Flow question (waves)

[JustinReef]

Hey all! 

 

I have had a tough time getting the flow right in my IM25 (mixed reef).  I have a Tunze nanostream 6040 which I was using at about half power but I found the flow to be way too direct/strong but still leaving a lot of deadspots. If I turned it up more than half power, it was splashing water out of the tank. 

 

I decided to try pulse mode and dialed it in to get a really great wave going with the 6040 turned down to about 1/4 power. I replaced the stock pump with two Ehiems but they still do not produce a lot of flow (I have them turned down otherwise the water level in the display is way too high). 

 

How good is the flow from a wave? Compared to more turbulent flow from a stream? I have kept the 6040 on pulse for a few days now but I feel like there is no way this alone is enough flow for SPS. Seems like the softies and LPS love it though. 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitten_reef]

3 minutes ago, JustinReef said:

Hey all! 

 

I have had a tough time getting the flow right in my IM25 (mixed reef).  I have a Tunze nanostream 6040 which I was using at about half power but I found the flow to be way too direct/strong but still leaving a lot of deadspots. If I turned it up more than half power, it was splashing water out of the tank. 

 

I decided to try pulse mode and dialed it in to get a really great wave going with the 6040 turned down to about 1/4 power. I replaced the stock pump with two Ehiems but they still do not produce a lot of flow (I have them turned down otherwise the water level in the display is way too high). 

 

How good is the flow from a wave? Compared to more turbulent flow from a stream? I have kept the 6040 on pulse for a few days now but I feel like there is no way this alone is enough flow for SPS. Seems like the softies and LPS love it though. 

 

 

 

 

 

if the 6040 is your only wavemaker, perhaps you can get a bit more creative with its placement.  Instead of typical center on one side, you can put it in the back corner, aiming the flow toward center-front of glass (I have it set this way on my IM30L).  allowing it to bounce off the front glass should help dissipate the flow a little bit too which might allow you to go up a bit on the power settings.  I have a bit of a hard time reaching the other end of my 3-foot tank with this arrangement without causing water to spill up to the cover, so I added an extra powerhead on the other end.  But at its full power (very likely less than that) in a 2-foot tank, I'd imagine there'd be enough flow for SPS.  It all depends on your rockscape too.  

 

At the end of the day, what you want to accomplish is moving water around the tank to remove all dead spots - that's more critical to the corals than cool waves.  Some scape/tank allows the wave to show, but not in my tank. 

[JustinReef]

1 hour ago, micoastreefing said:

if the 6040 is your only wavemaker, perhaps you can get a bit more creative with its placement.  Instead of typical center on one side, you can put it in the back corner, aiming the flow toward center-front of glass (I have it set this way on my IM30L).  allowing it to bounce off the front glass should help dissipate the flow a little bit too which might allow you to go up a bit on the power settings.  I have a bit of a hard time reaching the other end of my 3-foot tank with this arrangement without causing water to spill up to the cover, so I added an extra powerhead on the other end.  But at its full power (very likely less than that) in a 2-foot tank, I'd imagine there'd be enough flow for SPS.  It all depends on your rockscape too.  

 

At the end of the day, what you want to accomplish is moving water around the tank to remove all dead spots - that's more critical to the corals than cool waves.  Some scape/tank allows the wave to show, but not in my tank. 

Thanks, makes sense. 

 

I am not using the pulse mode in search of cool waves or anything, I just found that it moves water around the tank in a way to doesn't either blast corals, cause a sand storm or leave deadspots (although, I am sure there is just not enough flow in the tank now so basically it is all a big dead spot). 

 

The rockwork is all very, very low and scattered along the bottom 1/3 of the tank so waves definitely show. 

 

I just don't know how to judge the amount of flow that is added to an aquarium when the flow is mostly coming from a wave setting. I have used wave settings many times on Vortechs but all in 200G plus tanks which had additional powerheads for flow. Never with the wave being the main source of flow... if that makes sense. 

[A Little Blue]

You can try RFG nuzzles for random flow. 

[JustinReef]

Thanks, I will look into that

[Clown79]

Wave modes produce a lot of flow but it looks different than standard powerhead which is often more direct and constant.

 

I have the IM25 with stock pump and aqamai kps.

I use differ3nt flow settings all day from sway, to Wave, to random. The different patterns seem to work well 

[JustinReef]

1 hour ago, Clown79 said:

Wave modes produce a lot of flow but it looks different than standard powerhead which is often more direct and constant.

 

I have the IM25 with stock pump and aqamai kps.

I use differ3nt flow settings all day from sway, to Wave, to random. The different patterns seem to work well 

Yeah it's so hard for me to judge. 

 

My rockwork is really low so the wave is quite large and the corals/fish really sway around but it's hard for me to see if there are deadspots or not. The corals seem to love it.  

[Clown79]

3 hours ago, JustinReef said:

Yeah it's so hard for me to judge. 

 

My rockwork is really low so the wave is quite large and the corals/fish really sway around but it's hard for me to see if there are deadspots or not. The corals seem to love it.  

It is hard to tell with wave action.