How are you achieving proper flow in your tank?

[Gumbies R Us]

With flow being an important aspect of our reef tanks, it got me thinking, "how does everyone achieve good flow"? So my question for everyone is how are you achieving good flow in your tanks? Curious to see what everyone says!

 

[Lavey29]

I let the corals tell me what they prefer.

 

[Not_Erick]

A few months in on a reefer 170 and I’m still trynna figure it out lol when I had a 250g I just had everything on max

 

[SPS2020]

Bare bottom, two ReefWave 45's on back wall and MP40 on the bottom to keep everything clean. NSA to help keep detritus from settling in certain spots.

 

[jandin101]

I place my corals where I think they'd be happiest with the flow. SPS closer to the pumps where it's a little more turbulent and softies and LPS farther away.

Both of my tanks have a main pump set to random mode and a smaller pump in the back to make sure detritus doesn't collect behind the scape.

I tend to use the movement of the softies in the flow to determine if the flow is too weak/strong.

 

[TehBrainz]

I'm actually thinking I'm in need of a flow upgrade so this will be a good thread to follow.

I have a 210 DT with 2 Jebao OW-25's in alternating flow and a Hydor Koralia 1950 in the back right.

Don't have too many corals, but I have a huuuge toadstool leather that moves all over the place depending on her mood. Other corals are various LPS and softies.

 

[Dburr1014]

3 powerful pumps and very random.
When the coral fill in, trim cuz you lost flow.

 

[apb03]

I've been messing around with my flow for a while now. It's been a real struggle for me due to having a ton of SPS and it being a peninsula tank. I finally decided to remove most of my LPS relocate all my remaining LPS in the few places with low flow and crank it as high as I can.

I found that constant flow on my Mp40s mounted on the sides and gyre mounted on the weir box works best with the gyre in reverse mode periodically to remove detritus.

I wonder if other folks with peninsula tanks give up and do something similar? I don't see how any random flow options help with a peninsula. Feels like I am missing something. Or is it universally understood that peninsula flow is a pain in the rear end?

 

[esquare]

I had 1 MP40 on my 120 located on the side. It was sufficient because of my open rock work and only having 2 corals at this point. I decided to add a 2nd MP40 to address flow as I add more coral and put both pumps on the back to hide them. It seems to be working well so far but the test will be when I add more coral. I had to scrape hair algae off the back glass to place the pumps and it ended up doing a good job of showing the flow with all the junk suspended in the water column so I took a couple of videos. If you're interested, I posted them on my build thread.

 

[apb03]

This is what I ended up going with. Sand is a bit of an issue but I think I found the sweet spot. Only major downside is the detritus stays in the water column until the gyre goes in reverse mode, but the acros get hammered with flow so thats good.

 

[ReluctantIM]

In a red sea 750xl I have two reefwaves at opposite top ends of the tank, one reefwave at the top on the return box, amd two a/c pumps on a timer in the back corners at the bottom to help clear detritus off the sand in dead zones. It's fantastic flow for acros, yet a touch too much for my lps.

 

[X-37B]

On my old standard 120 I ran 6 powerheads to get good random flow.
On my new build, 60×30×22, I will be using 2 sea sweeps with Tunze 6255's. I did not want a bunch of powerheads and cords in the euro braced tank on this build.
For those who dont know the sweeps rotate 90° back and forth slowly.
You cant run a wave or pulse mode but its not needed.
Check them out!

 

[EricR]

No idea and I feel like I do more harm than good whenever I try to experiment.

I've been running a single power head the whole time (just over 2 years since adding corals) so that's not ideal.
Got a 2nd, smaller power head for Christmas to try to mix things up but, as (bad) luck would have it, my original locked up before I even added the 2nd one.

...so stuck with 1 (smaller) for now but everything still seems OK with just lots of random flow changes programmed in.

 

[Kzang]

I've been messing around with my flow for a while now. It's been a real struggle for me due to having a ton of SPS and it being a peninsula tank. I finally decided to remove most of my LPS relocate all my remaining LPS in the few places with low flow and crank it as high as I can.

I found that constant flow on my Mp40s mounted on the sides and gyre mounted on the weir box works best with the gyre in reverse mode periodically to remove detritus.

I wonder if other folks with peninsula tanks give up and do something similar? I don't see how any random flow options help with a peninsula. Feels like I am missing something. Or is it universally understood that peninsula flow is a pain in the rear end?

I have a 5 ft WB peninsula. I have two mps. One on each side of the overflow. Both 80% I alternate constant and reef crest every two hours anti sync. So when ones doing constant, the other is reef crest and etc. it works well. I have two new xf350 gyres. One on the overflow box not on, and one on the end. The end one is at 80% sps preset mode. I’m really don’t need the gyres yet, but it helps. The gyre on the overflow sucks because when it is on, it pulls so much water from around the weir that it lowers the amount of water in the overflow box

 

[Chris Spaulding]

Tank is 150 Gallon 60X24 X24 SPS dominate with Gonies.
I run 2 MP40s one on each side of the tank up higher with a custom flow using Reefcrest Random 100%, Tidal swell 80% , Nutrient export 100%, Gyer 100% Reef Crest 60%
On the Back wall I run 2 Maxspect 330 Gyers Random 100% .
2 MP 10s down low opposite each other on the sides to flush the back side with custom setting similar to the mp40s
I am thinking of replacing the Maxspect Geyers on the back with the new AI Orbits so I can control easier with Mobius or even add a WXM for more control.

 

[X-37B]

Tank is 150 Gallon 60X24 X24 SPS dominate with Gonies.
I run 2 MP40s one on each side of the tank up higher with a custom flow using Reefcrest Random 100%, Tidal swell 80% , Nutrient export 100%, Gyer 100% Reef Crest 60%
On the Back wall I run 2 Maxspect 330 Gyers Random 100% .
2 MP 10s down low opposite each other on the sides to flush the back side with custom setting similar to the mp40s
I am thinking of replacing the Maxspect Geyers on te back with the new AI Orbits so I can control easier with Mobius or even add a WXM for more control.

Any pics? Sounds like my old 120 with 6 powerheads.
Plenty of random flow for sure.
Here is my old 120 with, 2 Tunze 6095's and 2 6105's with 2 Jebao ow 40's.

 

[apb03]

I have a 5 ft WB peninsula. I have two mps. One on each side of the overflow. Both 80% I alternate constant and reef crest every two hours anti sync. So when ones doing constant, the other is reef crest and etc. it works well. I have two new xf350 gyres. One on the overflow box not on, and one on the end. The end one is at 80% sps preset mode. I’m really don’t need the gyres yet, but it helps. The gyre on the overflow sucks because when it is on, it pulls so much water from around the weir that it lowers the amount of water in the overflow box

Thanks for posting this, I was playing around with a similar setup too, where my left side MP40 was constant and the right side was reef crest. I like the idea of alternating, will give that a shot.

Yeah, I know what you mean with the gyre on the overflow box causing water level issues. As long as I keep the random flow out of the MP40s at a minimum and keep the Orbit constant, the level remains relatively stable. Otherwise, it gets extremely noisy.

Trying to avoid putting a gyre on the viewing side, but seems inevitable at some point.

 

[Kzang]

Thanks for posting this, I was playing around with a similar setup too, where my left side MP40 was constant and the right side was reef crest. I like the idea of alternating, will give that a shot.

Yeah, I know what you mean with the gyre on the overflow box causing water level issues. As long as I keep the random flow out of the MP40s at a minimum and keep the Orbit constant, the level remains relatively stable. Otherwise, it gets extremely noisy.

Trying to avoid putting a gyre on the viewing side, but seems inevitable at some point.

I thought about maybe putting one up high on the overflow and one middle and shooting water out. Both horizontal.

Or have both of them vertical on the corner of the overflow in the middle and shooting water from there. The xf350s has really good directional capability.

I don’t mind the gyre on the end too much. If WWC does it for their sps tank, I think I can do it too

 

[Quintin]

I have x2 reef wave 25s running in grouped mode in a RedSea 300 G2, set to random at 80% mounted just below the surface of the tank on either side.

As I’m running an SPS only tank, I want high chaotic flow and generally look at the polyps on stuff like stylophora to make sure they “vibrate” with water movement.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I run two Nero 5's. I run one opposite of the other with Short higher burst with long off time. Video shows movement watch the frogs and hammers. I run 12 hours like this and then run lower random at night 12 hours one side, and low constant over my Acro