Bare bottom tank flow, How much?

[adrianr514]

Hey guys, So I have my 40 breeder set up as a bare bottom tank. I am running into an issue with flow and display cleanliness.

If I kick up my flow to keep detritus off the bottom it just stays suspended in the tank and it never looks clear.

If I lower my tank flow to were I have clear water I get lots of buildup on the bottom.

What do you do to keep the bottom both clear of detritus and the display water clear?

How much flow are you pushing in your display?

I am currently running 3 MP10s at varying rates throughout the day. They're mostly set up on Reefcrest at 100%, there's a part in the day where it does 2 hours of short pulses in anti sync between the left and right MP10. then 2 hours of nutrient transport mode.

I used to have the third MP10 on the bottom back so that things wouldn't settle in the back but that just caused things to settle in a front corner so now I have it in the front towards the bottom.

Whats your recipe for success?

 

[Doctorgori]

I purposfully point at least one powerhead either down or a bank shot off the back...all my debris goes to the front for easy removal....
I also keep 3 different sock “meshes”: 200 micron, 100 and 75 mesh .... run the lower 2 for a while (with floss if you want aslo) change frequently and it will eventually clear

 

[Waters]

Hey guys, So I have my 40 breeder set up as a bare bottom tank. I am running into an issue with flow and display cleanliness.

If I kick up my flow to keep detritus off the bottom it just stays suspended in the tank and it never looks clear.

If I lower my tank flow to were I have clear water I get lots of buildup on the bottom.

What do you do to keep the bottom both clear of detritus and the display water clear?

How much flow are you pushing in your display?

I am currently running 3 MP10s at varying rates throughout the day. They're mostly set up on Reefcrest at 100%, there's a part in the day where it does 2 hours of short pulses in anti sync between the left and right MP10. then 2 hours of nutrient transport mode.

I used to have the third MP10 on the bottom back so that things wouldn't settle in the back but that just caused things to settle in a front corner so now I have it in the front towards the bottom.

Whats your recipe for success?

It 100% depends on what stock you are keeping. SPS, you can crank it up as high as needed to keep detritus suspended. Soft or LPS can't handle those extreme levels of flow so you have to play around with going as much as you can without irritating all of your coral. Regarding your detritus remaining suspended, what are you using to mechanically filter the water? If you are using strictly a sump, maybe try pushing more water through your overflow to pick up those suspended particles?

 

[FishTruck]

Two months in, I am working on this too.

I am running just four MP60s at constant flow 100% on a 1000 gallon tank peninsula , three lined up on one end at the bottom (pushing the long way) end one sweeping the far corner oriented 90 degrees. I also have returns on eductors pushing at the top. So far... I am only getting little piles of rocks. I haven't had to remove any detritus in weeks. This works because the rock work is suspended on little feet - keeping a clear path for the current to sweep the bottom pane of glass relatively unimpeded.

To clear the water in my tank, I am running mechanical filtration (rollermats in my case). I implemented a UV sterilizer to clear a persistent white haze - which in retrospect was a bacterial bloom that did not clear after weeks. Even carbon would not touch it. Now it's crystal clear.

At this point, I am turning the display tank over through the filter system perhaps 2 or 3 x per hour (through the sump). At first, I thought this was the problem with being unable to clear the column - but now it seems perfect.

 

[sixty_reefer]

What I did in mine and seems to be working fine is I located my rw8 at the back glass with an almost 90 degree angle, by doing this I can go till 100%. I get a lot of water movement without annoying any of my softy’s

 

[X-37B]

120 sps system.
2 Tunze 6095's on the back wall pulsing every 10 seconds at 100%.
2 Tunze 6105's on each side running 24/7 @100%.
Around 9000gph at any givin time.
About 75x turnover.

 

[92Miata]

If I kick up my flow to keep detritus off the bottom it just stays suspended in the tank and it never looks clear.

If I lower my tank flow to were I have clear water I get lots of buildup on the bottom.

What do you do to keep the bottom both clear of detritus and the display water clear?

You want debris in the water column, not settling out in/under your rocks. You just need to figure out why the debris in the water column isn't getting filtered out, or skimmed out.

Do you run filter socks?

 

[adrianr514]

It 100% depends on what stock you are keeping. SPS, you can crank it up as high as needed to keep detritus suspended. Soft or LPS can't handle those extreme levels of flow so you have to play around with going as much as you can without irritating all of your coral. Regarding your detritus remaining suspended, what are you using to mechanically filter the water? If you are using strictly a sump, maybe try pushing more water through your overflow to pick up those suspended particles?

You want debris in the water column, not settling out in/under your rocks. You just need to figure out why the debris in the water column isn't getting filtered out, or skimmed out.

Do you run filter socks?

Running both filter socks and a high density filter floss.

Currently have my Vectra S1 set to 35% to increase contact time in the sump with the skimmer and bio media but I guess I can try turning it up to 50% to force more ware through the overflow.

 

[92Miata]

More waterflow through the overflow may help - but it could also just be a function of where your powerheads are. Sometimes the water patterns are preventing debris from actually getting to teh overflows.

 

[FishTruck]

Are you SURE it's detritus clouding your water? Not a precipitate, bloom, sand, micro-bubbles or something else??

 

[adrianr514]

Are you SURE it's detritus clouding your water? Not a precipitate, bloom, sand, micro-bubbles or something else??

No sand as it’s a bare bottom. Not precipitate since I’m not dosing anything. I’ve seen bacterial blooms and this is not it.

when you get close you see all the particulares of detritus stirring up in the water column. Kill flow and within a couple of minutes it all settles and the water is clear.