Advice for my 20 Long reef tank.

Scotticus · May 23, 2012

How much water flow would be good for a twenty long?

J Rog · May 23, 2012

Vortex MP 10 would be sweet : )

TropTreaEtc · May 23, 2012

Scotticus said:
How much water flow would be good for a twenty long?

This is simple ideal is 25 gallons per hour per gallon so you have 20 gallons X 25 gallons per hour = 500 gallons per hour total.

Now ideal flow should not be constant therefore what many people do is run slightly smaller pumps in a pair that are cysling on and off. So if you go with 2 pumpos I'd run a pair in the 300 gph range cycling 3 minutes on and 2 minute off on one and 2 minints on and 2 mintutes off on the others. On oposite ends of the tank facing each other they would be constantly changing the flow in your tank which corals love.

m and m · May 23, 2012

Trust me if you can swing a MP10 you will not regret it. One will do fine and there are so meny modes ReefCrest seems to be the more popular. May I ask what you plan to keep? If you are doing heavy SPS I would definitely go with a MP10 if a softy you can get away with many other things and save some money.

rjbesch · May 23, 2012

I had a 20L before upgrading and ran 2 koralia K2s and a K1, it seemed to give me enough flow for the zoas, lps and few pieces of SPS that I was keeping.

jiungerich · May 23, 2012

i have hydor koralina evo 240 and and 425 with the hydor smart wave alternating them every 5 sec. in my 16 gallon, along with the stock return pump thats 211gph.

heres a link to a video of my set up. Facebookf you want you can like the video and help me in contest. haha

dougers31 · May 23, 2012

Cheap somewhat random flow can be had with two maxi jets(600-900) facing each other from opposite ends of the tank. You can tweak/angle them till you get the flow you want. You can also add a rotating flow deflector for about $11.99 each to get some good random wave action but would use the 900's for that.

Cigar Sherlock · May 23, 2012

I have a 20G Long and use a Tunze 6015 and a HOB modified AC70. The flow is amazing and I would not change a thing.

Scotticus · May 23, 2012

I have to different pumps running at about 300 gph, and my filter running at150 gph. One pump is a brand new power sweep changing up the current. I will also be hooking up a protein skimmer in the near future.