how much flow do I need?

[sickman]

I just started a tank about a week ago on my first tank, a 37gallong "tall", and I have a 270gph oscilating power head, a biopack2 filter and a wet/dry millenium filter rated at 160 GPH.

I have about 30-40 pounds of live rock sitting in there now curing, do I have enough flow?:confused:

[Guy Bradford]

you should have at a minimum 10X your your tank size, in your case 370 gph. I recommend 15X to 20X. I wouls also recommend 2 to 3 inches of live sand, especially if you want to keep certain types of anemones later on that bury their column in the sand instead of attaching to rocks. Its also great for beneficial bacteria that will help break down the ammonia and nitrites.

[thrlride]

If you want to keep some more light requiring corals you will need more power too as your tank is rather tall.

[sickman]

well what I have is like crushed shells with alot of smaller shells mixed in. What do I have to do to make it "live sand"?

[sickman]

Originally posted by thrlride
If you want to keep some more light requiring corals you will need more power too as your tank is rather tall.

light requiring corals need more flow? how much more flow?

and where am I going to stick more power heads, not much room in there without putting em in the forefront :(

[Guy Bradford]

Go to your LFS and ask them for some live sand which should be bagged and still wet. Do not rinse the sand as you will kill the beneficial bacteria that already exist, just add it right into the tank. For two inches in a 37 gallon tank I would think you need about 40lbs. You can also buy 40 lbs of arragonite sand for a little cheaper and use that. It will have to be rinsed however before adding it to your tank, after your tank finishes its cycle you will then have a bed of live sand. Also I recommend that you go out and buy a good book on marine aquariums and read it if you are really serious about the hobby, it will help you make better decisions in the long run and hopefully prevent you from making costly mistakes. It will also help you to learn what life forms can exist together or not and proper equipment and care that will be needed for their survival. Good luck and be patient and ask a lot of questions? We are always learning from each others experiences.

[Guy Bradford]

and where am I going to stick more power heads, not much room in there without putting em in the forefront :( [/B][/QUOTE]

You should also have at least one powerhead with a duckbill attached facing up towards the surface of the water causing a rippling effect, this will help to oxyginate the water. I have mine sitting about three inches below the surface with the duckbill turned up and it makes for great lighting effects in the tank as well. You may want to move your other powerhead up next to it with the flow downward. These are just my suggestions and I am sure you will get plenty as everyone here is very helpful and has found their own ways of doing things that work for them. You just have to listen to what everyone has to say and then go try different thing until you find what works best for your setup.

[sickman]

Originally posted by Guy Bradford
Go to your LFS and ask them for some live sand which should be bagged and still wet. Do not rinse the sand as you will kill the beneficial bacteria that already exist, just add it right into the tank. For two inches in a 37 gallon tank I would think you need about 40lbs. You can also buy 40 lbs of arragonite sand for a little cheaper and use that. It will have to be rinsed however before adding it to your tank, after your tank finishes its cycle you will then have a bed of live sand. Also I recommend that you go out and buy a good book on marine aquariums and read it if you are really serious about the hobby, it will help you make better decisions in the long run and hopefully prevent you from making costly mistakes. It will also help you to learn what life forms can exist together or not and proper equipment and care that will be needed for their survival. Good luck and be patient and ask a lot of questions? We are always learning from each others experiences.

yeah, I have the argonite in there now. So it will become "live sand" when tank is done cycling? Cool.

I got 3 books I am thumbing through right now, all seem really good except I need 1 more that just shows exactly what bad algae looks like, what is good algae, things to look out for etc..

As far as asking questions, here I am :D

[Guy Bradford]

From your pictures in your other post it looks like you have mostly small fragments of shells, I believe you need a finer grain of arrogonite. The arragonite that I have looks more like sand than what your does. I use the CoralSea Aragomax sugar sized sand. Check out the following website for the different types that CoralSea sells.

www.corallogic.com/substrate.htm#aragonite

As for algae questions, go to the homepage for this website and do a search for all topics on algae and you will get more than enough information on the good and bad.

[sickman]

Originally posted by Guy Bradford
From your pictures in your other post it looks like you have mostly small fragments of shells, I believe you need a finer grain of arrogonite. The arragonite that I have looks more like sand than what your does. I use the CoralSea Aragomax sugar sized sand. Check out the following website for the different types that CoralSea sells.

www.corallogic.com/substrate.htm#aragonite

As for algae questions, go to the homepage for this website and do a search for all topics on algae and you will get more than enough information on the good and bad.


I see, so do I have to get rid of all the stuff I have in my tank now? Can I just dump it ontop?

[Guy Bradford]

No need to remove whats in there, just add a couple inches of the Aragomax on top, you will probably need about thirty pounds.

[sickman]

Originally posted by Guy Bradford
No need to remove whats in there, just add a couple inches of the Aragomax on top, you will probably need about thirty pounds.

cool :thumbsup: