food safe coloring and put a bit in the tank to see where the flow goes... but even then the best way to 'see' flow is to see how much your corals sway and how hard your fish have to swim to stay in one spot

you might be able to add up the total gph of all your pumps and divide by the gallons to get a 'turnover' number...

[Viv]

Thanks, guess I didn't think of a food coloring...is there suppose to be a proper flow, I mean is there suppose to be turbulence or is this a matter of personal preference to what you keep in the tank.

[skeety]

I'm not sure about food coloring (if you have critters in the tank).

Might be safe. might not. find out for sure first!

As for flow, we just had a "Discussion of the week" recently on this.

check out this link, might clarify a lot for you (might also raise a lot of questions too..heheeh)

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/sh...on+Week%28s%29

[motorslave]

To some degree flow is persaonal but mostly it should be determined by what type of corals youhave or want to have. Some require high flow others like low flow. I have a bubch in my 55 and have played around with it to see how to manipulate it and make it as effective as possible by changing directions and such. You will see great tanks with only 10X turnover and others with as high as 65x turnover. Just depends on what you want in there!

Robert

[Viv]

Thanks everybody-appreciate all your input!

[BigDaddy]

just go with the flow and don't worry about it