Do I have enough flow?

adtravels · 01/22/2006, 11:21 PM

I have a 29 (130l) gallon reef tank with two 400lph, 0ne 600lph and one rotating 1500 lph powerheads in my tank.
A 400 and 600 are directly pointed at the live rock one 400 is at the top moving water only and the 1500 is rotating half on the rock and half on the glass.

do I need more or to rearrange.
Also I could get a large external canister and have it running with no media just to add more water to the system. Is this advisable?

I have had a problem with purple slime on the sand. the tank is two and a half months old, with 1 dwarf angel, a watchman goby a small tomato clown some mushrooms a leather star/matpolyps an elegance coral on the sand (already doubled in size), two cleaner shrimp, two camelshrimp 8 turbo snails and a fromia starfish.
Amm nil
Nitrite nil
nitrate 4ppm
calc 600 too high I know
ph 8.3
Alk High

Have just cut feedings to one a day from two to help with nitrates and am running a little phosguard as a preventative

Any comments welcome

Teremei · 01/22/2006, 11:36 PM

they say 10x turnover is good. So for a 29 gallon you'd want 290. Ofcourse the more the better. With 20x or even 30x being good. basically you want your flow as fast as possible without disturbing the sand. If you can get a high flow without picking up sand, then go for it!

garvondavis14 · 01/22/2006, 11:39 PM

what you could do is watch where the flow is going, look for dead spots. next time you feed, watch where the food goes, if any of it sinks in certain places, that's a dead spot that should be fixed.

01/22/2006, 11:21 PM	#1
adtravels you cant buy blue fingers Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,542	Do I have enough flow? I have a 29 (130l) gallon reef tank with two 400lph, 0ne 600lph and one rotating 1500 lph powerheads in my tank. A 400 and 600 are directly pointed at the live rock one 400 is at the top moving water only and the 1500 is rotating half on the rock and half on the glass. do I need more or to rearrange. Also I could get a large external canister and have it running with no media just to add more water to the system. Is this advisable? I have had a problem with purple slime on the sand. the tank is two and a half months old, with 1 dwarf angel, a watchman goby a small tomato clown some mushrooms a leather star/matpolyps an elegance coral on the sand (already doubled in size), two cleaner shrimp, two camelshrimp 8 turbo snails and a fromia starfish. Amm nil Nitrite nil nitrate 4ppm calc 600 too high I know ph 8.3 Alk High Have just cut feedings to one a day from two to help with nitrates and am running a little phosguard as a preventative Any comments welcome

01/22/2006, 11:39 PM	#3
garvondavis14 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: The nasty 'Nati! Posts: 539	what you could do is watch where the flow is going, look for dead spots. next time you feed, watch where the food goes, if any of it sinks in certain places, that's a dead spot that should be fixed. __________________ WE ARE ALL WITNESSES LBJ23 LET'S GO CAVS, BUCKS, BROWNIES, REDS AND MUSKIES Current Tank Info: marine- 65 BB reef... freshwater- 55g mbuna tank, 20g fry tank, 30g community, 5g planted, 150g red eared slider habitat

01/22/2006, 11:36 PM	#2
Teremei Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: West Chicago (one hour west) Posts: 2,751	they say 10x turnover is good. So for a 29 gallon you'd want 290. Ofcourse the more the better. With 20x or even 30x being good. basically you want your flow as fast as possible without disturbing the sand. If you can get a high flow without picking up sand, then go for it!