Water Flow (GPH)?

[Fate]

Most aim for 10-20x GPH on their reef tanks. With that being said are you calculating GPH based off your Return pump alone or are adding your power heads in to the equation?

I'm running a Rio 1400 with a 3-3/12 ft head pressure on my 50g Cube which roughly gives me 260-290 GPH. Which would leave me short of min 500 GPH. But I have 2 JeBao PP4's which would give me a 1,000 GPH each equaling 2,260 GPH which is more than enough.

So my question is do I have enough flow for LPS and SPS or should I upgrade to the Rio 1700?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Looks like you got plenty in there

 

[Fate]

So you do count the powerheads, ok cool

Does placement of the powerheads matter much?

 

[Reefing Madness]

You just dont' want any dead spots in the tank. Yes, you most certainly count the power head gph. Placement would all depend on your tank layout

 

[Fate]

Right now I have them positioned on each side of the tank. I want a more cleaner look so I was going to place them on the back. I'm thinking it wouldn't make a huge difference since it's a cube tank with equal dimensions all the way around

 

[Reefing Madness]

Yea proabably not. Some put em on the back, some on the sides, up to you.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

chiming in a and question too.
Return flow is a separate calculation and 10x is actually (even though widely reccomended) mant consider that fast and run more in the 5x to 7x range. Giving the skimmer and maybe furge more time to do thier job, as a fast return rate sends particulate solids right back into the tank.

@Reefing Madness Id seen calculations of turnover that include powerhesds and return and honestly skimmed over them as it seem counter intuitive to me. Any links for dummies you can send.


I based mine on in tank movement and CM per second. As I met more reefers and looked at a lot of youtube for more species specific flow information the seem to base loosely it on that as well.
Killing the dead spots is a natural but many are basing it (on softies zoas clams) on the physical movement of the animal, ie right to where the fringes move. and then observe the animal.
So its more a physical observation and estimation then a set mathematical calculation is most often the technique use by the best reefers I know.
Totally makes stony corals a really guessing game. Thats where Im at anyway.

Also the LPS and SPS hard rule is like nutrients quite a myth as both live in amazingly different environments like depth and flow and thrive there. (deepest living photosynthetic coral in the world? an SPS, a lepto)
Im finding as I work with flow you naturally have different zones of laminar and turbulent flow. I aim for a somewhat even turbulant flow over the tank with fewest dead spots, but it always has a laminar drift to it(heading to the overflow) and thats a good thing. And the move the coral around till its happy.

Frustrating yes that there are no hard rules, but Last night I bought sps from a fellow reefer who had tricolor valeda in several spots in his tank, each looked different and had grown differently.
funny, the one he liked least had only encrusted about 6 in and had long 3in at max branches only in a few spots. Poor guy. Only encrusted 6in:)

 

[Fate]

Do you guys aim your power heads down towards the rock and coral?

 

[hart24601]

For Sps I don't count return flow and shoot for at the very least 100x turnover rate if not more. Of course that still means looks for dead spots and adjust flow where needed and put PH outputs so they don't blast anything directly. Actually for mixed reefs even I like 100x flow, Sps 150-200.

For my sumps I like 5-10x flow through.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Do you guys aim your power heads down towards the rock and coral?

sometimes. if its acros the tank but not generally

check this out
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/feeding-time-in-my-mixed-reef.246809/#post-2901234

 

[Reefing Madness]

I have mine pointed at the rock some, and get a lil ripple across the top of the water, having to point it would all depend on the power the the powerhead. I don't have to point mine at the surface, it just gets there.