Getting correct/good flow in my 70g... can you help?

[Candi]

Here are some photos so you can see what my rockwork looks like, and where I currently have my powerheads (out of site, which is how I'd like them to stay LOL)

The tank is an Oceanic 70g RR with the megaflow overflow kit. Rock is mostly from marcorocks.com (so very airy), softies & a couple SPS on top which came thanks to Mike and have actually done pretty well under PC.

I have a ETSS Aetech sump & super skimmer (sump holds around 15g I believe), my skimmer is powered by a mag9

Return pump is a Via Aqua VA-3600 and it REALLY puts out a strong flow from the return into the tank.

I hate the look of powerheads in the tank so I've used the towers to sort of hide mine...in the tank on the left I have a maxijet 1200 with a rotating hydor attachment, on the right is a seio M820 pointed at the right wall.

Everything in the tank flows around pretty constantly, not finding any collections of gunk anywhere, and for it being a pretty new tank (upgraded from a 50g) I don't have to much algae (these photos were taken before I installed new bulbs & beefed up my cleaning crew although I still have a bit on the middle rocks assuming that is my least flow area).

That said I wasn't sure if I had enough flow, to much, wrong places, etc? I can't get any fish to hang out on the right hand side (return & seio side) except for my new firefish and I think she's over there just because everyone else is on the left LOL

I have a hydor 3 coming this week and I was going to replace the maxijet with that... should I shoot for 2 of them and also lose the seio? Which should be on which side (ie keep seio on the return side or put the hydor over there) which way should I have the flow blowing, to the side walls or the front? Where would you recommend aiming the flow from the return?

Thank you so much for any recommendations, my goal is to have enough flow to keep everything moving around and have no dead spots but not so much that my fish hide on 1/2 the tank.
Thanks so much!!!

 

[mladencovic]

From what I see in your tank, you have mostly softies and LPS that do not require, even dislike, strong flow. Do you plan to keep the same type of corals or do you plan to add SPS?

 

[Candi]

I plan to keep what I have, no upgraded lighting coming my way LOL Do you think I would be ok with the hydro 3 on the left and just the return for flow on the right?

 

[AnDom1]

Hi candi

First a few observations....The tank looks great with a nice open reef structure; the animals look healthy and happy and your comment about no "gunk" settling anywhere in large amounts is important. To me, these things mean you have very good flow now.
So when/if you change things don't do too much too quickly.

My suggestion would be to leave the rotating MJ1200 alone (the rotation is dispersing the strong flow); keep the return the same for now and replace the Seio with the Hydor in the same spot. This should reduce the high flow pressure against the right wall, which will ease the flow across the softies and LPS's and perhaps induce some of the fish to swim on the right side of the tank.

Dom

PS. Wish I had known about Marco Rocks before I built my somewahat unstable reef structure