new to 3reef advice on water flow

hi
I have searched forum and followed all sorts of threads basicaly got myself in to allsorts of knots trying to find some info on water flow!!! in tanks every one seems to say the more the better and you dont want to have dead spots thats all well and good but with all the power heads ect where would the best direction to point them in i have a power head with a wave maker screw only small but it moves the water around then my return from my sump go's through a spinkler bar (kind of thing) which is directed from the top rear of my tank towards the front bottem so to speak! then on the opposite side of my tank (to the wave maker power head) i have a medium size koralia pump pointing yet again down and across the front of my tank the tank is about 55gal with a 10 gal sump i have live rock across the full lenth of the tank that stands about 25mm away from the glass sides and back all along the rear of the tank from what i can tell is a "dead spot" and you can not get down to clean it most tanks i have studied have had the live rock upto the back glass as and when i can aford it i intend to build my rock up higher at the back as it is only half way up for now my tank is just over 2 foot in depth i have a mixed tank some fish & some soft coral with a few clean up critters as well

 

hi peppapot

I have a 5ft long tank with no sump

I use 2 x K type power heads - 3000 litres per hour (750 US Gallons) and have these on side wall near back corner directed towards front and centre

I have a smaller Life tech power head at 1200 (300 US Gallons) litres per hour at the back of my reef going along the back wall - located at base of tank

I have a 1600 litre pump (400 US Gallons) which pumps water through my chiller and then through a return which is at top and sends the water along the back of the tank at the top

I have 2 x cannister filters Fluval - used for chemical filtration - Carbon / Phosgaurd and Purigen in the other - both rated at 1500 litres ( 375 US gallons x 2)

so a total of 2950 US gallons and the tank is 70 gallons - so 40 x tank volume in water turn over

(not included pump in Deltec mce600 as I dont recall what it is? )

its reasonable well spread , but due to the positioning does give me quite areas either end as most flow is top 3rd and centre

Steve

just one comment on your sprinkler bar ? how big are the holes in the bar? coralline when it develops will grow over these holes and in order not to have your flow restricted you need to clean them with a toothpick / cocktail stick regular

 

wowwzer!!! thats a hole lot of pumping going on dont think ive got any where near enough "water flow" ive moved over from tropical which iv played with for a good 20 years on and off will have to dig out some more power heads! lol! my spinkler bar gets a bit tatty now and again so i just remove it & give it a scrub thanks i think i might change direction on that and run it down the glass at the back which will hopefully get some movement behind my rock & may stick a few more power heads in ! but would you say to point them all at the middle and have a mass clash or would it be better to have a rotation system in some way

 

If you do go power head route then try and spread the flow out a bit dont point it all at the middle
also point some upwards rather than down wards - good surface movement is very important

a rotation system is probably a better option - you can then alternate power heads so that water movement/ flow changes direction and set ups like that are very natural

Steve