Water Movement
 

Hi all,

Might seem like a dumb question, but I was wondering what is the best way to determine that you have good water movement in your tank. Is there an ideal placement for pumps, to get the best water movement?

I am currently running a 65 Gallon tank and have two pumps moving the water. Each one is placed on opposite sides of the tank, and they are set at different heights.

Also, do people have a preference in the type of pump they are using?

Taz,

A lot of the decision whether you have good water movement is based upon your tanks requirements.

A fully stocked SPS tank will want a higher rate of flow(in my future tank I will be runnning ~1500GPH for example), where a soft coral or LPS tank will not like that amount of flow the corals may not open up or be very happy.

What do you have or are hoping to have in your tank. That will help determine if you do or don't have good flow in your tank.

As for powerheads the most commonly used ones are MaxiJets for the most part. There are many out there that do just as good a job tho.

Right now we only have a Pearl Bubble and a Glove/Clove Polyp Coral. This weekend I'll be finishing off the new hood so that I can add my MH lighting (woohoo). Once that's all setup my wife and I can start looking at pretty much anything. My wife really likes the soft and polyp type corals, so that's mostly the things we are going to invest in.

Taz- I run a 402 powerhead for intermitent flow 12 times a day, as well as a Mag3 in my 27gl. The Mag3 provides my return that is split into two returns via a SCWD. I find that everything in the tank needs some kind of movement, some more some less.

I went to Seattle in Febuary to hear Eric Borneman speak, and I remember him saying something like "alittle more current would be better than alittle less" which I have to agree with. Many corals in my tank have reacted positive to the increase in flow over the last few months.

cheers, Rich