When do you guys make tank adjustments

[Dirtyshoez]

When moving flow patterns or wave makers around in general, what do you guys find is a good practice as far as times to move things around without bothering the fish to much?

I want to move my gyres around not necessarily tonight or this instance still doing research on location and patterns but curious about night time, early morning, mid day... what do you guys do when you're going to do something like this, or is this something you would even recommend or side against doing

 

[Red_Beard]

Whenever. The fish don't care. Current changes in the ocean all the time and they will roll with whatever.

 

[Dirtyshoez]

Playing with my current a little bit and I think i found a sweet spot on this side. But im wondering if the other side is good. I ran them un even so that the current isn't necessarily meeting smack in the middle in theory but has a little bit more of an uneven unsaturated feel.. thoughts?

 

[Red_Beard]

I run a mixed reef and try to create a few different 'zones' of flow. High flow up top for my sps, random medium flow on the bottom in a few spots for lps, and some low flow areas for softies and such. All that to say, as long as your corals are all happy and you dont have odd dead zones where detritus accumulates, you are good.

 

[Dirtyshoez]

I run a mixed reef and try to create a few different 'zones' of flow. High flow up top for my sps, random medium flow on the bottom in a few spots for lps, and some low flow areas for softies and such. All that to say, as long as your corals are all happy and you dont have odd dead zones where detritus accumulates, you are good.

I haven't put any coral yet so right now it's just looking to make sure there are no dead spots. Im mostly concerned with downlow and trying to make sure I'm not overpowering the fish where it's uncomfortable

 

[Jekyl]

Usually takes over a week before things settle from the changes. If you change too often you'll never get an accurate example.

 

[Red_Beard]

I haven't put any coral yet so right now it's just looking to make sure there are no dead spots. Im mostly concerned with downlow and trying to make sure I'm not overpowering the fish where it's uncomfortable

if they are always hiding behind a rock out of the flow, it is too much. otherwise good to go.

 

[Jekyl]

Most new reefers are concerned with too much flow. Usually it isn't enough.

 

[Dirtyshoez]

I just did it today so im going to see for a while how it goes. It seems to be ok because i moved the heaviest flow up top. Still trying to learn my way around the gyres and the different settings

 

[Dirtyshoez]

Most new reefers are concerned with too much flow. Usually it isn't enough.

I have a peninsula and the horror stories got me going lol.

 

[Jekyl]

I have a peninsula and the horror stories got me going lol.

Enough so there's surface agitation, no dead spots, sand not blowing all over.

 

[exnisstech]

I start off by dumping in a bunch of frozen food and watching how it blows around the tank. I want it blowing all over like a snow storm. Coral snow works well in place of food if no fish in the tank.

PS. I use returns for surface agitation and powerheads for in tank flow.

 

[BryanM]

I start off by dumping in a bunch of frozen food and watching how it blows around the tank. I want it blowing all over like a snow storm. Coral snow works well in place of food if no fish in the tank.

PS. I use returns for surface agitation and powerheads for in tank flow.

@Dirtyshoez

^^ This. And you can take a video when you do it, post it to youtube, and link it here, and we can give you more help by being able to see it in action.

 

[Red_Beard]

Or use a turkey baster or larger syring to squirt a few air bubbles into the powerhead. They will show you where the flow is going and how strong it is too.

 

[Dirtyshoez]

I start off by dumping in a bunch of frozen food and watching how it blows around the tank. I want it blowing all over like a snow storm. Coral snow works well in place of food if no fish in the tank.

PS. I use returns for surface agitation and powerheads for in tank flow.

Thats exactly what I did. I angled the returns upward and my top gyre is turned up about 70% on swell

The rest is focusing on middle/low

 

[Dirtyshoez]

@Dirtyshoez

^^ This. And you can take a video when you do it, post it to youtube, and link it here, and we can give you more help by being able to see it in action.

This is one I had taken, I try to record and watch cause I find the camera tends to help me see stuff I'm missing when just looking at it. I really need to get a lens that helps break up the lighting but hopefully you can see the surface movement some. My concern is toward the end of the video, that top part of the tank toward the front.

 

[BryanM]

I love a clean peninsula look, but I think it is difficult to get great water flow from just one side of the tank. The far left needs one of the powerheads over there to help circulate water better, IMO.

That said there is plenty of flow, but I think the left side will end up with detritus issues without more flow pushing the water back to the other side.

 

[Dirtyshoez]

I love a clean peninsula look, but I think it is difficult to get great water flow from just one side of the tank. The far left needs one of the powerheads over there to help circulate water better, IMO.

That said there is plenty of flow, but I think the left side will end up with detritus issues without more flow pushing the water back to the other side.

They have powerheads on both sides just one is pushing harder than the other.

I attached a screenshot. All except right are pulsating power usage but the top center and left are the strongest running with center bottom being mid, the right is currently sitting stable at 34% because the fish seem to be enjoying it.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

For me I never try to make a knee jerk reaction change. Wait it out and see what happens, then slowly make changes. By doing quick changes, you can cause more harm then good

 

[Dirtyshoez]

For sure. I know people get impatient cause they have a visual in mind that they wanna see right away. But honestly I enjoy the small changes and the wait. I want a beautiful tank for sure but I think more so I want a thriving environment I can be proud of, so I enjoy the lessons.

There's a couple of spots on the sand I see that seem to look like they don't get good flow but I don't want to disturb the sand just yet. Tomorrow I'm going to put a clean up crew in and let them start working and see how that goes.