Flow in Mixed Reef

[Phelipe's Ocean]

Hey everyone can someone help me fix this problem please? How much flow do sps really need, because I am struggling to keep high flow while also keeping my lps and zoas happy. How do you guys handle your flow? It is hard to create a low and high flow area because of the tank size. It is a 29 Biocube

 

[OriginalUserName]

I'm in a 29 biocube myself. First a qualifier, I'm very new to SPS.

That said, I think I've found a sweet spot with my tank that is keeping everybody happy. I have an icecap 1k gyre, koralia 450, and a Jebao SW-2. I have a ton of flow right now. Over 50x on average (due to the pumps ramping up and down from 100%). I have a frogspawn, a bunch of zoas, a Duncan, and some candy canes. I have mostly relied on the scape to provide lower flow areas. I place the zoas in nooks in the rocks that provide natural shelter. For the frogspawn I added a rock behind it to provide a lower flow area. In a small tank I think that's the approach you have to tank if you want to keep everybody happy.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Hey everyone can someone help me fix this problem please? How much flow do sps really need, because I am struggling to keep high flow while also keeping my lps and zoas happy. How do you guys handle your flow? It is hard to create a low and high flow area because of the tank size. It is a 29 Biocube

SPS corals generally like really high flow, in a 29 biocube you're looking shoot for around 1,000 gph for sps, and around 600 for LPS
Where in the tank are your corals? Do you have any pictures you can share? Best bet if you have sps near the top and lps and softies near the bottom would be to put your powerhead near the top of the tank and have it point upwards a little bit, this will keep the high flow near the upper half of the tank, and the lower half will get the recoil from that.

 

[Phelipe's Ocean]

SPS corals generally like really high flow, in a 29 biocube you're looking shoot for around 1,000 gph for sps, and around 600 for LPS
Where in the tank are your corals? Do you have any pictures you can share? Best bet if you have sps near the top and lps and softies near the bottom would be to put your powerhead near the top of the tank and have it point upwards a little bit, this will keep the high flow near the upper half of the tank, and the lower half will get the recoil from that.

My phone is acting so unfortunately I cant get a picture right now but yea the plan is to keep all sps at the top and lps/softies at the bottom. I will try the powerhead trick thanks.

 

[Waters]

And that is one of the difficulties in keeping a mixed reef .....I always just found little alcoves to tuck my LPS in, sometimes adding small pieces of live rock to create a flow barrier.