sps and flow

[Ram3500]

I have been thinking a lot lately about optimal flow for sps . I am mainly focusing on sps corals in my reef now. I know that the more is better, its now the amount of flow that is concerning me its the amount of time.

I am really interested to hear from those who have full grown out sps tanks and what you have done for flow time ? I am currently running two wp40 on random flow from 10am to 10 pm and a tunze nano wave box from 4pm to 10:30 pm on my 150 gallon.

I recently spoke with a Can reef member who has one of the nicest sps tanks I have ever seen . I was very surprised to find out that he runs his wave makes 24/7. I have always been under the assumption that the inhabitants need a break at night but am I wrong? I tried running my pumps at night for a few week but than I stopped. The fish seemed fine they just tucked away in the rocks but my one lps a bubble coral never looked to happy.

So do I go full throttle at night ? Do I run one pump on low high I don't know :noidea:

[Reef Pilot]

I have 2 WP40's and 2 Coralife DC5800 Wavemaker pumps running in my 100g SPS tank, as well as my return pump flow. That makes for over 6000 gph flow in the tank. All the wavemaker pumps run on turbulence and random flow during the day, so that really mixes up the flow patterns. Then at night the light sensors direct the controllers to dial down the flow (but not shut off), so the corals and fish all get a rest.

[asylumdown]

Well, ocean currents don't necessarily take a break at night (though it's true that in some places things can get calmer), so I think most SPS corals can handle lots of night time flow no problem. However, if you turn the current down you'll notice quite a bit more night time polyp extension. I'm sure long tentacled LPS will appreciate the reduced flow, though most of mine retract almost all the way at night regardless of what the flow is doing.

I turn the flow in my tank down at night mostly for a single fish that seems to struggle with too strong of a flow at night.

[Aquattro]

I have rather complicated flow timing, but I do back off at night, more so to give the fish a bit of break for sleeping. If they sleep :)

[Reef Pilot]

I have 2 WP40's and 2 Coralife DC5800 Wavemaker pumps running in my 100g SPS tank, as well as my return pump flow. That makes for over 6000 gph flow in the tank. All the wavemaker pumps run on turbulence and random flow during the day, so that really mixes up the flow patterns. Then at night the light sensors direct the controllers to dial down the flow (but not shut off), so the corals and fish all get a rest.
Whoops, meant over 12,000 gph flow inside the tank.

[spit.fire]

I aim for 45x turnover 24/7

[MitchM]

For a proper SPS environment, aim for alternating flow> 20cm/second. :smile:
See this article.
http://www.coralscience.org/main/articles/nutrition-6/how-corals-feed

and articles like the one in this PDF.
www.int-res.com/articles/meps/212/m212p301.pdf (http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/212/m212p301.pdf)

Slowing it down at night for the sake of the fish isn't a bad idea.

[KPG007]

I have one tank (well, 2 now) that I dial the wave action down at night, and even turn off one of the lower pumps to, as Brad said, give the fish a chance to sleep a little more peacefully.
In another tank, there is no flow reduction at all, just a lot of holes and calmer water behind the rock work for the fish to sleep.
In all cases the coral is healthy and happy and growing well. So I do not believe flow duration plays much of a part in coral health.

[Aquattro]

Here's my setup which seems to serve me well. Ya, it's long...

I run this on two sets of Tunzes. I then have a WP60 on random and adding a second this weekend.

==========================================

Wave1 (This is my main daylight wave pattern)

Synchronize Enabled
Divide by 10 Enabled
Initial off time (Seconds) 0
On time (Seconds) 7
Off time (Seconds) 4
Minimum intensity 0
Maximum intensity 100

Wave2 (Similar pattern to the above but Syn is disabled which creates a bit more chaos)

Synchronize Disabled
Divide by 10 Enabled
Initial off time (Seconds) 0
On time (Seconds) 7
Off time (Seconds) 4
Minimum intensity 0
Maximum intensity 100

Lt_Flush (This is for the left side 6205 flush)

Synchronize Disabled
Divide by 10 Disabled
Initial off time (Seconds) 0
On time (Seconds) 30
Off time (Seconds) 30
Minimum intensity 0
Maximum intensity 90


Rt_Flush (Rt 6205 alternate interval of LT_Flush alternates one on while the other is off)

Synchronize Disabled
Divide by 10 Disabled
Initial off time (Seconds) 30
On time (Seconds) 30
Off time (Seconds) 30
Minimum intensity 0
Maximum intensity 90

DuskDawn (This is a lower flow wave pattern used intermittantly during the light hours as well as before and after lights go out)
Synchronize Enabled
Divide by 10 Enabled
Initial off time (Seconds) 0
On time (Seconds) 7
Off time (Seconds) 4
Minimum intensity 0
Maximum intensity 30

Night (Sets a constant 30% flow during light off hours)
Synchronize Disabled
Divide by 10 Disabled
Initial off time (Seconds) 0
On time (Seconds) 10
Off time (Seconds) 15
Minimum intensity 30
Maximum intensity 30

I am up to 3 timers. My use for the timers is to create short random periods of different flow during daylight hours.

Timer1 (turns on every 120 minutes for 10 minutes. If timer 2 is on at that time, it should remain off.

OSC 120:00/010:00/000:00 Then ON
If Outlet Timer2 = ON Then OFF
If Time 19:30 to 11:30 Then OFF
If FeedA 000 Then OFF

Timer2 (turns on every 45 minutes for 15 minutes except if timer 3 is on)
OSC 045:00/015:00/000:00 Then ON
If Outlet Timer3 = ON Then OFF
If Time 19:30 to 11:30 Then OFF
If FeedA 000 Then OFF

Timer3 (turn on every 15 minutes for 5 minutes except if timer 1 is on)
OSC 015:00/005:00/000:00 Then ON
If Outlet Timer1 = ON Then OFF
If Time 19:30 to 11:30 Then OFF
If FeedA 000 Then OFF


-----------------------------------------------

These are the variable speed pumps and their programming:
StreamLt
Set Wave1
If Time 10:30 to 11:59 Then duskdawn
If Time 12:00 to 19:00 Then Wave1
If Time 19:01 to 20:00 Then duskdawn
If Time 20:01 to 10:29 Then Night
If Outlet Timer1 = ON Then Lt_Flush
If Outlet Timer2 = ON Then duskdawn
If Outlet Timer3 = ON Then Wave2
If FeedA 000 Then OFF


StreamRt
Set Wave1
If Time 10:30 to 11:59 Then duskdawn
If Time 12:00 to 19:00 Then Wave1
If Time 19:01 to 20:00 Then duskdawn
If Time 20:01 to 10:29 Then Night
If Outlet Timer1 = ON Then Rt_Flush
If Outlet Timer2 = ON Then duskdawn
If Outlet Timer3 = ON Then Wave2
If FeedA 000 Then OFF

[George]

great topic. From what I have read from the divers that dive at night regularly, ocean waves and currents don't necessarily slow down at night. It's a physiological thing that some people (including me :)) slow down our power heads at night for our fish friends. But they should be able to handle the wave in our tanks at full blast at night.

[MitchM]

"I have my Tunze on full power for 30 seconds" doesn't really identify the water movement.
A lot depends on the rockwork structure and the direction the power head is pointed vs the placement of the coral.

[Aquattro]

"I have my Tunze on full power for 30 seconds" doesn't really identify the water movement.
A lot depends on the rockwork structure and the direction the power head is pointed vs the placement of the coral.

Agreed. In my setup, the Tunzes are at opposing ends facing each other, simulating a wave. Moderate rock, flow is above rock, but wave hits most areas.

The comments are more for personal reference in the code :)

[Ram3500]

I have set my tunze wave box so it is producing a small gentle wave and will run that durning the night . This way at least the fish will get a break. The wave box doesn't blast the tank like the wp40s do so I think this is a better alternative and could be more natural maybe .

[Craigdillman]

I read a thread on RC about a week ago and it had a article quoted from one of the magazines " reef keeping" i think and it stated that waves and turbulence don't slow down at night so there was no advantage to slowing the pumps down at night, the fish and corals are used to the waves and in some cases its shown to improve sps corals especially cause the detrius continues to be blown off and they can feed better with the same flow as during the day

[MitchM]

Ocean currents may not slow down at night, other than tidal changes, but there are many more places for fish to find a quiet place to rest in the ocean than there are in our tanks.
Higher flow is better for corals no doubt. If you read that PDF I posted, you'll understand why.
What is best for corals and what is best for fish are different conditions.
That's one of the limitations of our small tanks.

[asylumdown]

It also depends on the fish. My long horn cow fish doesn't really hide at night, not that he could fit in to any tight spaces anyway. He's about as graceful as as cube van.

At night he just sort of goes in to this weird non-reactive stupor, even though his eyes are still moving around. You could drop his favourite food literally right between his eyes and he wouldn't react to it. He sits right in the middle of the tank just above a colony of SPS for the whole night. He's not the best of swimmers when he's alert, and he really seems to visibly struggle in strong current at night.

I reprogrammed my apex a while back and forgot to add back the night mode, which meant that "tidal swell" mode, which ramps up to all pumps at 100% every couple of hours was running all night. On the third morning of that I woke up to find the cowfish inside one of my overflow boxes. He didn't actually fit so large parts of him were out of the water and he was as close to death as I think I've seen a fish that managed to live. He lost most of his tail and his dorsal fin from that. Since adding back a night mode where everything runs at a seriously reduced power, there hasn't been another incident.

My anthias on the other hand all disappear in to the rocks and wedge themselves in to tight spaces together every night, and my trigger fish has dug a cave so deep you can't see any part of him when he's inside it, so I think I could simulate a hurricane every night and they wouldn't even notice.