Is too much flow a bad thing?

[EdSnyder]

I have a 55 with a sump. My live rock is piled up in the middle of the tank. I have mostly softies, some LPS and green birds nest.
Over the years I kept adding more flow untill I am where I am today, Two Koralia 3's and my return which is a mag 5. It really seemed to work pretty good until I changed my display to piling everything up in the middle. Now everything seems to get blasted more.
The only reason I bring this up is I was doing maintenance on everything today and I noticed how everything opened up way more with less flow. I put an old Koralia 2 in there while I soaked the two koralia 3's and let that run with the return for a couple of hours. My corals looked better than ever.
I am going to stick with this setup and see if it works. I am just wondering if I am asking for trouble? I am hoping to hear from people backing off flow and getting better results.
Thanks,
Ed

[OwenInAZ]

Polyps can be irritated by too much water flowing past them, and fleshy corals tend to like less water movement. Even SPS generally don't like being right in front of a powerhead. Usually you have to find what works best for your tank, exactly like you did. If your corals respond better to lower flow, don't think you have to have higher flow (since your evidence directly contradicts that).

[EdSnyder]

Just wondering if I will end up with problems associated with low flow. Like detritus buildup and cyno. I know the corals responded well today but I'm not sure what this will do in the future.

[spamreefnew]

I can tell you that I just purchased a huge powerhead because I was sick of detritus piles on my sand/rocks. Well I was able to get rid of the detritus but my corals hated it and would not open, so I ended up blocking some of the flow and the corals returned to normal. so IMO yes you can have to much

[snorvich]

For LPS, especially, high flow can be highly detrimental.

[EdSnyder]

Thanks guys. All my corals still opened, it's just that they opened a lot more with the lower flow. Maybe the koralia 3's are too much for a 55.

[fasteddie99]

I had a 55 with 2 koralia 3s and I thought it was too much for it too. I keep frogspawn and a torch and they both respond better to low flow. I have a bunch of Zoos and they don't seem to care what flow they have. Zoos seem to adapt.

I have a 90 now with 2 Koralia evo 1050s and again I think it's too much flow. I shoulda went with several smaller powerheads instead of 2 bigger ones.

[EdSnyder]

Thanks alot for the feedback, that's what I was looking for. It seems like many on RC say bigger the better. I was thinking that way, but I am thinking that's too much flow. I will continue to experiment with lower flow. Thanks again, Ed

[OwenInAZ]

To put it in perspective, I have a 90 gallon with two K4's and the return for flow. I know a lot of people who put 17 MP40s on something this size (exaggerating a little but you get the idea) yet get no better growth than I do. Glad to hear you are experiencing the same thing

[VitalApparatus]

Sorry to be Capt. Bringdown but I originally had 2 koralia 3's in my 75 and just like you I noticed one day that my LPS and mushrooms and things really opened up wide when I turned one off.6 months later (after selling one koralia 3 grrr) Im fighting cyano like crazy.Today I just dropped one of the new koralia 1050s in with my new 550 and my remaining K3.
Yes its blowing everything to hell but I really think its a very fine line that you have to find where the detritus gets swept up and there are no dead spots while still not blasting the more delicate inhabitants.
Good luck!

[BEEKER1]

I had a 55g with 2 k4's about a year ago. I have a 120g with 2 k4's, 1 k2 and a mag 9.5 return pump.

[Moort82]

If you turn your pumps off completely your corals are likely to come out even nicer. They seem to swell up much larger with still water and this is a good trick if you need to photograph them.
As to flow could you keep it higher but direct it better. That way you get the best of both worlds. I have a high turnover but as its directed around the rock and even through it in places, the corals don't get blown about too much. It can be tricky figuring out the best configuration.

[RRaider]

Ha, I had an MP40W in my 29! I don't think you can really have too much flow, you can however have too much direct flow hitting your corals. Instead of removing powerheads experiment with pointing them at the front and back glass or another direction that keeps the water moving but doesn't blast directly on your coral. Even with the MP40 and a K3 I couldn't believe how much detritus had built up under and behind my rockwork when I tore it down last week (upgrade).

[VitalApparatus]

Yeah it took me all night to get it where there are no low flow areas but the corals are happy also.