Cali Kid Corals

Jake Adams, recap

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quick google search (I didn't check the link). I think the one brian linked may have had a decimal in the wrong place

They are just on and off afaik.
 
hmm..in a gyre tank, would a single koralia 1 be able to push enough water in a 3ft 40g?

Normally the auto answer would be no, but this is a low resistance case so no idea
 
[quote author=Gomer link=topic=3544.msg40653#msg40653 date=1208217650]
hmm..in a gyre tank, would a single koralia 1 be able to push enough water in a 3ft 40g?

Normally the auto answer would be no, but this is a low resistance case so no idea
[/quote]


I doubt it. Id go with the k4, but they are big.
 
[quote author=Gomer link=topic=3544.msg40653#msg40653 date=1208217650]
hmm..in a gyre tank, would a single koralia 1 be able to push enough water in a 3ft 40g?

Normally the auto answer would be no, but this is a low resistance case so no idea
[/quote]Unfortunately not I have a 3 in my 3' tank and it barely pushes all the way across the tank, it moves a ton of water in a 2' area, but the flow is very dispersed.
 
is your tank set up like a traditional tank where flow has lots of resistance creating turbulent flow from other powerheads/rock etc, or is it set up more like a low resistance gyre tank? Racetrack vs rockcrawling :p

If I can sneak it in to my new place, I'll be picking up some new T5HO bulbs and give it a whirl
 
If the Gyre is set up correctly I don't see why not, it might be slow going initially, but once you get the water moving it's a constantly pressure pushing forward more water.
 
Do you recall what jake said was a good oscillation time? I remember something with 5 and 15 minutes but don't remember what that was tagged to :/
 
Ok so what do you guys think I should do with my flow. I have two vortechs and a return on a wavy sea (that Im told is now useless after this talk hehe)

Tank is 6 ft long, 18" deep, 28" tall. You can see my rock structure in this picture. Overflows are in each back corner and take up about 5 inches of the side wall.

PICT0169.jpg


I cant see how you can make a gyre. and even if i do, How would I make it alternate unless I have 1 vortech on at a time? And if on one at a time, then how does that work with the battery back up I have? And what do I do with my return?

I had the vortechs on the 2 sides for a long time and I have a couple acros growing into one direction which I dont like. I then moved the vortechs to the back wall, but from this talk, it sounds like thats a bad idea.
 
I would experiment. Try turning on one vortech for 5 minutes alone and see what sort of flow pattern you get. Then turn on the other for 5 minutes. Do you get enough flow with just one on at a time? If so, just alternate them at 15-30min cycles. The idea of a gyre tank is momentum. If you don't have your pumps fighting each other, it helps.
 
I remember Jake saying it takes about 15 mins for the gyre to come to full effect. So having a shorter interval than that is counter productive.

C
 
ah, that is where I heard the 15minutes lol. Thanks for the recap on that. I still can't fathom a high flow gyre needing 15minutes to reach equilibrium, but oh well :-D
 
The thing is with vortechs is that with a battery backup, cutting the power will put ithe battery into effect. And removing the battery well makes it pointless.

I think the best I can do is keep them in antisync mode? That is, what one is doing, the other will do the opposite.

Or I can get a small wave going, but is that as good as a gyre?
 
if antisync is one pump max power one pump min and that alternates, that is the best you can do timer wise.

An interesting option is to raise your pumps up higher by ~ 2". THis should create a faster circular flow path. Not sure how it models in the tank though with all the rock.
 
Right now the vortechs are on the back wall. I plan to put them on the sides again since the talk and a little higher then before was the plan as well. Too close to the water line and it will suck a vortex of air straight down . SPS is all on top half though, so thats what matters.

Any idea what I could do for the return though?
 
I wouldn't attempt a full conventional gyre with that tank by switching vortechs on/off, besides the anti-sync mode is very limited to time one can stay off.

My tank has similar dimensions (except height), and I have my vortechs pointed at each other almost right in the middle similar to you, that gets more than adequate flow blowing across, and what Jake said is that if the water fronts crash in the center they can get a gyre like effect as well having the water go downward and back towards the pumps.
 
I'm with Mike, the pumps pointed at each other should generate 2 small gyres, one on each half of the tank. BUT, I'd try and put one in the top back and the other in the bottom front to see if you can create sort of a diagonal gyre and then maybe swap pump positions daily or weekly to help even out growth. It would be best if you have 4 pumps but hey, if you haven't hit the lotto yet it might work :)
 
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