Water flow for SPS

[Lampshade]

A number is hard to give since if you point all your powerheads at a rock then 200x turnover won't be enough. But with the right flow patterns you can do it with 20x. chris's 50x recomendation is a good one, and if you set up your powerheads well you can get very good flow with that much.

I have 20x from my return, and another 40x from powerheads. I have some spots with too much flow, and some that are nice and low for LPS. I'm using kora powerheads, so they're pretty directional, i could replace 2 with a single MP40, and get the same or better results with much less flow.

Try to set it up with a plan for movement, I have my return flowing across the open water in the top of the tank in a coast to coast style, while my powerheads create turbulent flow along the way, by pushing into the coast to coast flow from the bottom up. This is giving great waste removal since everything gets kicked up into my reurn flow, and gives the corals a random flow pattern without buying expensive powerheads. Buying a good powerhead is worth the money and i plan on getting some soon, once my fish budget has built up some more room :P.