Tank Parameters and Flow - Red Sea Max S500

[Michael Hull]

I'm trying to keep my sand bed clean, while also maintaining some surface aggregation, and trying to design flow of the Red Sea recirculating nozzles.

For those that have them, where should I point them? The return is in the top right, and pointing down towards the front left corner of tank. I'm trying to understand what "high flow" means vs "low flow" etc for the corals I have.

Attaching recent tank pic so you understand where rocks are.

Also, how are these parameters?

ph 8.18
Cal 408
Alk 8.7
Mg 1290
N03 3ppm

 

[mta_morrow]

@SPR1968 may be able to offer some advice on positioning them. He has a beautiful RedSea Max 650!

 

[SPR1968]

In my system I have the main return nozzle pointing to the right sort of slightly down and towards the glass. This prevented it disturbing the sand to much.

The left and smaller nozzle points left and slightly down for the same reason and then the 2 middle ones (in the S650) point straight out, sort of, but it depends on your rockwork

It’s just a matter of adjusting them until you get what your after

I have all pumps on maximum flow

You can see some of them in this picture but you might need to zoom in a bit

 

[Michael Hull]

What is the optimal flow? I feel like right now, I have my tank sort of flowing in a tornado like pattern, should I try for more clashing type of flow?

 

[SPR1968]

What is the optimal flow? I feel like right now, I have my tank sort of flowing in a tornado like pattern, should I try for more clashing type of flow?

Depends on what corals you have and were their placed. Some don’t like being ‘battered’ by water, some do, so it’s just a matter of fine tuning it for your particular coral placement.

Water flow can make a big difference to growth and health. I have some corals of the same species in high flow, and there 4 x as big as the ones in low flow and were put into the tank at the same time