Flow in 10g barebottom

[junglejim83]

The set up i am creating is a 10 g bare bottom with a 5.5g sump. I'm going with an 1" external overflow (less crap in the tank that way ). I will be keeping sps, lps and zoos

 

For flow here is what i was thinking. An aquaclear 50 hob, then from the sump a rio 1400 (i already have it) w/ a scwd hooked up to it. I would have one port plumbed into an old aquaclear mini and then other with an outlet pointing behind the rock. With the head loss and the scwd that should be about 320gph, so that would come out to about 500gph, and if i wanted more flow i could add the ac 70 impeller to kick up the 100gph to a total of 600gph.

 

Would this be a good amount of flow so to make sure that i keep thing stirred up enough to make use of the bare bottom and my skimmer?

 

Jim

[Blacktone]

I would think so, although it might be a little ruff on the zoos. I"m sure that much flow will have no problems keeping things stirred up.

[Uhuru]

If it's enough flow to keep stuff from settling on the bottom then you are fine. In a well designed BB tank you could get away with 50-60x turnover. In a not so well designed one you may have to bump it up to +100x turnover (like my 5 gal). So in your aquascaping and layout of your pumps, everything should revolve around the direction of flow. You want to try to "sweep" everything off the floor, then up and into the overflow. You may want to build rock supports to help get flow underneath the rocks.

 

Some zoas will be fine with lots of flow, others will shrivel up for a while. Eventually they all seem to adapt and come around though. At least that is my experience. Good luck!