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View Full Version : 39x Water Flow In Szymons Tank?


happyclam
08/03/2008, 09:36 AM
I was looking at the current TOTM (Szymon), and I noticed it didn't seem like he had alot of flow. I know the reccomended water flow is 50-100x, but after calculating his flow- it's only 39x. And of course we can all see he is having plenty of succes with SPS. So is it the flow guidelines are flawed, or did he just get lucky? Or did I make a miscalculation when ading up his flow? here is what I got:
(2) 6100 Tunze Streams = 3170 gph ea., 6340gph total, 30x
(1) 6500 Red Dragon Pump = 1715 gph, 8x
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Grand TOTAL = 8055 gph, 39x

While I'm not trying to knock-off Szymons beautiful tank, I was just curious about flow, as I am in the process of setting up my 1st SPS tank.

reefkoi
08/03/2008, 09:44 AM
Everybody has success with different formulas...........look at lighting, watts per gallon is a joke, I've seen awesome tanks as low as 2 watts per gallon and as high as 30 watts per gallon, both equally nice and with the same "bright look" to the human eye.

Hopefully this hobby will advance to regularly use terms like PAR and velocity and quit using watts per gallon and "turnover rate"

C

Amphiprion
08/03/2008, 10:12 AM
Larger tanks seem to be able to get away with "less" turnover in that the pumps they use are usually much higher volume compared to those used in smaller tanks. 39x turnover obviously works for Szymon's tank, but may or may not work for even smaller tanks (mine for example--I know it wouldn't nearly be enough).

Mikeeee
08/03/2008, 01:33 PM
Smaller the tank - the harder it is to avoid dead spots. I notice with my 90g i am need more random flow to avoid dead spots mostly because i do not have much front-back space so the rocks are close to the back wall and on the sides and as you get more corals it also gets harder. Wish i started off with a 30 or 36" wide tank:(.