RFG on a Deskmate - Single or Dual?

Brit’s Fish · Oct 28, 2023

Hi all!

So I ordered the single RFG from VCA for my DeskMate but I got the dual return shipped to me by accident. Now I’m wondering if I should try using the dual return RFG that I got or if I should ship it back to get the single return RFG that I originally wanted.
I have the stock return pump (Circa 100) and I did take off the flow limiter before I ever even got the pump wet (no idea what my thought process was there), so it runs at 100%.
The tank is mostly zoas, shrooms, other softies, a not super happy Monti frag and a big, meaty 3 polyp blasto.
I’ve attached a pic also. Let me know what you think on which RFG I really should use!

Thanks in advance!

CBonito · Oct 28, 2023

Those are cool little tanks. I would try the dual. I mean, it can't hurt anything. It's just going to give more water movement throughout the tank. Only thing about the dual return is it could block the light a bit maybe depending how you point it.

TangerineSpeedo · Oct 28, 2023

On my 10g frag, I run a dual. One pointing front and one down the back.

ReefRacer · Nov 1, 2023

I was going to try the same but I was concerned about space. I end up 3D printing a variable flow nozzle and then hung a small powerhead directly under the return nozzle blowing perpendicular (facing tank - blowing towards back right corner). Produces similar flow pattern to the dual, but the added power is nice. In the end, not sure I saved much space. Also, not sure about the VCA, but the nozzle that I printed attaches directly to the fitting coming through the back of the tank...it doesn't require any additional loc-line pieces. So if the dual is a bust for you, perhaps you can just pop off one of the variable nozzles and attach it the same way and go back to single return.