Fluval Sea circulation pumps? Is mine too strong?

[the_chef_pierre]

I'm still new to saltwater and ended up getting my circulation pumps off a family member who had previous attempted a salt water setup in a 60 gallon tank I believe. My tank is smaller though. I have the Nuvo 30L, so around 30 gallons, but 3 feet long in length. I'm not sure which fluval sea pumps he gave me, but one is small and one is large. I believe its likely the smallest (CP1, 265 gph) and the largest (CP4, 1375 gps). Ive had them in my tank so far while it cycles, with one on each side. For anyone that knows more about this pumps, or circulation pumps in general, can you let me know if these pumps will be ok to use or if they will be so strong that they will irritate any corals or fish I put in eventually? I plan on doing a reef with mainly corals and a couple fish (2 clowns, watchman goby and pistol shrimp). Theres around 30 lbs of rock in there so far and the pumps are fine for cycling but i still dont know about when i introduce livestock

 

[Ron Reefman]

I assume you don't have a sump or refugium with the tank? What are the dimensions of your tank? 36"x ?x?

Given that, you'll want to have the roughly 30 gallons of water in you tank 'turn over' about 20 to 40 times per hour. Soft corals like zoas and anemones deal well with lower turnover, like 20x and sps corals like 40x and even more.

Your 2 pumps add up to 1640gph and divided by 30g in your tank equals 54x (54 turns per hour). That's quite a bit, but some sps dominant tanks run that high. But it's probably more than you should start with.

And if you have any kind of built-in or HOB (Hang On Back) filtration system, you need to add the flow rate into the equation.

Are you using sand or going bare bottom? The turn over rate may make it hard to keep sand in place.

 

[the_chef_pierre]

It's an AIO tanm so the back portion is a sump area and I have a small refugium back there too. The front display tank area is 36 L x 10 W x 12 H. Theres about 2" of sand in the bottom and so far it's not blowing around too much since the pumps are not aimed down towards it. Also, I'm not sure about main pump itself since it overflows into the back and then comes back into the tank after splitting along two tubes. I know the stock pump for this tank is around 476 mph but i believe whoever had this tank before me put it a sicce micro (less powerful pump I think). I'm hoping to try some sps coral, maybe in the area close to the larger pump. My light is the fluval marine 3.0 but I was told due to my tank being shallow I could maybe get some sps going if I but it higher near the light.

 

[the_chef_pierre]

I'm hoping to eventually get a wavemaker once I have more money though to make a more realistic flow

 

[Ron Reefman]

I think at that size (36x12x10) it's 18.7 gallons. A full 3 cubic feet is just over 23 gallons.

And I agree with everything else you stated.

 

[the_chef_pierre]

True. It says it's a 30 gal tank but that must include the rear sump portion as well. So what would be your advice for circulating the from display tank portion?

 

[Ron Reefman]

That makes complete sense.

If you can run both pumps and the sand isn't blowing around, my best assumption would be that you're good to go.

 

[the_chef_pierre]

Ok I'll keep them both for now and when I get the corals I'm gonna try some sps (wish me luck lol). Just hoping any fish add will avoid the high flow area so they dont get knocked clear across the tank