Surge: Not just an old school soft drink but very beneficial to your reef tank?

[TWYOUNG]

Im planning on doing 22 fish in my setup. Heres My stocking list
1 Black storm clownfish



2
Purple tan
g


3 Blonde Naso tang



4 Bellus angelfish



5 hippo tang



6
Tomini tan
g
7 Tailspot Blenny
8 Magnificent foxface
9 White tail Brstletooth tang
10 Green Mandarin Dragonet
11 Diamond watchman
12 Blue spot Jawfish
13 yellow watchman goby
14 Royal Gramma
15 solar fairy wrasse
16 Purple Firefish
17 Purple Firefish
18 Helfrichi Fire Fish
19 Red Fire fish
20 Red Fire fish
21 Red Fire fish
22PajamaCardinal Fish

Do you think the trio of red fire fish will get along? Overall it's a great list and I have many of them. I'd really do your homework on the Blue Spot Jawfish. My lfs sold me one and I didn't realize they're a quite difficult fish who normally resides in cooler waters than most aquaria. I've had mine for three months and I had to move him to my sump after he left his cave and was languishing about on the sand. I thought he'd die within days but it's been a couple weeks now and he's become quite active but pretty much getting hand fed. There's also BSJD, (blue spotted jawfish disease ), which I believe mine has. Adorable little fish and good luck if you decide to get one. I'd love to hear from those with positive experiences with this fish as I could use some encouragement!

 

[RubyU235]

No we're not talking about Surge the soft drink here but Surge as in a WATER SURGE or a strong intermittent blast of water flow! A surge of flow can be very beneficial for reef tanks for several reasons but one of the best reasons is that these occasional bursts of water flow can keep stagnate areas of the tank clear of uneaten food, waste and detritus. Let's talk about it.

1. Are you employing the use of surge flow in your reef tank?

2. What devices or methods are you using to achieve your water surge?

I just recently got 4 koralia pumps and a controller for $70. Put plug splitter in each side and alternate left and right every 15 seconds.

In my 150g system One of each is high on the back pointing at the surface on both sides and the other two are low and pointing towards the upper middle.

tank is loving it.

 

[Brucealmighty]

My tank is 1.5 metres wide 500mm deep and 700mm high I have 2 RW-15 13000 lph (sorry many gallons I speak in litres and millimetres) dreadful but I love jebao wavemakers and 2 neptune wav pumps on each end four wavemakers total and a return pump on 6000 litres per hour, my jebao pair is set at random flow at slowest change interval, the 2 wav pumps take turns ramping up and down at opposite ends one higher other lower left to right or right to left four times a day with lower speeds at night time and 90% speed one side at a time in the daytime my aim was to mimic some kind of normality for the creatures I kept zoa's loved it mushrooms not as much correction fuzzy mushrooms adore it and each fuzzy head is around 50mm or 2 inches per head fish swim all over the place no current too strong from chromis and anthia's through to fat (ish) tangs all happy hunky dorey same as the caretaker aka me

 

[radiata]

On my 180 I'm running four Octo Pulse 4s and two Gyre XF350s on two Hydros WaveEngines.

 

[exnisstech]

I think I do I run 2 mp40s on nutrient transport mode for 2 hours a day at 75% and stuff gets blown around in a 6ft tank 180g. 1 mp40 and 1 mp10 in a 24x20x20 tank so I would say yes there for sure when nutrient transport mode kick in

 

[mdb_talon]

Many years ago after reading Anthony Calfo write about it in one of his books I did a "dump truck" style surge that filled up a container at one end and above the tank....when it got full enough all the water dumped in.

It actually worked great and I used it for quite awhile. Eventually pumps got much better and did not feel it was needed as much and was not worth the extra salt creep, space used, and hassle of maintaining it.

 

[Miles Laughton]

I’m running two mp60’s on 85 percent opposite but offset, one on reef crest the other on constant on my 300 gal.
Return pump is a vectra L2 and S2 on flat out! Keeps the ditritus suspended and any parasites so they go over the weir!

 

[F i s h y]

Im planning on doing 22 fish in my setup. Heres My stocking list
1 Black storm clownfish



2
Purple tan
g


3 Blonde Naso tang



4 Bellus angelfish



5 hippo tang



6
Tomini tan
g
7 Tailspot Blenny
8 Magnificent foxface
9 White tail Brstletooth tang
10 Green Mandarin Dragonet
11 Diamond watchman
12 Blue spot Jawfish
13 yellow watchman goby
14 Royal Gramma
15 solar fairy wrasse
16 Purple Firefish
17 Purple Firefish
18 Helfrichi Fire Fish
19 Red Fire fish
20 Red Fire fish
21 Red Fire fish
22PajamaCardinal Fish

That's a great list.

 

[MnFish1]

1. Are you employing the use of surge flow in your reef tank?

Yes

2. What devices or methods are you using to achieve your water surge?

Maxspect Gyres - alternating each end of the tank - at the top of the waterline

 

[caller89]

No we're not talking about Surge the soft drink here but Surge as in a WATER SURGE or a strong intermittent blast of water flow! A surge of flow can be very beneficial for reef tanks for several reasons but one of the best reasons is that these occasional bursts of water flow can keep stagnate areas of the tank clear of uneaten food, waste and detritus. Let's talk about it.

1. Are you employing the use of surge flow in your reef tank?

2. What devices or methods are you using to achieve your water surge?

I have 4 x MP40s in a 4ft Redesa 350 and Vector M2.

During normal operation I run them all at maximum 35% - 40% , however I have set them after feeding they ramp up for a few minutes for nutrients control.

I also have a custom flow pattern where my flow is never the same , where the intensity of flow changes every 1 hour.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

I have 2 MP40’s at about 80 % reef crest but the surge comes from the Maxspect Gyre 4K at 100% for 30 seconds then off for 30 seconds. It’s directly aimed at frags about 12” away with a stag only 6 inches away. (Frags are in the green digitata on left). I’m in the Battlecorals (Raindrops on Roses) competition so we’ll see how it goes!

 

[StatelineReefer]

I have heavy surges for my tidepool frag farm.

2 return pumps and two Maxspect Gyres synced by a hydros. all four pushing 10%, ramp to 100% over 45 seconds, then back to 10% for one minute to represent tidal lap.

Then twice a day (Low tide) pumps go off for an hour and dosing aminos and food begins.

Then it's 30%-100% for an hour. Direct flow is broken up by a wall of live rock.

 

[djf91]

Carlson?

 

[Chris Spaulding]

5 foot 150 gallon tank 2 MP40 one each end and 2 Maxspect 330gyers on the back. All are doing different things at different times . MP40 Reef Crest, Nutrient export , Gyer Lagoon all up too 100% different times of the day. Gyers are on OOC mode +100% and - 100%. This keeps things well stored up and lots of random flow.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

I think there is a difference between high random flow and surge flow. I think of surge as a period of high linear flow followed by a period of no or lower flow.

 

[Labridaedicted]

I'm not running a closed loop for a dedicated surge or anything, but realistically, a 2 gyre system kinda gets this kind of effect.

I'm running 2 big gyres on the alternating current cycle as well as 4 of the jebao Nero clones. The neros go full blast every 2 hours to give the rocks a good wash through, which is my surge situation.

 

[CoralB]

I use ecotech mp 40s and my female clown fish randomly fanning its tail toward the male to keep him in submission !!!

 

[TWYOUNG]

I'm sure this is not really an issue but has anyone heard that constant wave motions over long periods in tanks can lead to seal failures? Hoping it's a silly rumor.

 

[Jwise]

Do you think the trio of red fire fish will get along? Overall it's a great list and I have many of them. I'd really do your homework on the Blue Spot Jawfish. My lfs sold me one and I didn't realize they're a quite difficult fish who normally resides in cooler waters than most aquaria. I've had mine for three months and I had to move him to my sump after he left his cave and was languishing about on the sand. I thought he'd die within days but it's been a couple weeks now and he's become quite active but pretty much getting hand fed. There's also BSJD, (blue spotted jawfish disease ), which I believe mine has. Adorable little fish and good luck if you decide to get one. I'd love to hear from those with positive experiences with this fish as I could use some encouragement!

I will defiantly keep you posted im actually getting 7 maybe 8 of those fish this friday so fingers crossed. I had about 12 of the fish on my stocking list for a little while but i got a blonde naso that came in with black ick i didnt realize it and i didnt have a qt at the time. Next thing i know he, my hippo tang, angel, and foxface came down with it and then i realized he got everyone infected with black ick and i got a qt set up now for wild caught fish learned from that night mere of a mistake. Sad thing is though i still couldn't get it cured after trying to treat them for over a month so i was lucky enough to give my fish i had to a good home who still wanted then even after i had told them and am starting fresh with new fish starting this week. My tank has been fishless for 2 and a half months tomorrow. I let my lfs know this week is the week for my restock and he only supplies captive bred fish so he is getting me 7 fish on that list that he has captive bred. Any wild caught fish im defiantly going to make sure to ask questions about then and leave them in observation/qt for a month before i add them into the dt.

 

[jabberwock]

In my 25 lagoon I have one powerhead running at a cost rate, and the other one has an "else" setting which is a highly randomized pulsation and fluctuation in intensity. Not exactly surge flow, but I find my macro algae really like it.