Ideal Flow for a Zoanthid Dominated Aquarium

moto826 · Nov 19, 2010

i try to set mine up where it blows one way for a wile then the other way like a tide and randomly move the other one around a few times a week
i also have a pump under my rocks so nothing settles back there

Wy Renegade · Nov 20, 2010

Rayzback said:
Good for just about anything that lkes flow growth, imo... better if you can flucuate the rate with a wakmaker. The thing your not going to get with the normal powerheads is the 12"+ wide stream of water combined with a killer undertow that rocks everything back and forth.

Rayzback, pardon my ignorance if you will, but if I understand your post correctly, you are saying that the wavemaker creates a undertow? When you run a wavemaker, do you also run powerheads, or does one simply replace the other.

drainbamage said:
I don't have experience with higher power pumps yet-but when I attempted this with three K1's, I ended up with just an area of stagnation. More like two cars colliding at speed, the kinetic energy just cancelled out. If the pumps were pointed ideally, I could see a "whirlpool" effect working, and that would create some different results (not sure + or - ) but the perpendicular cross-paths is what I tried and did not succeed with.

I've never tried three - I did point two directly at each other from the ends of a 4' long tank, and like you I didn't like the end result (dead water space). I ended up putting the two on timers to alternate. I have found better turbulence when the two are aimed to cross paths, but not directly intercept (more of an angled cross - so to speak).

caudill187 said:
Random, turbulent, and moderate-high flow - most of my corals prefer this. My experience has been that of the commonly kept coral species, chalices prefer the least flow.

So a wavemaker combined with a timer might be a good way to go? Or do wavemakers come with a random wave generation feature? Is this similar to the effect created by the vortexes in reef crest mode?

moto826 said:
i try to set mine up where it blows one way for a wile then the other way like a tide and randomly move the other one around a few times a week
i also have a pump under my rocks so nothing settles back there

Nice moto, are you using a swinging powerhead or timers? Moving one constantly would kind of be a pain. Personally, I like some areas of lower flow as well, as this creates areas for things that prefer areas of lower flow - some of my colonial tube worms seem to prefer those areas.

In my current tank (3' long), the powerheads are all mounted on the back wall and pointed sideways and forward (with the rockwork there is no way to directly aim powerheads at each other) - I get great turbulence were the water hits the glass, and again in the center were the stream from all five powerheads and the return come together. However the best flow areas are definitely along the front of the tank.

ruppertb · Nov 20, 2010

I am running a 75 with 2 koralia 3's, just recently added a vortech mp40 and dont know how i should set up the flow pattern. does anyone have any experence or advice on placement of 2 korralias and a vortec in my tank. It is currently on the side with 2 vortecs on the back of each side. reef crest mode at about 80 percent. i was thinking about putting it on the back of my tank dead center top, with koralias on each end pointing in, any ideas?