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10g - getting better flow


mattgreene22

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mattgreene22

How are those of you getting your flow in a standard 10g?

 

I need high flow...for hardy sps (montipora).

 

Investigating upgrades to my randomly acquired powerheads...or maybe doing a closed loop. What powerhead(s) are people using? Maxi-jet?s...which one(s)?

 

Thoughts or experience anyone? ...let's hear it.

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i've always used high flow rios. 400 or 600...i had two in my eclipse 12 with no problem. sps enjoyed the flow but i think more wouldve been better. :D

 

are you going BB in your ten? if so, go with a seio 620. decent little pumps.

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mattgreene22

Just to confirm...BB=Bare-Bed? Still picking up the jargon here. No, about an inch of aragonite sand.

 

Any heat issues tith the rios in your tank yoshiod?

 

I've got a hagen 201 and a mini marineland power-filter w/out bio-wheel. It's not equal/opposite flow..but the power-filter is really there to keep a little carbon. I was using a small RIO (can't remember size) but it died on me....so I've got the power-filter running 24/7 now to replace it. My temps are nearly 83 without the light...and room temp is about 77. I think the ph/filter motors are the culprit and would like to get the temp down before I need my lights on for the normal duration.

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poormanisme

i use an aquaclear mini HOB, and aquaclear 10 powerhead and a maxijet 600. if i didn't have sand i would have gone with a bit more flow.

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haven't ever had any issues with my rios...heat, break downs, nothing ever. but then again, i do clean my powerheads once a month or so. a nice hot water soak while on and then a real good scrub down of the impeller housing and whatnot.

 

i tried aquaclear powerheads back in the day and had temp problems with them too. your 10 should definitely not be running that hot with no light on. try pointing a fan over the water of the tank...it should help a bit.

 

maxijets and minijets are notorious for running really warm too...so be careful there. the only pumps i use now are rios. just be sure to clean 'em well. i guarantee that the rio you said broke will work perfectly if you soak it in ultra hot water, run it in the hot water, and scrub it out with qtips to get all the grime out. :D try it...i bet it'll work.

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Here's an older pict of my 10. Running a maxijet 1200 (closed loop to 1/2" seaswirl) and rio 800 (bakpak 2r skimmer). Lights on temp is running 77. That big box fan behind the tank (housed in a cubby hole) is making all the difference in the world. That's 585gph in a 10 or close to it anyway.

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mattgreene22

poormanisme - thanks for the info....have you had heat issues at all?

 

yoshiod9 - thanks, I'll try to clean out my rio and see if it lives..it's a 180. Also, who do you normally buy your rios from? Btw, do you think a maxijet would still run warm if the housing was above the waterline?

 

knowse - wow! that's some seroius equipment in a 10g. What were you keeping? Got any pics of your closed loop plumbing?? I have a mag 3 I could put to use if I went that route and might pick up a sqwd...but now sea swirl (ouch $$$).

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BKtomodachi

On my ten, I have a small hagen 50 gph powerhead, the smallest zoomed powersweep, and a MJ1200 running the remora.

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BKtomodachi

I've got everything from xenia to acropora, its all doing swell!

 

I had heat issues, then I added a fan cooling the waters surface, and now I only have evaporation issues. Well, they arent really issues, but I have to fill up my 6 gallon autotopoff resovoir almost every week.

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Matt,

The sea swirl isn't that much. A nice little investment for lots of water movement. This little tank is entered in a build off "elsewhere"

 

The "closed loop" is nothing more than the maxijet hooked up to the sea swirl via some 1/2"id tubing. If I had been a little smarter, I'd have painted the tubing somehow, so it wasn't/isn't so noticeble.

 

Here's a fairly recent pic of all the crap on the top of the tank.

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I have some brown monti digi rescue frags liking my 2 MJs 600 and 900 with 2 hydor Flos + AC500. It helped rid a small attack of cyano, but takes up too much real estate. I think flow is overrated unless you're going all sps or have other high flow corals. I still think the HOB AC500 is good for a 10G, but next time, I'll run manifold.

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mattgreene22

Sally, how much did you pick up the 1/2" Sea Swirl for? Looks like over a hundred bucks to me. Also, what size mj are you using? I picked up a couple 1200s for cheap, but even one looks like too much flow for a single output....sand goes nuts even with high placement.

 

BKtomodachi, how do you like the zoomed powersweeps? Run it long? That might be the practical substitute for Sally's recommendation.

 

huari, would you seriously consider a manifold on a 10g? Might be interesting...hmmmm....then again, I haven't even tried regular closed loop yet.

 

yoshiod9, my first little rio is officially dead. Interestingly enough though...I picked up a CPR Aquafuge driven by a rio400 for cheap. That rio seems fine, it's been pushing around test water in a tub for a day or so. I was thinking I might try it on the back of my 10g...but it's a bit big (19.25") and ugly (I'm 3rd owner)...so if nothing else I'll use it on my sump when I set up my 30g cube.

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aw... that's a shame about your rio. i've still not had any crap out on me...yet. :D i've found that if they sit out for awhile though, they tend to not want to work. the aquafuges are decent little fuges...as long as you find some way to light them, they can't be beat.

 

i buy all my rios from lfs and haven't lost one yet. :D as for the maxi jet...i assume they'll still transfer a bit of heat to the tank, but i'd imagine it'd be drastically less than if submerged in the tank.

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well I am running a closed loop set up with a SCWD and have been totaly happy with it. if I were you I would go a closed loop and get those damn power heads out of the tank they take up to much space...oh yea I am running the closed loop off of a XP1 canister filter (250gph) with all the media removed exept for 1 sponge to help as a prefilter for the SCWD, I only have one piece of SPS in there now but IMO the flow is prety nice...

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mattgreene22

ok...let's try again (i just posted this and it didn't save???)

 

yoshiod9 - spoke too soon. before i tossed the little rio...i took it apart and put it back together one more time. hard to explain, but I think the cover to the impeller housing wasn't seated right. once I got it perfect it started running just fine. fingers crossed it doesn't flake out again.

 

dhoffroad - intersting set up. I've thought about the scwd some...but now I think it'd be better to spend the extra dough for a sea swirl if I was willing to pay for the scwd.

 

Anyone ever run a closed loop with the mj1200? Looking for experiece there. Also, I think I may play around with the idea of the manifold some. I'm not sure how it would be done on such a small scale....do they make pvc in sizes that would work?....will have to explore. Maybe Tigah or ReeferAddict can chime in with some advice on that;) At least I'd be able to split up the one mj's flow and still get it equal if I did a manifold. that would probably get pretty good flow (and more free real estate internally) without paying money for the scwd/sea-swirl. what do you guys think?

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  • 3 months later...

i have the following setup for a 10gal sps tank.

 

I have 2 aquaclear 301 @174gph/each

1 small aquafuge protein skimmer w/ a MJ1200 PH @295 gph

1 small mivro jet @~117gph

 

total is 760 gph.

 

Question is does the flow from the aquafuge actually count? Especially when compared to the actual flow output output from a dedicated MJ1200 PH in the tank.

 

Not counting the aquafuge it is only 465 gph total.

 

do I have enough flow for sps acros?

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a seio 620 and a small powerhead behind the rockwork... i have a 10g barebottom sps only, what you want. i also have a ac mini on the back with the skimmer in it, so total turnover should be about 700 gallons per hour :P

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burnah:

 

Thanks for the input.

 

My set up is 760gph counting the aquafuge protein skimmer. that is more than the 700 gph you have in yours. So does that mean I should have enough flow for sps like you have in yours?

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