Need advice on my tank flow

Regulator23

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Hi, long time no post, but I need advice. Due to an aptasia invasion, I am restarting my 180 (cycling as we speak with my fish and corals in temporary housing). It's a peninsula style acryllic 180 (6'x2'x2') with the overflow box at one end. The overflow box is 15" wide and 8" deep so there's 4" on either side of it (plenty of room to mount circulation pumps). I am trying to get the right flow without adding plumbing to the far side. My pump is pushing 3000gph. Previously I had 2 pretty powerful circulation pumps on each side of the overflow box, but there were still lots of dead spaces especially at the far end. One thing I was thinking about was to use 2 gyre pumps mounted vertically on each side of the overflow. Looking at images of how these work, that might do it, but do you think even the strongest ones (icecap 4k for example) push enough water to be effective for the 6' span? Since the tank is viewable from both sides, my rock formation will be down the center, so having strong flow along the 6' walls should be OK. The water comes out the center of the overflow box just an inch or two under the surface.

Corals are mostly mushrooms, leathers and zoos and I run 4 AI Hydra 26's. I have 4 tangs and 4 other small fish. I travel a lot so I keep everything as automated as possible. I apologize for the long post but I thought it would be better to provide more info. Any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated. I will try and upload a couple of pictures.

IMG_2972.jpg IMG_2973.jpg IMG_2974.jpg IMG_2975.jpg
 

T-J

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Considering that you're keeping softies, you won't need to worry as much about flow as you would if it were SPS. Given the type of corals, I kind of like the idea of two gyres mounted vertically on either side of the overflow.

Remember, it's not just the type of pumps you put in there, it's also the wave pattern/cycles you can make with them. Make sure to experiment with different patterns after you have your rockwork in your tank, but before you add any livestock.

Currently on my 120g mixed reef, I run two MP40's. I have them running in short pulse mode, which creates a wave that rocks the entire tank left & right. For me, this type of pattern allows for zero dead spots in the tank.
 

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