Need some input on adding flow

Dextereef · Jan 9, 2015

Happy Friday everyone! I would like some input from everyone on whether or not to add another powerhead and where. I have been battling cyano and after a chemiclean treatment that seemed successful it is back again so I think flow is my problem. I've cleaned out the sump and will be removing my refugium soon but I think flow is the issue. Here is a topdown, very impressive, professional artists rendering on my tank

LEGEND:
Red X's are where cyano has come back.
Brown is the rockwork and I tried to use topographic rings to show elevation, peaks, etc.., aquamag is about 2/3's the way up the glass.
Gray are frag racks and the acrylic rack is about 6" off the sandbed and the pvc rack is high up about 6" below surface.
Black are return lines and power heads (mag 9.5 return pump with about 5ft head loss, powerheads are 2 sicce3's @ 1200gph each; placed high up on glass near surface.
Blue are flow patterns.

So my questions are....

1) Does simply changing the flow pattern help?
2) Will adding a wavemaker to existing pumps be the solution?
3) Will adding another PH be the solution?
4) If so, where and what size? Another large volume PH or maybe smaller volume tucked in behind rockwork?

*I will be upgrading from mag 9.5 return to mag 12 but it will be split to return to frag tank so not expecting much add'l flow to main tank.

Waters · Jan 9, 2015

Rather than strictly adding more flow, I would look into the nutrient levels in the tank. All the flow does is help to prevent the cyano from taking hold. What are your phosphate and nitrate levels? When I added the Gyre it helped, but strictly flow alone will usually not eliminate cyano.

zesty · Jan 9, 2015

I would adjust your powerheads first and see if you can get something that may work.

My first stab would be to take the PH in the back right corner and put it on the side, just in front of your rockwork on the right side. Then you will get flow from each side crashing into each other and making more random flow in the center of the tank. You may not get it the first time, I had to adjust my PHs a bit before I found something that worked to eliminate dead spots.

Now, if that still doesn't cut it, then you may be looking at more powerheads. A wavemaker would help some, but maybe not enough? That's a tough one to judge from Wisconsin. If you were to go the wavemaker route, you would probably want two, one from each end. That seems to be the way to go.

Take a look at this guy,
Tunze NanoStream 6020 Pump

It can be tucked behind your rockwork and eliminate some dead spots on your lower portion of your tank.

Hope this helps some!

cginter · Jan 9, 2015

Looks like if u add a power head dead center on the back glass, it would give more flow where u have cyano....

Servo · Jan 9, 2015

There is ALWAYS cyano in an aquarium. If you use a treatment to "get rid of it", but it comes back the true issue lies in the nutrients in your tank. Growing macroalgae should help with nutrient export. Usually, the cyano will stay in the refugium. You could also consider organic carbon dosing (liquids or pellets) or a denitrator of some type. You will need to track your nitrates to see how effective it is. A great comprehensive nutrient export system is to use large rock filled refugia (no autotrophic denitrification) with macroalgae in the top few inches, vinegar or vodka dosing as a carbon source, GFO, skimming, and GAC for nutrient export. Sometimes one option option gets saturated.

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/116-vinegar-dosing-methodology-for-the-marine-aquarium

Dextereef · Jan 9, 2015

Thank you all for your responses...

Waters said:
Rather than strictly adding more flow, I would look into the nutrient levels in the tank. All the flow does is help to prevent the cyano from taking hold. What are your phosphate and nitrate levels? When I added the Gyre it helped, but strictly flow alone will usually not eliminate cyano.

According to API test kits I am at a 0 reading for phos and nitrate. I've ordered a ultra low phos hanna checker and red sea nitrate test kit to make double sure on levels. My refugium is a mix of miracle mud/sand and I think it is saturated and may be the culprit. It's being removed this week.

zesty said:
I would adjust your powerheads first and see if you can get something that may work.

My first stab would be to take the PH in the back right corner and put it on the side, just in front of your rockwork on the right side. Then you will get flow from each side crashing into each other and making more random flow in the center of the tank. You may not get it the first time, I had to adjust my PHs a bit before I found something that worked to eliminate dead spots.

Now, if that still doesn't cut it, then you may be looking at more powerheads. A wavemaker would help some, but maybe not enough? That's a tough one to judge from Wisconsin. If you were to go the wavemaker route, you would probably want two, one from each end. That seems to be the way to go.

Take a look at this guy,
Tunze NanoStream 6020 Pump

It can be tucked behind your rockwork and eliminate some dead spots on your lower portion of your tank.

Hope this helps some!

Thanks for the link. If I do add a PH I think one that size/capability would be good. I am going to try moving the back PH and see if that helps

cginter said:
Looks like if u add a power head dead center on the back glass, it would give more flow where u have cyano....

I thought that too but I have a huge green polyp toadstool leather right there (oops, should have put that in the picture). I'm talking small basketball size. Might have to relocate if it comes to that.

Servo said:
There is ALWAYS cyano in an aquarium. If you use a treatment to "get rid of it", but it comes back the true issue lies in the nutrients in your tank. Growing macroalgae should help with nutrient export. Usually, the cyano will stay in the refugium. You could also consider organic carbon dosing (liquids or pellets) or a denitrator of some type. You will need to track your nitrates to see how effective it is. A great comprehensive nutrient export system is to use large rock filled refugia (no autotrophic denitrification) with macroalgae in the top few inches, vinegar or vodka dosing as a carbon source, GFO, skimming, and GAC for nutrient export. Sometimes one option option gets saturated.

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/116-vinegar-dosing-methodology-for-the-marine-aquarium

Thanks for link. I do think nutrients are part of it and will be removing my mud fuge which I think is partly to blame. I do have cheato, red fuzzy algae (??) in the fuge that I have to prune constantly. I am contemplating Red Sea's algae mgmt system to start the carbon dosing method. When mud/sand is removed from fuge I am going to place a marinepure ceramic block along with small amount of live rock I have in there already. I am running GFO but I think it is irritating my LPS so I might have to go without it there. This is second go 'round with GFO...last time I used it my lps did not like it and I rinsed the crap out of it but I think fines are still making it into the tank. Thanks for the insight.