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- Aug 31, 2016
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In terms of flow: how crucial is the wave feature of these pumps vs standard powerheads? I'm almost ready to start stocking a 6' 125 g tank that will be predominantly sps. I've looked at many of the pumps above, but are they necessary to create sufficient flow? Between the return pump (two corner returns with the sump to display pioing pushing water from both back corners) and several regular powerheads, there are also around 4K gph being pushed.
I think there are two aspects: water flow for coral nutrient exchange and water flow to keep particles suspended and pushed over the overflow. I think one think the vortechs do really well is the nutrient export mode, which pulses to knock all the detritus off the rocks and then gets the whole current rocking back and forth to push the particulates over the overflow into the sump. I don't know how much that programming benefits coral nutrient exchange (beyond simply adding extra turbulence), but it seems to prevent particle settling in my tank (as long as I have enough powerheads going).

