lucidblue
Community Member
QUESTION: Do I have my SDC return pump turned up high enough? See background info first.
BACKGROUND: I have had my Waterbox Frag 85.3 (54g DT / 30g sump) up and running since 7/27 and did a Fritz TurboStart 900 cycle with 2 regular ocellaris clowns. Everything was going well, water parameters good. The clowns were really small and didn't like a lot of flow going on, it didn't seem like they could handle it, particularly the smallest one, so I kept it pretty low. I'm new to this so wasn't really sure how fast things needed to be moving. Smaller fish not eating much, but the slightly bigger one was eating pretty good and swimming around, but seemed to be losing some color. Friday afternoon I went out for a couple hours to get a fish to start in the QT, when I returned the bigger clown was dead. The little one was laying on the sand barely moving and 15 minutes later it was dead too. I was crushed. No visible disease and water parameters all good. Called LFS and they recommended checking for stray voltage, tested and there was none. Took water sample to LFS the next day to double check that my test kit was okay and all was good. Also showed them pics of the dead fish and they couldn't see anything wrong. After talking about flow we determine this was likely an oxygen issue since nothing else makes sense. I have the Sicce Syncra DC 6.0 (530-1450 GPH) return pump and only had it turned up to 2 lights on the dial (using manually without app for now) and 2 Reef Breeders RP-M puck style powerheads. I had one powerhead off because the fish couldn't take it and the other turned down to 30% (lowest setting).
CURRENT SITUATION
Even though I was crushed and felt horrible about my mistake I wanted to get 2 more clowns and not get mired in being upset. This time I got 2 bigger Mocha Clowns that the LFS had for a month and knew were very healthy (not same LFS as the first clowns). LFS recommended turning up the return pump and still just keeping one powerhead since 2 of the Reef Breeder RP-Ms might be too much for my tank. I now have the return pump turned up to 5 lights on the dial and return nozzles pointed up. Still have the powerhead at 30% because it's so powerful. Looking at these videos of the DT and sump is the return pump turned up fast enough now?
BACKGROUND: I have had my Waterbox Frag 85.3 (54g DT / 30g sump) up and running since 7/27 and did a Fritz TurboStart 900 cycle with 2 regular ocellaris clowns. Everything was going well, water parameters good. The clowns were really small and didn't like a lot of flow going on, it didn't seem like they could handle it, particularly the smallest one, so I kept it pretty low. I'm new to this so wasn't really sure how fast things needed to be moving. Smaller fish not eating much, but the slightly bigger one was eating pretty good and swimming around, but seemed to be losing some color. Friday afternoon I went out for a couple hours to get a fish to start in the QT, when I returned the bigger clown was dead. The little one was laying on the sand barely moving and 15 minutes later it was dead too. I was crushed. No visible disease and water parameters all good. Called LFS and they recommended checking for stray voltage, tested and there was none. Took water sample to LFS the next day to double check that my test kit was okay and all was good. Also showed them pics of the dead fish and they couldn't see anything wrong. After talking about flow we determine this was likely an oxygen issue since nothing else makes sense. I have the Sicce Syncra DC 6.0 (530-1450 GPH) return pump and only had it turned up to 2 lights on the dial (using manually without app for now) and 2 Reef Breeders RP-M puck style powerheads. I had one powerhead off because the fish couldn't take it and the other turned down to 30% (lowest setting).
CURRENT SITUATION
Even though I was crushed and felt horrible about my mistake I wanted to get 2 more clowns and not get mired in being upset. This time I got 2 bigger Mocha Clowns that the LFS had for a month and knew were very healthy (not same LFS as the first clowns). LFS recommended turning up the return pump and still just keeping one powerhead since 2 of the Reef Breeder RP-Ms might be too much for my tank. I now have the return pump turned up to 5 lights on the dial and return nozzles pointed up. Still have the powerhead at 30% because it's so powerful. Looking at these videos of the DT and sump is the return pump turned up fast enough now?
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