Question about flow in my soon-to-be reef aquarium

[wizmatt]

I am an amateur reefer who has just about finished cycling my 60 gallon 4-foot long aquarium with a green chromis and some hermit crabs and snails. Today, I went to my local fish store to purchase powerheads for my aquarium. I am planning to stock soft and LPS corals in the future. The employee who worked there recommended that I purchase two HYDOR powerheads for my aquarium, one 1500 GPH and one 565 GPH, which if my calculations are correct would result in a turnover rate of 34.4. Based on my research this number is right around where LPS and soft corals do best, but my one concern is that one side of my aquarium has far stronger flow than the other side. I placed the 1500 GPH on the right side and the 565 on the left, and it is quite obvious that the flow is stronger on the right. I am wondering what this could mean for the overall turnover rate. Does it matter if one side is stronger than the other? I would like to spread my corals out and not have them in one spot, and I am not sure if I should exchange my 565 GPH for another 1500 GPH to keep a constant flow strength on both sides. Apologies if this is a stupid question, but I simply couldn't find anything on the web about this. Thank you!

 

[LiveWire]

To start off Welcome to the REEF!!

Myself I always match my flow pumps as I use DC controllable pumps so that I can tune in exactly what flow i am looking for just by turning the pump up or down and by placing it in different areas of the tank. This way i have many flow options. I also oversize my pumps and run them at much less than 100% normally under 70%. I believe by doing this that they pumps will last longer and so far that seems to be the case.

There are a 1000 ways to get the flow that you are looking to get in your system. It would be fine to have stronger flow in some areas than others in the case if you are going to keep softies as they tend to like a bit lower flow than LPS corals. To start your system off I would say that you are fine with flow. You will find that as corals grow that you and start filling areas that had good flow before that most likely will need to increase that flow to keep things happy (Another reason that I prefer DC powered pumps) Have you checked out any of the BRS videos available on flow? There is a ton of information on flow below. Hope this helps answer your question. And i am sure others will chime in with other options as well. Happy Reefing!