Clownfish and Flow in Nano

aj2494 · 03/08/2021, 09:03 AM

Hey guys, I unfortunately got out of the hobby towards the end of college but recently inherited a 10+ year old Biocube 14 from my sister. The tank was pretty bare-bones before and completely stock, with a single ocellaris as the only non hermit/snail inhabitant. The clown is probably 7 or 8 years old at this point but she's extremely small (stunted somehow) and skinny, which I'm working on fixing. I've been upgrading this AIO and turning it into a reef tank, but I'm afraid that I'm taking the tank in a direction the clown doesn't like. I've upgraded the stock pump to an MJ900 and added a Hygger mini wavemaker (running at the lowest setting, 20%). Flow is obviously not crazy but there aren't any dead spots and the clown really seems to be struggling with the flow, particularly at night. She's out and about quite a bit and looks healthy aside from being skinny, but I frequently find her hiding in really tight spots or just sitting on the sand bed, balancing on her pectorals. She always comes out as soon as she sees me and is generally active but based on her behavior, swimming tires her out quite a bit and I'm concerned that the flow is stressing her out too much. She has a torch/hammer to potentially host but they're both fairly new and only a couple heads each so I don't see this becoming a solution for at least 6 months. Is this something I should let run its course, or do I need to reduce the flow until I can fatten her up?

bradleym · 03/08/2021, 09:42 AM

I'd recommend reducing flow and fattening up. A 14g is pretty small for an older clownfish and introducing a lot of change and stress to an unhealthy fish isn't ideal. LPS and softies do just fine in low flow, so again I'd say take it easy on the clown until it's healthy.

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aj2494 · 03/09/2021, 09:25 AM

Thanks for the input Brad. I did some experimenting with various flow levels and pump placement yesterday and determined that the MJ900 is far and away providing most of the flow with the Hygger set to the min, but obviously it needs to stay running. The Hygger is off now and has been moved to a spot where the output is 2" away from some rocks for when it's turned back on.

As for the condition of the clown, I noticed some white stringy poop yesterday and it clicked that this was not the first time I had seen it in the two months I've had the tank. I suspect there's a parasite or two at the root of all this and probably has been for a long time. I'm drinking down on my efforts to feed her as much as humanly possible and switched back to feeding mainly floating pellets. She's an odd eater, always hungry and converting her to frozen food was easy but she tends to spit up anything sizeable (even the tiny pellets sometimes take her 3-4 tries to swallow). She'd always been fed these pellets before and I can give her a lot of time to eat with less worry about water quality than dusting the tank with frozen food because she guess for such small pieces. Metroplex and focus are on their way to hopefully kick this thing and get her healthy for the first time in probably years.

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aj2494 · 03/09/2021, 10:10 AM

Oh and I forgot to add, I'm going to replace that MJ900. It's really noisy and running it on its own, I think it's more flow than I really need for a return in this tank. The plan is to pick up either a Sicce 1.0 or Hydor Pico 260. Both are supposed to be very quiet and have adjustable flow while being slightly more powerful than an MJ900, but the Hydor can be dialed back to almost no flow whereas there's no real information out there about Syncra flow adjustments. I'm leaning towards the Hydor for that reason.

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03/08/2021, 09:03 AM	#1
aj2494 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: East Amherst, NY Posts: 235	Clownfish and Flow in Nano Hey guys, I unfortunately got out of the hobby towards the end of college but recently inherited a 10+ year old Biocube 14 from my sister. The tank was pretty bare-bones before and completely stock, with a single ocellaris as the only non hermit/snail inhabitant. The clown is probably 7 or 8 years old at this point but she's extremely small (stunted somehow) and skinny, which I'm working on fixing. I've been upgrading this AIO and turning it into a reef tank, but I'm afraid that I'm taking the tank in a direction the clown doesn't like. I've upgraded the stock pump to an MJ900 and added a Hygger mini wavemaker (running at the lowest setting, 20%). Flow is obviously not crazy but there aren't any dead spots and the clown really seems to be struggling with the flow, particularly at night. She's out and about quite a bit and looks healthy aside from being skinny, but I frequently find her hiding in really tight spots or just sitting on the sand bed, balancing on her pectorals. She always comes out as soon as she sees me and is generally active but based on her behavior, swimming tires her out quite a bit and I'm concerned that the flow is stressing her out too much. She has a torch/hammer to potentially host but they're both fairly new and only a couple heads each so I don't see this becoming a solution for at least 6 months. Is this something I should let run its course, or do I need to reduce the flow until I can fatten her up?

03/08/2021, 09:42 AM	#2
bradleym Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Shrewsbury/St. Louis, Mo Posts: 3,878	I'd recommend reducing flow and fattening up. A 14g is pretty small for an older clownfish and introducing a lot of change and stress to an unhealthy fish isn't ideal. LPS and softies do just fine in low flow, so again I'd say take it easy on the clown until it's healthy. Sent from my SM-G892U using Tapatalk __________________ Happy reefing means sometimes you just have to go with the flow. Current Tank Info: 92g corner round. No sand, lots of mushrooms.

03/09/2021, 09:25 AM	#3
aj2494 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: East Amherst, NY Posts: 235	Thanks for the input Brad. I did some experimenting with various flow levels and pump placement yesterday and determined that the MJ900 is far and away providing most of the flow with the Hygger set to the min, but obviously it needs to stay running. The Hygger is off now and has been moved to a spot where the output is 2" away from some rocks for when it's turned back on. As for the condition of the clown, I noticed some white stringy poop yesterday and it clicked that this was not the first time I had seen it in the two months I've had the tank. I suspect there's a parasite or two at the root of all this and probably has been for a long time. I'm drinking down on my efforts to feed her as much as humanly possible and switched back to feeding mainly floating pellets. She's an odd eater, always hungry and converting her to frozen food was easy but she tends to spit up anything sizeable (even the tiny pellets sometimes take her 3-4 tries to swallow). She'd always been fed these pellets before and I can give her a lot of time to eat with less worry about water quality than dusting the tank with frozen food because she guess for such small pieces. Metroplex and focus are on their way to hopefully kick this thing and get her healthy for the first time in probably years. Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

03/09/2021, 10:10 AM	#4
aj2494 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: East Amherst, NY Posts: 235	Oh and I forgot to add, I'm going to replace that MJ900. It's really noisy and running it on its own, I think it's more flow than I really need for a return in this tank. The plan is to pick up either a Sicce 1.0 or Hydor Pico 260. Both are supposed to be very quiet and have adjustable flow while being slightly more powerful than an MJ900, but the Hydor can be dialed back to almost no flow whereas there's no real information out there about Syncra flow adjustments. I'm leaning towards the Hydor for that reason. Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk