Need help/advice with 150 gallon tall flow

[UnderseaOddities]

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

Some lps dont like getting blasted gonis alveopora, any euphylia, bubble coral fox coral, in a high flow tank you can restrict the current by shielding them with rocks or placing them in an area of the tank with restricted flow, every tank has a dead spot,

Ime gonis and alveopora are one of the hardest corals to care for, aussie have always done better for me over indo they always seem to be peeved off,its either feast or famine with these guys and alot of indo gonis come in with bacterias that can only be solved by the coral beating it enzymatically (coral rx and lugols arent always and end all be all, just like yumas the wild goni will harbor certain things and have to fight them off naturally). having long fleshy polyps dont help either if the goni is already stressed and put into high flow, tearing or laceration of the polyps may occur and this is a death sentence for a already sick goni(wholesalers pass them off to someone else asap same as scolys as they are hard to propagate and come in half dead which leads to a shorter shelf life hence the price tags

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

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

No other pumps? Just the 6125?

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

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

Thanks for this! My return pumps are a Quiet One 4000 and a Quiet One 6000. Factoring in height to the tank and x3 90 degree angles, I'm not sure what the total flow would be.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

It had dual overflows and 1 center return i think.
Long time ago. Like 3+yrs ago.
Yes that was the only pump.
-d

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

It had dual overflows and 1 center return i think.
Long time ago. Like 3+yrs ago.
Yes that was the only pump.
-d

Symmetrical. I like it. I unfortunately have an overflow box (pain in the butt) in the right corner and the returns in the left corner. Return pumps are a Quiet One 4000 and 6000. Together have a theoretical max of ~2898GPH. But, factoring in height to the tank, brings the returns to ~1900GPH. But they're being bottlenecked by 1/2" tubing and x3 right angles on each return. Like I mentioned to @UnderseaOddities, I have no idea if this is way too much on the return or not and perhaps that's why my flow is so strong in the tank with even just one CP-120 installed.