HELP!! Powerhead Question

Anthony Malagisi · Oct 10, 2017

Hello I my name is Tony and I'm new the this forum in fact I'm new to marine aquariums in general. I have a question about powerheads sizing and placement

So I have a cycled 55 gallon tank 48x18x20 and recently added some powerheads I started out with with 2 Hydor Koralia 600 gph pumps and didn't think that was enough flow so I got 2 Hydor Koralia 1150 gph pumps and thought that was way too much because my maroon clown was being blown away so I finally settled on 2 Hydor Koralia 850 gph pumps but it still seems to be to strong the clown seems to be pushed around to much I don't no what to do please help

Right now the pumps are in the front right and left corner facing down towards my crushed coral bed

pecan2phat · Oct 10, 2017

How about if you place them near the back panel corners and point them diagonally. Situate them near the top but just low enough that they do not create a vortex from sucking in air.
Will this work in your situation?

Anthony Malagisi · Oct 10, 2017

pecan2phat said:
How about if you place them near the back panel corners and point them diagonally. Situate them near the top but just low enough that they do not create a vortex from sucking in air.
Will this work in your situation?

It might I have a spray bar return for my wet/dry and another return for my canister filter along the back so I'm not sure I can fit them back there

Here's a picture of how it looks currently

pecan2phat · Oct 10, 2017

Are they pointed down or towards the rock wall?
Either way, if they're intersecting at the middle of the tank, then have the right one point towards the lower third corner of the rock wall on the side opposite of the heater. Point the left one towards the heater corner but angle it a bit more level so that you produce a slight ripple on the water surface. This will create O2 exchange with the water surface and also not crash the two flows at the 2' range.

Anthony Malagisi · Oct 10, 2017

pecan2phat said:
Are they pointed down or towards the rock wall?
Either way, if they're intersecting at the middle of the tank, then have the right one point towards the lower third corner of the rock wall on the side opposite of the heater. Point the left one towards the heater corner but angle it a bit more level so that you produce a slight ripple on the water surface. This will create O2 exchange with the water surface and also not crash the two flows at the 2' range.

Ah ok yeah that just might work cause right now there is like a vortex where the 2 meet in the middle and it creates alot of movement

Is is bad if it blows the fish around

pecan2phat · Oct 10, 2017

You need to distinguish if the fish is uncomfortably being thrown around by the flow or if he is just playing in the flow. In home aquariums, flow can hardly ever be mimicked like in the ocean.

Anthony Malagisi · Oct 10, 2017

pecan2phat said:
You need to distinguish if the fish is uncomfortably being thrown around by the flow or if he is just playing in the flow. In home aquariums, flow can hardly ever be mimicked like in the ocean.

Yeah it's hard to tell the clown will hide in the rocks and come out get blown down and then swim behind the rocks again I can't really tell if he likes it or is struggling

Anthony Malagisi · Oct 10, 2017

Do you think I should have stuck with the 2 1150gph pumps or will the 2 850gph ones be good

pecan2phat · Oct 10, 2017

They should be good enough since the tank is only 12" deep front to back. Also depends if you plan to keep corals and what type of corals.

Anthony Malagisi · Oct 10, 2017

pecan2phat said:
They should be good enough since the tank is only 12" deep front to back. Also depends if you plan to keep corals and what type of corals.

Ok cool,, I'd like to get some coral but I don't think the light I currently have is good enough for that it was the led light I used when it was fresh water it is a 48" ET 120 0.50W LED Aquarium Light Beamswork Freshwater Cichlid from Amazon

nautical_nathaniel · Oct 10, 2017

Welcome to R2R! Honestly the two 600 gph pumps would probably be enough for your tank, if you still have dead spots you can rearrange some of your rocks so that they help deflect/redirect flow in order to get an even spread of flow throughout the entire aquarium. You can also place them in the middle of the side panels and angle one towards the surface of the water and the other straight across the tank to create a pseudo-gyre movement in the tank.

Anthony Malagisi · Oct 10, 2017

pensacola-aquarist said:
Welcome to R2R! Honestly the two 600 gph pumps would probably be enough for your tank, if you still have dead spots you can rearrange some of your rocks so that they help deflect/redirect flow in order to get an even spread of flow throughout the entire aquarium. You can also place them in the middle of the side panels and angle one towards the surface of the water and the other straight across the tank to create a pseudo-gyre movement in the tank.

At this point I have the 2 850gph pumps I could probably exchange them for the 4th time hahaha but if I can get them adjusted correctly I'll probably just keep those

nautical_nathaniel · Oct 10, 2017

Anthony Malagisi said:
At this point I have the 2 850gph pumps I could probably exchange them for the 4th time hahaha but if I can get them adjusted correctly I'll probably just keep those

I can respect that

you can "bounce" the flow off of stuff too to help lesson the intensity in the areas your fish like to frequent

Anthony Malagisi · Oct 10, 2017

pensacola-aquarist said:
I can respect that you can "bounce" the flow off of stuff too to help lesson the intensity in the areas your fish like to frequent

Yeah I'll definitely have to play around with them. Also should I shut them off to feed my fish? The pumps blow the brine shrimp everywhere

nautical_nathaniel · Oct 10, 2017

Anthony Malagisi said:
Yeah I'll definitely have to play around with them. Also should I shut them off to feed my fish? The pumps blow the brine shrimp everywhere

Turn them off during feedings when you're cleaning the inside of the tank or draining water. You can also turn them off at night to let your fish rest a bit or just turn one off to create at least one quiet spot for the fish to sleep in. That is just a personal preference of mine and not really something backed by any science of sorts.

Anthony Malagisi · Oct 10, 2017

pensacola-aquarist said:
Turn them off during feedings when you're cleaning the inside of the tank or draining water. You can also turn them off at night to let your fish rest a bit or just turn one off to create at least one quiet spot for the fish to sleep in. That is just a personal preference of mine and not really something backed by any science of sorts.

Ok cool maybe I'll put one or both of them on the same timer as my light so that they turn off at night

Anything else I should no,, this is my first saltwater tank so I still have alot to learn

I recently lost my blue tang to what I think may have been ich I'm not entirely sure is there something I should do to check for ich or a treatment I should do to prevent my clown fish from being infected

nautical_nathaniel · Oct 10, 2017

Anthony Malagisi said:
Ok cool maybe I'll put one or both of them on the same timer as my light so that they turn off at night

Anything else I should no,, this is my first saltwater tank so I still have alot to learn

I recently lost my blue tang to what I think may have been ich I'm not entirely sure is there something I should do to check for ich or a treatment I should do to prevent my clown fish from being infected

Sadly, I don't think you will be able to keep a tang in your aquarium. It's a little too small for them and you have quite a bit of rock already taking up space. Generally, if i am interested in a fish, I first check LiveAquaria or some other online site that details the care requirements of the fish. If I believe I can meet those needs without a doubt, I will then purchase the fish. You also may want to invest in a quarantine tank.

Quarantine tanks (QT) are small (30 gallons or so), fish-only, temporary tanks where you can observe your fish for some time before adding it to your main or display tank. If your fish gets sick with ich or something in the QT, you can easily treat it without affecting anything else since many ich medicines are not safe for reef aquariums.

Odds are that your clownfish has a small amount of ich but is healthy enough to not be showing any signs (healthy fish have a stronger immune system and the ich protozoan parasite does not affect them as much). Your tang was likely very stressed out from the move from your LFS to your home aquarium which allowed ich to take over. If your tang died of ich in your main aquarium, then it is safe to assume that ich is in that aquarium. The only way to ensure that you don't have ich problems in your tank in the future is to go fishless in that main aquarium for at least 72 days, that is the length of time for the ich life cycle to end when it doesn't have a host body to reproduce in or feed on. You would need to temporarily place your clownfish in a QT and treat it with ich medicines or treatments, even if it isn't showing signs of ich.

If you would like more information about QT'ing and treating fish for diseases, be sure to check out the following guides:

How to Quarantine: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/how-to-quarantine.232/
Ich Eradication vs. Management: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/ich-eradication-vs-management.45/
How to identify and treat ich: http://www.saltwateraquariumblog.com/treat-saltwater-ich/
Picture based Guide for identifying fish diseases: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-disease-index-pictorial-guide.285708/#post-3473098

Anthony Malagisi · Oct 10, 2017

pensacola-aquarist said:
Sadly, I don't think you will be able to keep a tang in your aquarium. It's a little too small for them and you have quite a bit of rock already taking up space. Generally, if i am interested in a fish, I first check LiveAquaria or some other online site that details the care requirements of the fish. If I believe I can meet those needs without a doubt, I will then purchase the fish. You also may want to invest in a quarantine tank.

Quarantine tanks (QT) are small (30 gallons or so), fish-only, temporary tanks where you can observe your fish for some time before adding it to your main or display tank. If your fish gets sick with ich or something in the QT, you can easily treat it without affecting anything else since many ich medicines are not safe for reef aquariums.

Odds are that your clownfish has a small amount of ich but is healthy enough to not be showing any signs (healthy fish have a stronger immune system and the ich protozoan parasite does not affect them as much). Your tang was likely very stressed out from the move from your LFS to your home aquarium which allowed ich to take over. If your tang died of ich in your main aquarium, then it is safe to assume that ich is in that aquarium. The only way to ensure that you don't have ich problems in your tank in the future is to go fishless in that main aquarium for at least 72 days, that is the length of time for the ich life cycle to end when it doesn't have a host body to reproduce in or feed on. You would need to temporarily place your clownfish in a QT and treat it with ich medicines or treatments, even if it isn't showing signs of ich.

If you would like more information about QT'ing and treating fish for diseases, be sure to check out the following guides:

How to Quarantine: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/how-to-quarantine.232/
Ich Eradication vs. Management: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/ich-eradication-vs-management.45/
How to identify and treat ich: http://www.saltwateraquariumblog.com/treat-saltwater-ich/
Picture based Guide for identifying fish diseases: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-disease-index-pictorial-guide.285708/#post-3473098

Can I treat my main tank for ich with the clown fish in the tank since I don't have a QT tank

nautical_nathaniel · Oct 10, 2017

Anthony Malagisi said:
Can I treat my main tank for ich with the clown fish in the tank since I don't have a QT tank

Generally no, your rocks and sand will absorb the treatment and it won't be as effective, it will also make it so that you can't add corals or other invertebrates later on down the line since most ich medications can affect them negatively. There are some "reef-safe" ich treatments out there but they aren't all that effective at actually curing a fish of ich, more like postponing the further outbreak of more ich.

Anthony Malagisi · Oct 10, 2017

pensacola-aquarist said:
Generally no, your rocks and sand will absorb the treatment and it won't be as effective, it will also make it so that you can't add corals or other invertebrates later on down the line since most ich medications can affect them negatively. There are some "reef-safe" ich treatments out there but they aren't all that effective at actually curing a fish of ich, more like postponing the further outbreak of more ich.

So what would you recommend removing my clown fish from my tank treating him for ich and leaving my tank for 72 days with no fish.. Sounds like I should just drain the tank and start this process over haha