Flow for new 180....Questions.

[CHILL]

OK, more questions (it's so nice having all you experienced reefers around). In addition to the 120 FOWLR upstairs I have a 180 in the basement that will be a reef (this ones mine, upstairs is my fiancees). My question is about water flow. I had the tank made with a single oversized center overflow that has 2 returns (1 on each side). The return pump is a Gen-X PCX 100 (1585 GPH) that pushes through these 2 fixed returns. I want to put in numerous hard and soft corals, a clam or 2 and several reef safe fish. Will I need some additional powerheads or the like to create a greater water current?

I have read several posts discussing the use of SeaSwirls, SCWDs, WavePros, Tunze Streams. etc. The tank is acrylic, and as such has an enclosed top. Will I have to drill holes for wires or inlets?

I bought a Maxi-jet 1200 to stir the water when making saltwater, and was pretty impressed with how quiet it was. I did notice however that the suction cup mount doesn't do well with the curved walls of the garbage can used for making water . Is this a decent powerhead? Would I be better suited with one of the above mentioned methods? As the motto states: buy cheap, get cheap; and I don't want to risk my tank on cheap equipment because I lack experience.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Chris

 

[ChrisRD]

The Tunze Streams are a very energy efficient way to get a lot of flow in the tank. So is a surge device. Another option would be drilling the tank for a closed loop. Eductors on your return outlets may be another option, although I haven't tried them personally.

Using Sea Swirls on your returns will help get some random currents but won't really increase flow. Using a SCWD will, again, help with random currents, but will actually reduce flow somewhat (due to the restriction on the pump).

I think you'll find you need quite a few regular powerheads in a tank that size to really get the flow you want. Personally, I would not go that route as I find them to be a lot of maintenance, and somewhat noisy at times on a wavemaker.

RIO makes a new propeller-type (like the Tunze Streams) powerhead now that might be worth a look, although RIO doesn't have a great reputation for reliability.

HTH

 

[CHILL]

The LFS that I purchased everything from (and whom seems very knowledgable) didn't seem to think I would have a problem with current using just the returns. Is this not the case? Will I need greater circulation?

If I do (from reading it sounds like I will), how many of these Tunze streams will I need? They are on the large side and can be pretty expensive, so how many and of what size would you recomend? I will need to drill the top for the wires so I want to do that prior to completely filling the tank.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[ChrisRD]

Personally I would want more than 1585 GPH in 180 gallon tank. I'd want at least twice that. If you're planning on keeping clams, LPS and soft corals you don't need as much circulation as if you're going to have a lot of SPS corals.

I'm not sure how well the eductors would work for you, but since you have a pressure rated return pump already, that might be a good option - do a search and read-up on them.

IMO for an opinion on Tunze products your best bet is to ask in the Tunze forum on RC. Personally I would probably plan on doing two on that tank - probably either two of the 6080s (non-controllable) or two of the 6100s (controllable).

Of course, you could always drill the holes for the wires now, and setup the tank as your LFS is recommending. Later-on if you want more flow, and you haven't found some other method to boost it up that's satisfactory you can just add the Tunzes...

HTH

 

[CHILL]

Thanks again.