turn over

[andycook]

What kind of flow in a softie tank
- turnover from sump to display
- closed loop & flow rate for it

Thoughts?

[reefnewbie54321]

what kind of softies are you planning on keeping?

Zoo's need high flow where as Mushrooms need enough flow that detrius doesnt settle on it (very little)

I am a strong believer in a low turnover rate for the sump, just enough to run your skimmer. And create flow within the tank using devices like streams and wave2k

[andycook]

At the moment it is only rock. I'm not quite ready to stock it yet.

[graveyardworm]

In my 90 mixed reef which at the moment has mostly softies my return pump is around 800 GPH, there's also a sieo 820 at one end, and a maxi-jet 1200 (295 GPH I think) on a timer (3 hours on 3 hours off) at the other end. The sieo and maxi are pointed directly at each other and when the maxi comes on I get a couple minutes of turbulence. So I have a total of 1900 GPH when everythings on, and I still have dead spots.

You're setting up a 180g? I would start with a couple tunze streams plus return flow, maybe add a wavemaker.

[reefnewbie54321]

I think a pair of streams is good flow for an SPS, a soft tank needs less flow. I say you use the smaller streams, a wavebox (turned on low, also can e turned up if sps are added), or some other type of wavemaker

[reefnewbie54321]

Actualy I forgot about the Maxi-Steams ... 2-3 of these would give plenty of flw for a soft tank, its also cheap and kills barely any watts.

[andycook]

Interesting, I hadn't considered a wavemaker.

[Scuba_Dave]

I have 1450gph turnover to my sump - soon to be decreased to 900.
I have a Tunze putting out 1850gph & will be adding a 2nd - upgrading from 125g to 180g

[Nagel]

300g display tank, Ampmaster 3000 for the return (split to 3 different points). In-tank current is an Iwaki 55 w/ seaswirls, Tunze Wavebox (AWESOME addition to a soft coral tank), and a single Seio 820.

The key point for softies is to not let detritus accumulate. They do not need SPS like flows, as most soft corals are not found on the reef crest, but they do require enough flow to help them remove detritus / mucuos coats....