Frustration with flow/water movement! Help!

[bronsond99]

Hello, I am feeling very upset and confused with flow and water movement in my aquarium, I can’t seem to make my corals happy and provide provide flow for an overall healthy tank. I have a 20 gallon tall nano reef with a 500gph Wavemaker. I bought a 250gph powerhead but it seemed to do just the same thing. My corals don’t look as happy as they could look. I have had this tank setup for 5 months and my corals have barley grown. I mostly keep Euphyllia corals like torch and hammers. I just need some advice on what to do and where to position the powereads

 

[Crabs McJones]

Hello, I am feeling very upset and confused with flow and water movement in my aquarium, I can’t seem to make my corals happy and provide provide flow for an overall healthy tank. I have a 20 gallon tall nano reef with a 500gph Wavemaker. I bought a 250gph powerhead but it seemed to do just the same thing. My corals don’t look as happy as they could look. I have had this tank setup for 5 months and my corals have barley grown. I mostly keep Euphyllia corals like torch and hammers. I just need some advice on what to do and where to position the powereads

If youre keeping primarily euphyllia corals, I don't think the flow is your issue. Generally those corals all like low flow. What is your lighting and what are your water parameters? Can you provide us with a picture of the corals in question and the whole setup?

 

[Jason mack]

Hi , it could be a number of things affecting your corals , are you sure it’s just flow ... how’s your lights .. your tank parameters .., although flow is important .. and most will say more flow the beter .. so maybe if you could post some pictures and give some more info over your tank .. we can get a beter overall view of your situation...
mack ..
as a side note I would just like too say this is my 3000 th post on R2R ....

 

[bronsond99]

Hi , it could be a number of things affecting your corals , are you sure it’s just flow ... how’s your lights .. your tank parameters .., although flow is important .. and most will say more flow the beter .. so maybe if you could post some pictures and give some more info over your tank .. we can get a beter overall view of your situation...
mack ..
as a side note I would just like too say this is my 3000 th post on R2R ....

just sometimes they look beautiful and sometimes they don’t. Like today my torch was all curled up. I have a Kessil a160we that is 10 inches above water surface. It’s on 12 hours a day. It peaks at 15% intensity for 3 hours.

 

[bronsond99]

Hi , it could be a number of things affecting your corals , are you sure it’s just flow ... how’s your lights .. your tank parameters .., although flow is important .. and most will say more flow the beter .. so maybe if you could post some pictures and give some more info over your tank .. we can get a beter overall view of your situation...
mack ..
as a side note I would just like too say this is my 3000 th post on R2R ....

Also my parameters are 370 calcium, 0 nitrites, 15ppm nitrates, 0 phosphates, high PH

 

[mcarroll]

Bring up phosphates either by taking some phosphate removers offline or by dosing a little phosphate fertilizer.

 

[bronsond99]

Bring up phosphates either by taking some phosphate removers offline or by dosing a little phosphate fertilizer.

Does there need to be some phosphates ?

 

[Jason mack]

Does there need to be some phosphates ?

Yes corals need phosphates too Feed , I would recommend 0.03-.0.08 phosphates

 

[rockskimmerflow]

just sometimes they look beautiful and sometimes they don’t. Like today my torch was all curled up. I have a Kessil a160we that is 10 inches above water surface. It’s on 12 hours a day. It peaks at 15% intensity for 3 hours.

They don't look like they are suffering too greatly, but a peak of 15% on a light that is roughly 40Watts max means you're not giving the tank very much total light energy across that 12 hours span. If it were me I'd bump to about a 50 percent peak intensity and cut the total photoperiod down to 8 hours or so. I think you'd see marked improvement. I run some a160s on client tanks about 6 inches off the surface and they peak at 80 percent so I don't think you'll fry them starting at 50% - you may even be able to go up from there if they like it.

 

[bronsond99]

They don't look like they are suffering too greatly, but a peak of 15% on a light that is roughly 40Watts max means you're not giving the tank very much total light energy across that 12 hours span. If it were me I'd bump to about a 50 percent peak intensity and cut the total photoperiod down to 8 hours or so. I think you'd see marked improvement. I run some a160s on client tanks about 6 inches off the surface and they peak at 80 percent so I don't think you'll fry them starting at 50% - you may even be able to go up from there if they like it.

Okay even on my small of a tank ?

 

[rockskimmerflow]

Okay even on my small of a tank ?

Yes

 

[mcarroll]

dont up the lights without addressing the PO4 first/at the same time

 

[bronsond99]

dont up the lights without addressing the PO4 first/at the same time

Okay I’m gonna be testing and upping it

 

[rockskimmerflow]

dont up the lights without addressing the PO4 first/at the same time

Really? I mean I agree measurable PO4 is important to address, but you don't seriously think that he's running the risk of overlighting the tank increasing from a peak of roughly 6 watts of LED over a 20g tank to roughly 20 watts peak? And did we ever get a confirmation of what testing method he's seeing 0 phosphate with? If it's a basic color change kit, I'm not sure I'd trust that as a reliable enough source to encourage dosing phosphate to counteract, rather than just an increase in overall food input and discontinue any phos remover use. Especially target feeding the euphyllia may be helpful rather than wholesale phosphate supplementation.

 

[hart24601]

I run a kessils a160 over a 3g pico at up to 100% just fyi.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Does there need to be some phosphates ?

In short, yes. Phosphates is a requirement for life.

LPS prefer the water to be a little on the "dirty" side with Nitrates and phosphates around a .05 to .1 area. That's where I have kept mine for the past 18 month or so on my 40 and I have seen very impressive growth and color from all of them.

 

[mcarroll]

Especially target feeding the euphyllia may be helpful rather than wholesale phosphate supplementation.

In short, yes. Phosphates is a requirement for life.

I'm not sure about overlighting...corals can be very adaptable.

If corals are showing signs, it's probably from lack of dissolved PO4.

Feeding can be very helpful in some cases, but might not be an adequate replacement for dissolved phosphates.

Food goes to the coral animal first where dissolved nutrients go to the symbionts first.

Of course the symbionts is where the photosynthesis, the primary source of demand for dissolved PO4, is happening. Something like 0.03 ppm PO4 has been shown as a minimum requirement to support photosynthesis.

Where you get into a haze about the numbers isn't so much the test kit (zero will look a lot like zero...and near-zero is all it takes) is later on when the tank has matured and all the N and P are cycling through algae and the rest of the microbial food web connected to the corals. But that doesn't happen until later, when the tank has matured.

After all the tank is only 5 months old.....

 

[Jason mack]

I'm not sure about overlighting...corals can be very adaptable.

If corals are showing signs, it's probably from lack of dissolved PO4.

Feeding can be very helpful in some cases, but might not be an adequate replacement for dissolved phosphates.

Food goes to the coral animal first where dissolved nutrients go to the symbionts first.

Of course the symbionts is where the photosynthesis, the primary source of demand for dissolved PO4, is happening. Something like 0.03 ppm PO4 has been shown as a minimum requirement to support photosynthesis.

Where you get into a haze about the numbers isn't so much the test kit (zero will look a lot like zero...and near-zero is all it takes) is later on when the tank has matured and all the N and P are cycling through algae and the rest of the microbial food web connected to the corals. But that doesn't happen until later, when the tank has matured.

After all the tank is only 5 months old.....

Totally agree !!!