24 Gallon Nano Cube --FLOW--

[Vdubjetta01]

Hello there from newb's corner! I have my nano all set up and running I think I misread some information when setting up my salt water tank such as that the common upgrade for the pump is maxi jet 900/1200 and a power head, well I salvaged what I could from my freshwater setup 2 things were a 500gph powerhead and 460gph return pump.

So I decided that all this "flow" and the turn over rate for a reef tank which is what I plan on having would be more than sufficient almost a 1000gph so a 40 times turnover well my fish hated the power head and I couldn't get it set up to not blow my substrate everywhere so I pulled that out and I have my return pump on the lowest setting but I believe it is busted to be stuck on the the highest setting so 460gph minus the loss of going up 18".

So they all still are swimming around but to me seem to struggle a little bit and when I shut it off they free roam all over is this normal will they adjust to the flow eventually? Where should I be at as far as the turnover rate since I am planning for a reef because I have read a lot of guys saying they have 400gph power heads in a 10 gallon and they still think they need more flow maybe I am not catching onto the proper flow of a tank?

Thanks for any and all help!!

 

[xxHLTxx]

So you asking turnover as in flow turnover or through a sump/fuge turnover?

I personally have a 10g that is converted to have a chaeto area and a 75gph return pump... so water in the "DT" is only 7ish gallons and i have a Aqueon 500gph pump in there.. and i have a HOB AC70 with more chaeto and growout for pods. Te tank itself has a pretty high flow almost all the time, but i aim it more towards the top of the tank and place live rock with corners to buffer the water flow away from the substrate. (my 75g DT has 2 900gph pumps and 2 Korelia 1400s on a wavemaker timer... i use shelf rock lower down to add sort of a buffer or "tunnel" effect to keep the flow off the substrate... i use sugar fine sand.) My turnover rate for the tanks are rather high for the 10g and for the 75 it is turning over about 5 times an hour, fully through the sump and back.

Your flow turnover rate really isnt on a scale of 1-10 for reefs and where you need to be, it matters on whatever corals you will put in or what fish you have and want to recreate natural living environment to. If you have shallow reef dwelling fish and a tightly packed tank... i would do a moderate flow away from the rocks. if you have tangs and triggers i would do less rock and more flow. Fish will not matter as much as corals, so determine what corals you have/want and what you will need to allow the coral to thrive... the fish will adapt and find spots they can and cant swim.

 

[Vdubjetta01]

Thank you for your response. I was asking for both turnover and through my mini refuge but I understand what your saying. Setup the environment for the corals rather than setup a general system for all corals

 

[Aaron]

IMHO a lot of random flow is good in salt water tanks; it helps with nutrient export and keeps fish healthy.

Have you tried creating a deflector for your return? I personally really like the Nuvo spin streams because they create random flow:
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/catalog/product/view/id/2312/

Also while your tank is new you can expect some amount of cloudy water while all of the detritus settles out. Hopefully you are running a skimmer so you can get it out of your tank instead of having it settle in low flow areas of your sump. If you are really serious I would highly recommend a Vortech mp10.

I have these on both my Biocube 29 and Nuvo 16. Personally I wouldn't build a nano without them. Flow is important because it keeps tanks looking great over the long term.

 

[Vdubjetta01]

That spinstream is on my list of things to buy. But that is what I'm worried about is the settling of stuff and dead spots BUT at the same time with the return pump I have and my 500gph power head that is garbage compared to the mp10 makes my tank just seem really turbulent. I don't like the way it looks but maybe it's just placement and angle of it that I don't have down.

I had it on the opposite side of my return pump caddy corner on the back aiming at the bow on the front. Is there somewhere better?

 

[xxHLTxx]

Could try in the middle of the back of the tank. ive seen that look good sometimes... or even on the side of the return pump facing the opposite side of the tank