Lets Talk about FLOW and SPS!

Thales · Nov 1, 2019

Linear flow is great for fish - the use very little energy in constant flow. In random flow they have to work a lot more.

Graffiti Spot · Nov 1, 2019

jda said:
I have found that you need to be competent, but beyond this does not do much. I have a 240 with a Tunze 6200 series and a 6105 and a REAL Wavebox. This is competent. I used to use 6100s and then 6105s and they were competent too.

Competent flow is hard to determine, but enough so that your fish cannot just sit there without "swimming" and having a decently random flow both with velocity and location. I do not consider only gyre flow to be very competent in my tanks... pattern is too static even if I can change the velocity.

In my tank, the wavebox does the heavy lifting moving the entire 240 gallons back and forth a few inches every few seconds. The work that these do is amazing and I would likely never run a tank without one. The flow pumps are just to move around the stuff that the wavebox keeps suspended.

I agree, I would never use a gyre style pump in a tank by itself. I have been wanting to add a wavebox but keep putting it off. I use an ocean motion with a wave puck pump on constant to break things up and pulse on the other pumps. I still feel like a wave box would be an upgrade though.
My optimal setup would be two ocean motions on either end with good pumps with wide flow pattern on them and a wavebox as my main flow.
I haven’t looked for a while but are other companies making decent versions of the tunze box?

Foothill Corals · Nov 1, 2019

Over the years I have certainly noticed that some Acros like more flow than others. Some will lean into the flow while others away. My Millies, tables my blue matrix all seem to prefer fairly high (random) flow.

RJKain-777 · Nov 1, 2019

My gyre xf350s are random flow, 100% up and down in my Red Sea 425xl and my corals love it... SPS, LPS and softies.

biecacka · Nov 1, 2019

I use 4 MP40’s in my 48/48 cube. One on each side pane and 2 on the back. They are controlled via my WXM. they run through different modes all day and different intensities. Sometimes the bulk of the movement is back to front, sometimes left to right and sometimes right to left. Then for a few hours each day they all run 100% constant to get any debris suspended.
then on the overflow box I run an old gyre 150 on about 65% constant. this provides good flow down the center of my tank in the ravine I have built that is protected somewhat from the vortechs since there is nowhere to mount them.
i think as stated, random flow is what is best, not so much “xx turn over”

corey

Ashish Patel · Nov 1, 2019

2 MP40s on nutrient transport on antisynce (reduced or mixed up at night), 1 seaswirl return, and 1 seasweep = the best flow with zero deadspots

HotRocks · Nov 1, 2019

RJKain-777 said:
My gyre xf350s are random flow, 100% up and down in my Red Sea 425xl and my corals love it... SPS, LPS and softies.

This is basically what I just switched too. Slightly lower outside of photoperiod. I have the same exact tank and gyres

Charlie’s Frags · Nov 1, 2019

biecacka said:
I use 4 MP40’s in my 48/48 cube. One on each side pane and 2 on the back. They are controlled via my WXM. they run through different modes all day and different intensities. Sometimes the bulk of the movement is back to front, sometimes left to right and sometimes right to left. Then for a few hours each day they all run 100% constant to get any debris suspended.
then on the overflow box I run an old gyre 150 on about 65% constant. this provides good flow down the center of my tank in the ravine I have built that is protected somewhat from the vortechs since there is nowhere to mount them.
i think as stated, random flow is what is best, not so much “xx turn over”

corey

I’d love to see your 48” cube. That sounds like my dream tank

X-37B · Nov 1, 2019

On my 120 I use 2 tunze 6095's on the back wall and 2 jebao ow-25's on the sides.
All are around 2500 gph.
They currently run on pulse mode around 5 seconds.
This create nice flow so far.
May need to adjust when the tank grows out.
Only 4 months old.
Have 2 more 6095's but wanted to se how long the jebaos last. So far they semm ok. I clean all pumps once

a month. May be overkill but it is easy to do.

Entz · Nov 1, 2019

I am around 60+ the exact amount I am not sure of since ~60x is the max speed set for each wavemaker (Assuming AI #s are valid) but they are alternating in pulse mode so there is a bit of overlap.

Just frags so when they get bigger, that may need to go up.

Basically as long as the polyps are moving and the fish are not stuck against the glass I think its fine. My LPS doesn't seem to care either, duncan has a permanent bad hair day.

biecacka · Nov 1, 2019

Here are Few pictures @Chaswood79 the picture with halides on it is older. The one with the 2 Orpheks is from July when I switched.
that switch has been a huge struggle and I’ve lost a few SPS pieces, but that’s a different story...

trying to get them to grow out like yours buddy!

corey

Charlie’s Frags · Nov 1, 2019

biecacka said:
Here are Few pictures @Chaswood79 the picture with halides on it is older. The one with the 2 Orpheks is from July when I switched.
that switch has been a huge struggle and I’ve lost a few SPS pieces, but that’s a different story...
trying to get them to grow out like yours buddy!

corey

Yep
That’s my dream tank. I would have to convince my wife that we don’t really need the dining room table anymore and I’m pretty sure she would not agree, but that looks perfect. Sorry for thread derail and thanks for sharing

naterealbig · Nov 1, 2019

One thing to note in the BRS video, is the small coral frags they are using for the test. I would postulate the results would vary greatly when using colony sized specimens.

I'm surprised that this was not part of the discussion.

C. Eymann · Nov 1, 2019

naterealbig said:
One thing to note in the BRS video, is the small coral frags they are using for the test. I would postulate the results would vary greatly when using colony sized specimens.

I'm surprised that this was not part of the discussion.

Totally agree!

Flow is one of the big hurdles with keeping wild collected dense skeleton or tightly knit colonies happy. Where as a frag/nubbin of the same species will readily adapt to lower flow/ different flow dynamics.
Some of these colonies are collected from incredibly high energy environments/parts of the reef, where the whole column of water around the coral is shifting constantly. Recreating that type of mass water movement is incredibly hard in reef aquariums.
Surge devices and wave boxes can sort of get you close though.

with acropora esp, I always determine the flow a coral is going to receive based on three things- its species, the area that species prevails on the reef and its structure-branch thickness/density of branches.

Just my two pennies! Great topic btw!

HotRocks · Nov 1, 2019

C. Eymann said:
Totally agree!

Flow is one of the big hurdles with keeping wild collected dense skeleton or tightly knit colonies happy. Where as a frag/nubbin of the same species will readily adapt to lower flow/ different flow dynamics.
Some of these colonies are collected from incredibly high energy environments/parts of the reef, where the whole column of water around the coral is shifting constantly. Recreating that type of mass water movement is incredibly hard in reef aquariums.
Surge devices and wave boxes can sort of get you close though.

with acropora esp, I always determine the flow a coral is going to receive based on three things- its species, the area that species prevails on the reef and its structure-branch thickness/density of branches.

Just my two pennies! Great topic btw!