Water Movement advice

[kmatwill]

All I have for water movement is my return pump. It seems to do just fine. What would adding a couple of power heads do for my coral?

[melev]

If your tank is healthy and doing well, why change it? Adding powerheads can help agitate the surface to provide better gas exchange, and if it is on a wave maker, simulate ocean currents.

You might even consider using the SCWD perhaps.

[Seastorm]

I agree with trying out the SCWD.

I have one in my 150 gallon tank and I have attached it to my Mag 18 return pump with the water returning via 2 overflows.

It works great and no heat gain as with additional powerheads.

In fact I might purchase another one soon, they are about $29.00 from Ebay.

[ejmeier]

Looks like you have a tank with mainly soft corals from your tank description, is this correct?

Higher currents are mainly beneficial to SPS corals, and some soft corals actually don't like too much current. Plus, IMO powerheads are ugly!

If you must tinker with your water movement, I think the SCWD would be a great idea, as already suggested. What I did was split off the return line in several places (custom return manifold) so that each area of the tank recieves some current, while it is not all being blasted back in one spot.

Combine this with the switching current of a SCWD, and you have a real winner.

[kmatwill]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is SCWD? thanks

[melev]

It is pronounced SQUID, but it is an alternating current device. Water goes in from a pump, and comes out on one side for 7 or 8 seconds, then switches to the other side for an equal amount of time.

Here's mine incorporated into a plumbing maze called a closed loop. The black thing is the SCWD:

http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com...losedloop.html

[melev]

My older setup, before the closed loop, coming up from my return:



Of course, this could have been used with the closed loop as well, but I didn't like the plumbing in my way.

[kmatwill]

pretty cool. thanks

[gljjr]

I just got a SCWD and it seems to work very well. Time will tell how long it'll be before I have to soak it in viniegar. I also run 4 rotating sprinkler heads by Hunter Industries (They were the only ones I could get to work with the low pressure of the Ampmaster) as seen here.

http://www.hunterindustries.com/hunt...otors/pgp1.htm

I have to clean them in a viniegar soak about every 3 months or so and they do cut the flow a bit. But overall my corals have been very happy with them. At $13 from the local plumbing supply house they sure beat the cost of a SeaSwirl! I bought the Shrub type and just attached them directly to my 3/4" manifold outlets. The nice thing about the shrub type is that they don't have to be modified at all. I tried 3 or 4 other brand and none of them worked.

[melev]

Originally posted by gljjr
I just got a SCWD and it seems to work very well. Time will tell how long it'll be before I have to soak it in viniegar. I also run 4 rotating sprinkler heads by Hunter Industries (They were the only ones I could get to work with the low pressure of the Ampmaster) as seen here.

http://www.hunterindustries.com/hunt...otors/pgp1.htm

I have to clean them in a viniegar soak about every 3 months or so and they do cut the flow a bit. But overall my corals have been very happy with them. At $13 from the local plumbing supply house they sure beat the cost of a SeaSwirl! I bought the Shrub type and just attached them directly to my 3/4" manifold outlets. The nice thing about the shrub type is that they don't have to be modified at all. I tried 3 or 4 other brand and none of them worked.

Is that all plastic internally? No metal, no screws? Pretty neat!

[gljjr]

The only metal is a spring so far as I can tell... And that I really don't care about since I use caulerpa in my filter and it can use the iron from the small amount of metal in these units. I haven't had a problem with them in the last 9 months other than having to soak them in the vinegar every 6 months or so to clean them out. They stop rotating after a while if I don't.