Flow - Constant or Variable

bulldogniner · Jun 23, 2020

While I have had a few wavemakers over the years, I started to question myself last night. I have a 210 display with 2 aqueon 1650 and 1 koralia 1950 power heads running. The aqueons are on a hydor smartwave alternating every 10 minutes and the koralia is constantly running. I've felt like there wasn't enough movement in the water, but really noticed it when I turned all three pumps on at the same time.....

I recently bought a few leather corals and have had them in the tank for about a week...not much so far in terms of polyp extension. Last night I turned on all three at the same time and almost immediately both of them opened up nicely and fully extended their polyps. I am still getting multi directional flow and none of the powerheads are beating down on any of the corals(only a few other LPS in there right now too).

So....has anyone else had a similar experience? Easy answer to myself is to get more powerfull powerheads and run on the wavemaker, but I think I could achive the same thing by keeping them all on constantly? Any downside to having higher flow 24/7?

Dragon52 · Jun 23, 2020

I have 2 MP40s that I run in Reefcrest mode at a rate of 20-80% 24/7. Tank is 60x24x30". The only way to know of any downside would be to try it out & see, you would need to watch it for most of the day to see any changes in all the corals you have if any.

csb123 · Jun 23, 2020

I started with 4 Tunzes in each corner with a Sea Sweep mounted Tunze in the middle in the back. Everything on full time. Lots of flow, and the Sea Sweep adds enough chaos, that the corals don’t have odd growth patterns.

bulldogniner · Jun 24, 2020

Well, I've let all 3 pumps run for the past 24+ hours and all seems well. I think the toadstool is messing with me cause now it isn't extetnding polyps....but in reading about toadstools others keep, I think that is normal and it was purely coincidental.

I have noticed my skimmer is cranking out the dirty juice way more now. I am liking that.