Placement of powerheads and settings for lights? (1 Viewer)

[johntdaballa]

I've been thinking about repositioning my powerheads. Right now I have 2 mp10 facing eachother. But thinking of changing it to one facing the front of the tank.
What type of placement do you have in your tank for your powerheads.?

Also what do your settings look like on your Ai or any Led?

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[Reefahholic]

What are you looking to achieve John?

Care to post a pic of your display so we can evaluate the situation?

 

[johntdaballa]

What are you looking to achieve John?

Care to post a pic of your display so we can evaluate the situation?

Very messy looking tank. Wanting to redo rock work. Picked up some nice pieces from Crystal sea.
The flow I have now is moderate.
Not really sure what I'm looking for, just looking for the best way or suggested set up for a majority lps tank with few sps. I understand it's all preferences but just curious on how everyone sets up there own tank.

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[Reefahholic]

The tank looks great man. I wish the big RBTA was in my tank right now.

As far as flow and powerhead placement, I like my flow moderate to high during the day with a slow wave. Kinda like you'd have in a reef setting...I have my pumps alternating between a 3 second wave each way with a 6 second pause. I have it set with my JB wave. One pump blows 3 seconds and then stops. The other pump comes on in 6 seconds and blows for 3 seconds and stops. They just continue like that. The corals seem to love it and I do too. I think as long as you mimic the ocean, it's gonna work well. At night I like to slow things down to give the corals a break and a chance to feed. As far as light goes...I love the color of T5's and the coverage I get on my coral. So I can't elaborate on LED's. If somebody gave me some Radion GEN 4 Pro's, I definitely test them. hehe.

 

[Mark L.]

John, Having your MP10's on opposing walls of your tank is the way Ecotech designed their programs to operate. The flow patterns are designed from the pumps facing each other. I have 2 MP60s facing each other on the left and right side of my tank. I have 2 MP40's on the back wall facing forward. I run the reefcrest program and my SPS seems to love it.

For my LED's (5 Gen 4 Pro's) I was running a custom program for quite awhile. I changed that up and I'm now running the Ecotech SPS AB+ program. So far so good. Although I've only been running it for 2 weeks now. I'm hoping to see even more growth and color. You can read about the program and it's benefits here....

http://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Ecotech_CoralLab_WP1.pdf

 

[Mark L.]

The tank looks great man. I wish the big RBTA was in my tank right now.

As far as flow and powerhead placement, I like my flow moderate to high during the day with a slow wave. Kinda like you'd have in a reef setting...I have my pumps alternating between a 3 second wave each way with a 6 second pause. I have it set with my JB wave. One pump blows 3 seconds and then stops. The other pump comes on in 6 seconds and blows for 3 seconds and stops. They just continue like that. The corals seem to love it and I do too. I think as long as you mimic the ocean, it's gonna work well. At night I like to slow things down to give the corals a break and a chance to feed. As far as light goes...I love the color of T5's and the coverage I get on my coral. So I can't elaborate on LED's. If somebody gave me some Radion GEN 4 Pro's, I definitely test them. hehe.

I never really understood the night mode on pumps. Corals extend their polyps at night to feed. Why would you want to slow your water flow down at the most important time of the day? Dinner time! In the ocean corals don't get a break. In fact, tides roll in and out at night with the moon which puts even more movement in the water. Currents in the ocean never stop. Corals extend their polyps during the night because they know that is when all the detritus and food gets kicked up into the water column. I want my pumps to do the same thing. Lift up all the detritus on the sand/rocks at night when my corals are feeding. Just my $0.02 and something to think about.

 

[Reefahholic]

I think the ocean slows down a little at night. This is just my mere opinion from being a surfer for 20 years and surfing in many different countries. However, I think you are mostly right Mark. We don't want to limit flow too much during dinner time hours because we all know that corals extend their polyps to feed at night. It really just comes down to personal preference. One thing we do know as fact. Flow rate definitely determines how well corals can feed and the structure of their colonies. That said, every coral is slightly different. Some do well at higher flow rates and others with lower flow rates. My theory is simple, if I blast them all day to suspend detritus, prevent algae growth, increase oxygenation, etc. I like to slow down the flow a bit at night. I feel that they feed better with slightly slower flow. I personally like to think they can catch food better. This is just my opinion and personal preference. A lot of people run full blast 24/7 and say they haven't noticed much difference one way or the other. For me...it just feels right. If you would like to read more about flow rates and coral feeding for yourself, check out the link below as you'll learn and understand more than you'll probably ever care to know.

Feature Article: Coral Feeding: An Overview — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

 

[oneasianguy]

I put my two pumps on the opposite side. Got 2 MP40 in my 90 gallon.

 

[johntdaballa]

Thanks Mark , Reefahholic. Still reading the articles and articles hat I've read so far has given me a better idea on how the lights work . I currently run my pumps 24/7 . The only break is feeding time


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