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Flow with powerheads

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Heavenly Corals

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Hello again, I am having a little flow problem. In my 25 gallon frag tank I have a hydro powerhead, no idea how gph or anything that it is. But I took a picture.. yes tank is dirty, its next on my list... lol I have two nano powerheads extra. Any help on where to put the powerhead or if its to much for that tank. Any help would be awsome. .
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Going to be tough with that monstrosity made of egg crate. Stuff ruins flow! Going to need as much flow as you can fit in there. Look at which koralia that is. I'd put at least a 4 in there... And not point it right at the egg crate like that. Going to block a lot of it right off the bat
 
Had it pointing straight a head but thtat kept one of my fish from swimming.. 4? I have no idea what this one is. Any idea on to tell? But I want to put a couple fish in there. Like I said I could take this one out and put one or two nano ones.

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ahhh screw it... the board showed 4 of my posts, so I edited all but one of them... but apparently I only did a double post and now I edited away everything I typed...
 
Long winded post destroyed, rip that egg crate out and minimize it. Are you really going to grow out that many frags to utilize all of that space?

If you have to keep the eggcrate put a powerhead under the bottom piece otherwise detritus will accumulate and you're not going to be able to get a siphon hose down there to suck it out ever.

Those small cubes are tough because there's not much room for any of the gentle flow/high volume pumps.
 
They have a label right near where the cord attaches. Also the color of the impeller can tell you which model sometimes. Egg crate sucks, especially in that amount
 
+1 to what these guys said :) How are you planning on cleaning the bottom? Looks like a Koralia 425 to me though I have been out of the Koralia loop for quite a while now. Vortech it!
 
It is not a nano powerhead, it maybe a a 1050. There is no label its been ripped off. I am always up for suggestions on how to make my frag tank better, I don't have the bottom rack full but top is and middle is just about. I would like to fill this tank with coral so i can pay water and resupply my salt and coral supplies.

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Ditch the bottom level. Have two levels if you want different light levels. Support one from each side of the tank, preferably with magnets. I much prefer acrylic racks over egg crate due to flow issues. Tap plastics scrap section is super cheap. You can attach magfloat to acrylic scrap, drill a few holes for plugs and call it a day. Keep the bottom uncovered and try to have some flow there to keep stuff from settling, unless you wanna do small daily or so water changes to siphon stuff out.
 
Glad you removed bottom level.

My suggestion on flow:
Put 2 powerheads on the left side near front such that they push water
from left to right across the front glass.
That should set up a circular gyre in the tank. (counter clockwise if looking down)
(The opposite way would be fine though)
If so, you will get good solid flow across the corals, but no direct blast from the powerheads.
 
Much improved IMO but I'd move the front two pumps to the back - Kept at the same level or you can put one of the tiny ones in the middle section. Better yet.. Toss an MP10 on it ;)
 
my experience with eggcrate frag racks is as follows; they don't impede flow if you place the powerhead in the right place granted the rack doesn't cover the entire footprint of the tank. If the powerhead is just behind the rack & 2 inches bellow it, it'll blow water up through the eggcrate with enough power that flat plating monti frags sitting loosely on the rack eventually float & fall off. Another way it worked well for me is to mount the pump on the back of the tank pointed forward towards the front & angled up if the frag rack is high and water flow would simply deflect & come back towards the frag rack, if the rack is sitting low the pump sits towards the top & aimed down to achieve the same effect.

If I was in your shoes I'd put the nanos on the sides (not directly pointing at frags and not directly at each other) and the bigger powerhead on the bottom back of the tank pointed towards the center of the front panel. Of course this is no specific science but it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot. There are no definitive rules to powerhead placement just trial & error... this reminds me I need to figure out how to get my flow back, I seem to have lost most of my flow after my recent massive addition of corals & rocks :cool:
 
So many opinions..... :)
Best is the one to just experiment a lot.

If you want a "Gyre" effect, it needs to be like the 12:27 picture, but move one power head up a ways.
Actually, I would use all 3. Big one on the bottom, and two nano up higher, about equally distributed.
The 12:46 picture will not produce a gyre.
You will know you have it right if after a few minutes, the water starts to swirl, a bit like a toilet,
of course not nearly as strong.

That said, a Gyre is not always the best way to go.
 
rygh said:
So many opinions..... :)
Best is the one to just experiment a lot.

If you want a "Gyre" effect, it needs to be like the 12:27 picture, but move one power head up a ways.
Actually, I would use all 3. Big one on the bottom, and two nano up higher, about equally distributed.
The 12:46 picture will not produce a gyre.
You will know you have it right if after a few minutes, the water starts to swirl, a bit like a toilet,
of course not nearly as strong.

That said, a Gyre is not always the best way to go.
Click to expand...

Ok so i want Gyre or is there something better? I'm thinking about putting a couple fish and snails. I want my corals to be happy and grow. If u use all 3 heads then I have to buy another powerhead cause im using the nanos to stir my saltwater.

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