Powerhead question in nano

You could upgrade the 240 to a koralia with 600+ gph, upgrade the return pump (i upgraded my biocube pump to a maxijet 900), or keep the 240 and put a 425 on the right side glass, near the front corner pointing towards the center of the tank. Just an idea, its totally up to you though.

 

Right now you have a flow of about 20X your tank volume. I would definitely consider getting that up to between 30-40x tank volume and 50+x higher if you ever go with sps.

Adding a 2nd power head aimed at one another would give you a bit more erratic flow rather than circular flow too.

I think another nano 240 would be perfect for softies and LPS and a adding 425 would be perfect for an SPS tank.

 

I've always used general rule of thumb for turnover rates as: 30x for softies, 50x for LPS and 70-100x for SPS/NPS. Keep in mind the ocean's turnover rate will do more than 100x easy.

 

But that would look pretty ugly in my little tank and obstruct much of the view. I'm leaning more towards getting a larger return pump and maybe some of that flexible ball joint stuff to aim the nozzle better inside the tank. Right now the only LPS I have are two trumpet coral frags. But on Tues I should be getting a hammer coral, a lobo frag, an acan frag, and a blasto.

Would those benefit from greater flow? It seems of the two trumpet's I have one is very happy and the other less so and they're next to each other but the less happy one is in a little more flow. I just moved the other but I'm not sure where I should put it in the tank.

I want everyone to be happy and want the tank to look nice.

 

Guess it depends on who you ask lol. I've read 30-40 for softies 40-50 for lps and 50+ for sps. Who's to say who is right though? My only concern, from experience, is keeping the sand from blowing around and/or blowing a crater in the sand bed. We with agree he needs more flow and like you said, it's all his choice.

 

I like your return flow idea. I had 20x flow in my 20 gallons for months with a trumpet and it grew. Now I have 31x flow with plans on getting it up to 41x.

 

And it has softies in it too so I don't want to make them unhappy. I found that my mushrooms didn't like much flow but when moved to a lesser flow spot they opened up huge. So can I over do it with the softies? I guess I need to find a middle ground.

 

Mixed reefs can be difficult. I put my softies low and my sps high where the flow is greater.

 

+1, especially in a smaller tank, its hard to find the sweet spots for each type of coral.

About the LPS frags, acans like more flow than some of the other corals you listed, however, as long as the flow is constantly battering from one side, all corals, even softies, like higher flow. it simulates a more natural ocean"y" feel.

The middle ground you mentioned would be shooting for LPS, then if you wanna keep some SPS keep them closer to the powerheads.

Fsukum, didnt mean to come across as trying to say you're wrong, just that that's what I've come to use. no hard feeling

 

No worries at all, I didn't take it that way at all.