Circulation Requirments?

[happyclam]

I was curious as to how much circulation was needed for a FOWLR tank? I currently have 10x circ. in my 135 gal partially set-up tank and it doesn't seem like alot. Any reccomedations appreciated.

[reefergeorge]

I would recommend the same as a reef. Fish love flow as much as coral.
When my 90 was a fowlr I ran two koralia #4s, and a mag 9 return. It could have used more flow.

[BIG-G]

with a fish only tank you want to provide enough flow to remove all the stagnant areas so you dont get an accumilation of uneaten food somewhere, as long as the fish are not getting tossed around the tank you can have a lot of currents moving around the tank. I know some that are using 30 to 40 times tank volume per hour (but thats in a sps reef tank). What pump or pumps are you using to produce the circulation now? Is it from many small pumps or one or two larger ones?

[JVITAL55]

I believe that 10x is plenty. You propably can even gat away with 5x, but I like to stay around 10.

[johno4]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13711058#post13711058 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JVITAL55
I believe that 10x is plenty. You propably can even gat away with 5x, but I like to stay around 10.

yes you can get away with less but from my experience fish seem to be happier with more. On my 135 I had 900gph return pump and a mag 18 (1800gph) on a closed loop. I then added an eductor to both outputs on the closed loop and the fish seemed to really spark up with the increase in the flow.

[happyclam]

Thank you for the replys everyone. I currently have (4) Koralia 1 powerheads (400 gph ea.). Due to plug space, I can only have a maximum of 4 powerheads in the tank, just to let you know. I am thinking about upgrading to the Koralia Magnum #8 and getting 2, 3, or 4 of them. What do you think/reccomend?

PS: just put the rock and sand in the tank! :D

[aqua180]

wow didnt think you need that much for fish only

[E.intheC]

You might want to try the 8's.. or you can go with extra power strips? those might be the cheaper and safer route.. make sure you don't overload your sockets.

[reefergeorge]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13714106#post13714106 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by aqua180
wow didnt think you need that much for fish only

With a lot of people using the koralias for flow, I think so.
IME they are very weak. Like I said above, I have two #4s, and a mag 9.5. If each #4 puts out 1200gph :lol:, and the mag at 5' is around 500gph. I am running 32x turnover in my 90, and it could still use more flow.

[E.intheC]

I think the main difference between the Koralias and the other mainstream (haha.. get it?) powerheads is that the Koralias dissipate the water in a better manner, rather than the simply laminar flow that the other powerheads create, so it doesn't seem as powerful. For most applications, It's actually a better flow though..

[JustinReef]

Same flow rules/ideas as a reef. There is no magic number though. Make sure nothing is building up on the sandbed and make sure there are no dead spots. This can be achieved often with about 40x flow.

The problem with a number is that it doesn't say anything about how useful that flow is. I have seen tanks packed with Vortechs and still have dead spots and bad flow patterns. On the other hand, I have a 130G FOWLR with only a Koralia 4 and a 1200GPH return pump (after head loss) and there are no dead spots or detritus building up anywhere. In my case, I only have 50 lbs. LR in my display tank.

[limitdown]

I've got 10x total system volume with the return pump and another 30x in powerheads for my 250g FO system.

[happyclam]

Allright- will get (2) Koralia Magnum 8s (3250 gph ea.) which should provide 48x turnover rate/flow, which I feel should be a good starting point. BTW, I only have 4 rocks in my tank, so hopefully no dead spots :) ! I also plan on doing weekly or every other week water changes, so I can always suck up collected detritus (thats why I chose a course sand that is easily vacuumed).

MAY THE AQUARIUM GOD GRANT ME GOOD FLOW AND LITTLE COLLECTED DETRITUS :D