What is the right circulation?

[hclaveria]

I have a 75g tank that is pretty bare. I just upgraded from a 55g which was my first attempt at a reef tank. My main piece is a watermelon BTA and a couple of frags of rics, star polyps, dragon eyes, anthelias and a torch.

I've had a couple of disasters (early learning experiences), the biggest lesson learned had to do with circulation, one that completely destroyed my hammerheads and duncans because i added a koralia 1050 and had the flow directly on them, in the 55g. Since then I've upgrade to the 75g and i toned down the flow, all of which is indirect flow.

I have two Koralia 750 alternating every 15 secs. They are pointing up and towards the center of the tank so that the flow doesn't hit anything directly. The tank seems mostly happy but I am concerned that as I add more coral to the tank, some of them will be in more direct flow.

Should I downgrade the pumps to 450s? Maybe replace the two 750s with three 450s at different intervals? Maybe my placement is incorrect? I'm at a loss when it comes to this.

Thanks.

 

[bertyboy69]

I like to have between a 30 and 40x turnover in my tanks , 30 is usually enough 40 is really for sps , you are fine with the two 750s i personally would even add more , you want to make sure there are no dead spots and there will akways be spots with lower or indirect fliw to add nire sensitive corals

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[cmantis]

How do you have them alternating every 15s and any ill effects on the motors?

 

[hclaveria]

How do you have them alternating every 15s and any ill effects on the motors?

I use the Koralia smart wave controller. No ill effect on the motors and I haven't read anyone having problems with them. I get the occasional reverse flow but I don't mind, it adds to the randomness of the flow.

 

[hclaveria]

I like to have between a 30 and 40x turnover in my tanks , 30 is usually enough 40 is really for sps , you are fine with the two 750s i personally would even add more , you want to make sure there are no dead spots and there will akways be spots with lower or indirect fliw to add nire sensitive corals

I was going after the 30x circulation but i am having a hard time understanding how people achieve this without causing turbulent water and harming their coral. The two 750s are just 20x, my return is probably a little less than 10x so I'm falling short and I'm trying to place my corals correctly away from direct flow. 40x and I think my tank will look like a storm.

Any advice on how people do it? Maybe the Koralia are too focused with their flow? Are the other pumps wider with their flow?

 

[bertyboy69]

Thats very possible that they are too focused or maybe you just think it looks to turbulent , i have an mp10 that was on my 20 long i ran it at 75 percent , around 800 -1000 gph and i kept it as high as i could and as far away from the rock as possible and everything was great , i now have a bc14 and i run the mp10 at 50 percent in the same fasion and i have 95 percent lps and softies only a few frags of simple sps and everything is thriving

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