Need help/advice with 150 gallon tall flow

JIsBusyReefing

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Hi everyone! I am in desperate need of help getting the right flow in my tank. It's a 150 gallon tall (2ft x 4ft x 30in) mixed reef. When I set it up nearly a year ago, I had no idea what I was doing in this department. I got two Hydor Koralia 1500GPH pumps and called it a day. Several times I've had to move them over the months because they were blasting too much flow on corals on the opposite end of the tank and I was never happy nor were the corals. My LFS and some others told me to get a wavemaker.

A couple of days ago, I did just that after a long time of being told this. I ended up getting the Jebao CP-120, since its designed for 120cm/4ft tanks. I installed it and it seems to blast way too much flow throughout the tank, even on the lowest setting. The only exception being W1 mode creating oscillation in the entire tank at the lowest speed. Any kind of flow I add seems to blast my flower pots at the bottom and they've been closed up all day.

I cant seem to figure this out and I don't know what to do or get. Can anyone give me some advice?
 
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JIsBusyReefing

JIsBusyReefing

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lower flow gyre's on opposite ends colliding should give you very random flow without blasting. something like IceCap 1K's
Yah I actually just consulted with a local reefer and he suggested exchanging the CP-120 I bought for two SCP-90 and put them on opposing sides at the top and have them pump out random flow in sync with each other. I just ordered them and will have them on Monday.
 

monkeyCmonkeyDo

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You can position the pump on the back wall pointing away from the tank towards a corner? I do this with my reef octopules 4 and i can turn it all the way up on my 48x19x24
 
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JIsBusyReefing

JIsBusyReefing

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You can position the pump on the back wall pointing away from the tank towards a corner? I do this with my reef octopules 4 and i can turn it all the way up on my 48x19x24
Both of my corners are covered by live rock. I have the tank in a nook area of the room that fits the tank like a glove. Because of this, I designed the live rock in a sort of U shape where the side walls are covered.
 

sp1187

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2 gyres.
mounted vertical.
one in each corner.
on the back wall pointing towards the front wall.
mounted just high enough that they don't power blow the sand, if you have sand.
I have the same tank.
I'd tell you to look at mine but you can't see them. :)
 
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JIsBusyReefing

JIsBusyReefing

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2 gyres.
mounted vertical.
one in each corner.
on the back wall pointing towards the front wall.
mounted just high enough that they don't power blow the sand, if you have sand.
I have the same tank.
I'd tell you to look at mine but you can't see them. :)
I can't put anything in the corners of the back wall. Live rock covers them because I have the rock work in a U shape, so the side walls and back wall are all covered.
 

sp1187

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I can't put anything in the corners of the back wall. Live rock covers them because I have the rock work in a U shape, so the side walls and back wall are all covered.
sometimes you have to move things for a solution.
wishing you don't doesn't fix it.
good luck.
 
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JIsBusyReefing

JIsBusyReefing

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i think you'd have more flow and better controllability with a pair of 70s in your length tank as opposed to a pair of 90s......... i could be wrong tho :)
I think the 90s have more flow. It's a stronger GPH model. 90 puts out up to 3300GPH and the 70 puts out up to 1850GPH.
 

Patman

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I run 2x hydor 1950 gph on the back of the tank midway down on either side, and a jebao 180 sine blowing across the top, tank is 6ft, I think you might be under estimating the amount of flow you can safely run. How long did you give the corals to acclimate to the new flow?

pump.png
 
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JIsBusyReefing

JIsBusyReefing

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I run 2x hydor 1950 gph on the back of the tank midway down on either side, and a jebao 180 sine blowing across the top, tank is 6ft, I think you might be under estimating the amount of flow you can safely run. How long did you give the corals to acclimate to the new flow?

pump.png
IDK man. They all got real retracted and wouldn't come out for days when I had my two 1500s running. Flower pots on the bottom seemed to be getting pummeled. Turned off the flow for an hour and they started coming out. Turned it back on, then they retracted again. Then I got the CP-120 and they retracted again. Even at the lowest settings. Torches on the opposite end of the tank were getting blasted too. So much so that one of the frags lifted out of the frag hole and fell to the bottom. I don't think this is the appropriate amount of flow for corals on this tank. LOL
 
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JIsBusyReefing

JIsBusyReefing

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Flower pots usually dont handle a lot of flow. Some other lps too. So i understand the concern.
-d
Indeed. It's incredibly tricky to accommodate flow demands for a tall tank with flower pots, LPS, and SPS (in the future). I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure it out. It will probably end up being a scenario where I need lots of pumps with a little flow instead of fewer pumps with a lot of flow.
 

Patman

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Indeed. It's incredibly tricky to accommodate flow demands for a tall tank with flower pots, LPS, and SPS (in the future). I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure it out. It will probably end up being a scenario where I need lots of pumps with a little flow instead of fewer pumps with a lot of flow.
Yeah that can be tough, the low flow stuff you kind of have to find the dead spots in the tank for them.
 

monkeyCmonkeyDo

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I had a 150tall acrylic one time. I used a tunze 6125 dead center back wall pointing straight out. Bare bottom tank but two of em was too much. These pumps like 3000gph.
Non controllable.
D
 

UnderseaOddities

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So on your return pump your gonna want 5 to 7 x the flow rate of the water volume, many reefers go with the ecotech l2 for optimum control but there are many pumps on the market now with similar specifications... most whole salers run mp40s or mp10s by ecotech an hydor coralia g3 anything will work I use neros and corallia g3 and random floow genetator tip and locline.. most wholesaler have and reccomend having 52xs the water volume for the flow rate. So 150 x 52 is a total flow of 7800gph for your 150g system.. however this flow rate would be overkill for softies but most lps land sps need a strong flow, a stronger flow will help oxygenate the corals tissue better,and getting beaten by the flow will cause it to have to create a thicker skeleton,which is optimum for stony coral health, all of this being said your return pump should generate half or a little less of the total GPh flow total(with the vectra l2 it has al controller that can be adjusted and locked from 0 to 3100gph) Also look into closed loop and open loop systems, you can use any movers as long as the water is oxygenated and moving,but look out for cheaper plastic assembly(no no as they'll start to peel), I also like to put a oscillating fan on the water's surface to help evaporation, the more evap the more dkh the more skeletal growth,higher flow = thicker skeleton, but always know coral placement and how much flow they need... rember an indirect flow is usually better.and depend on stocking leves you're going to want to have a nice amount of that flow on the bottom of the system to stop detritus from becoming sesile.
This will help replicate the gyres of a natural coral reef as most corals in the wild are blasted by random flow depending on the moons gravitational pull.

U can use pumps, movers, locline anything neccessary within your budget to get you to that 7800gph flow(you want it adjustable tho 7800 at once would be overkill unless your system is all acro)

Most wholesalers configure they're grow out tanks like this

4 mp10s front bottom, 2 mp40s top back 6 hydor coralia g3 movers, 6 locline, 2 full random flow tips 4 half fan tip half random flow

Stager your movers(sorry for the poor illustration) hope this helps!
@JoeP26
 

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