Water flow

[Sdeluca10]

Is there a general rule on water flow that I might not know?? Specifically for a mixed reef. Everything from anenomes, gorgonians, acans, SPS, LPS, zoas.
Do you decide flow:
based on gallons?
Based coral/fish type?
Based solely on how corals and such react to the water flow??
And with “smart” controllers, do we like “constant” flow or “pattern” flow?

 

[Skmaiden]

A lot of “rules” are outdated. I’d recommend seeing what others use on tanks of similar size, or posting your tanksize and asking for recommendations.

Flow is often based on:
- tank size: duh
- aquascape: you want to avoid dead spots so may need more powerful or numerous powerheads for bulky aquascapes vs minimalist
- coral/fish: yes, sps typically like more flow than soft corals
- yes, powerhead placement is also a big thing. You don’t want to blast any one coral, and want to avoid dead spots.
- most people prefer to use a “random” pattern. If this isn’t possible, using multiple powerheads with different oscillating can achieve similar.
- for larger tanks id prefer a few smaller power heads vs a single large one

 

[chadfish]

It took me months and months to dial in flow for my mixed reef, just because of the variety and different needs of the corals.

If I could start over, I’d set up the flow first and then place the corals based on light and flow.

 

[cablez]

It took me months and months to dial in flow for my mixed reef, just because of the variety and different needs of the corals.

If I could start over, I’d set up the flow first and then place the corals based on light and flow.

Then as things grow...you have to adjust the flow to accommodate for growth........Seems like its always going to be a changing constant in my opinion. I am having this struggle now on my 30 breeder....with a LPS mainly display. Getting the flow dialed in for torches has been a pain in my azz

 

[wdebenedettojr]

Imo flow is the one of the hardest things to get right in a tank. Over the years I have found next to chemistry, good random flow seems to help make corals happiest. Whenever I’m trying to dial in flow I have found get something a little stronger then you think you will need

 

[Sdeluca10]

I’m using the reef breeder coral box QP-9
I have had it on constant flow. Having it set at 60 seems to make everything happy. However from talking to other people and the opinions here it seems like “random” flow is the preferred method.
I just changed it to mode 4 (it slowly ramps on and ramps down at the frequency you set) at a frequency of 60 minutes.
(I’m not exactly sure how it works, I’m not sure how far it ramps down, hopefully not to zero…. We’ll see, I gotta keep an eye on it).
The other options are “pulsing options” or completely random.
I guess the only think I can do is try the different setting out and see how everything reacts