Question about flow

[carlsj2012]

Reading the ultimate guide to setting up a reef aquarium, trying to decide what pumps to get. As this will be a coral focused tank, bare bottom, I should be safe to be on the higher end of reasonable flow rates for a RSR 250. Aiming more towards the 50x turnover rate, but is this display tank (56 gallon) or system (65 gallon) turnover rate?

The return pump will be the COR 20. I had originally picked out one MP-10 and one Reefwave 25 to mount inside the display tank, but now I'm wondering if I'll just be running them at near max capacity all the time. Maybe an MP-40 on one side and the Reefwave 25 would be better?

 

[Glenner’sreef]

So Carl, If you’re like 93.549% of R2R hobbyists, you will outgrow your 56 gallon and be hlsd you bought that mp40. :)

 

[blaxsun]

The COR 20 is going to be massively overkill, but it will serve you into your next tank upgrade (something like a Sicce Syncra ADV 6.0 would be more than enough). A single ReefWave 25 is also going to be more than enough (the ReefWave 25 is going to be overkill with an MP40).

 

[carlsj2012]

So Carl, If you’re like 93.549% of R2R hobbyists, you will outgrow your 56 gallon and be hlsd you bought that mp40. :)

Call me John, Carl is actually part of my last name, hahaha!
Unfortunately, if an upgrade comes, it won't be for a very, very, very long time. I'm building two RSR250s, one reef tank, one freshwater planted. Focus at the moment is the reef tank, as it is new territory for me.

 

[carlsj2012]

The COR 20 is going to be massively overkill, but it will serve you into your next tank upgrade (something like a Sicce Syncra ADV 6.0 would be more than enough). A single ReefWave 25 is also going to be more than enough (the ReefWave 25 is going to be overkill with an MP40).

I was actually concerned the COR20 would be too much, but I figured with friction loss and head, I could operate it at around 45-50% without blowing water out of my tank. Plus, if I upgrade to reactors, this gives me some room to grow.

I wanted two powerheads to eliminate deadspots, so maybe two MP10s would be better?

These flow issues are constantly making me second guess my choices, hahaha!

 

[Reef.]

Call me John, Carl is actually part of my last name, hahaha!
Unfortunately, if an upgrade comes, it won't be for a very, very, very long time. I'm building two RSR250s, one reef tank, one freshwater planted. Focus at the moment is the reef tank, as it is new territory for me.

I would go mp40, just for the fact you will have some room for upping the power if ever needed but mainly so I’m not running the mp10 at 100%, they can be noisy above around 60% and also may help the pump last longer not being at 100% constantly.

 

[carlsj2012]

I would go mp40, just for the fact you will have some room for upping the power if ever needed but mainly so I’m not running the mp10 at 100%, they can be noisy above around 60% and also may help the pump last longer not being at 100% constantly.

So is one pump usually enough? I was looking at two, one on each side to eliminate deadspots. But maybe that's not usually an issue? It will be bare bottom, so I don't need to worry about sand storms.

 

[Reef.]

So is one pump usually enough? I was looking at two, one on each side to eliminate deadspots. But maybe that's not usually an issue? It will be bare bottom, so I don't need to worry about sand storms.

Definitely two...you may even want to go more in the future, the main benefit to a bb is being able to put pumps down near the base.

Remember you don’t need all the same size, you could get the 10s for now, when the sps starts filling the space, move them to the bottom and get the 40s.

 

[Uncle99]

I was actually concerned the COR20 would be too much, but I figured with friction loss and head, I could operate it at around 45-50% without blowing water out of my tank. Plus, if I upgrade to reactors, this gives me some room to grow.

I wanted two powerheads to eliminate deadspots, so maybe two MP10s would be better?

These flow issues are constantly making me second guess my choices, hahaha!

I think your return is fine, keep in mind that from a return prospective 3-5x is plenty, we don’t want the water to move fast through our sump, we do want contact time. If this means you run the return at 1/3 or 1/2, then so be it. It’s an excellent pump IMM.

Now internal flows will depend on what you keep, but here we want lots of flow available even though we might not use it. As corals grow, water becomes more restrictive and the availability to bump it up is needed. You have a bare bottom, so we can utilize the flow to keep stuff off the bottom and in the column where it can be easily collected.

30-50 times flow available for wave maker products is what I use as a guide.

 

[Uncle99]

duplicate

 

[blaxsun]

Something I learned visiting Neptune's website: the COR15 can run off a 1LINK port (freeing up an outlet on the EB832 energy bar), but the COR15 does need an actual power outlet as well as Aquabus port.

 

[Reef.]

Couple of things to remember, your return flow as said above needs to be not that high and will also be limited to the speed of the overflow so check your tanks specs, also just going one MP you would loose the pairing modes which is a good thing to have.

 

[blaxsun]

Not that there's anything wrong with the MP40's, but you can get a pair of Nero 3's or 5's for around the same cost as an MP10...

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Call me John, Carl is actually part of my last name, hahaha!
Unfortunately, if an upgrade comes, it won't be for a very, very, very long time. I'm building two RSR250s, one reef tank, one freshwater planted. Focus at the moment is the reef tank, as it is new territory for me.

Very cool John. Looking forward to seeing it. Good luck with it.