40 times volume flow?
 

Exactly how am I supposed to maintain 40 times the volume of my tank in flow (55G so 2200GPH) when all these corals I see say "mild to moderate flow" and I get fish doing somersaults ???

How badly off would I be with 10 times the volume of flow, using two 240GPH pumps?

My eventual stocking plan is:

Six line wrasse 1
Barnacle blenny 1
Clownfish 1
Azure Damselfish 5
Firefish 3
Clown green goby 1
Blue green chromis 6
Feather duster 2
Shrimp/goby pair 1
Peppermint shrimp 1
Cleaner shrimp 2
Conch 2
Nassarius 3
Bumblebees 5
Hermits blue/red 15

Torch coral
Bubble coral
Hammer coral
Frogspawn coral
Crystal Galaxy coral
Ricordia coral
Zoanthids
Acans
Riterri or Bubbletip Anemone

Charles

Curious, where did you get that number 40 from?

Y do you want 4x flow.

18 fish in a 55. Wow

Fire fish are jumpers. Just so you know.

19. You forgot the "shrimp/goby"

That's a lot of flow for the corals on your list. 20x would be better IMO. It doesn't have to be continuous direct flow either, alternating and faster/slower speed rates are more natural. Getting the flow to cover all the nooks and crannies of the tank is more important than actual flow rates. It helps keep algae and cyno at bay and is good for nutrient export to feed the corals and keep things in suspension for waste removal.

Besides it being mentioned that's too many fish for your tank :surprise:

6.1x your total system volume is enough for flow through your sump for most skimmers to work correctly

The 35-40x flow is total/combined flow in your tank for the highest flow requirements of some SPS. This includes your return pump ( 6.1x sump flow ) + your intank stuff ( powerheads/closed loops/wave boxes )

You don't need such a high flow rate if you're not keeping only the most finicky SPS, and such a flow will probably destroy lots of LPS

Depending on what you plan on keeping, you can get away with much lower flow rates such as 20-25x total turnover

So, for your 55g tank as an example with a 15g sump ( total probably close to 60g ), your return pump would work well with 350-400gph
Your total system volume in my model is 60g, so 25x is 1500gph-400=1100
Divide that by 2 and you only need 2 powerheads of 5-600gph each

Of course, this is just a gestimate, and having multiple powerheads in a system is better than 2, in most cases ...

It appears to be the consensus view on most of the large reef forums. To be exact it is from 30 to 40 times.

Charles

I don't 'want' 40x flow, I want to make sure I can use 10x but it seems that it too low according to most web sites.

18 fish that are going to stay at 1" in length and get sold/traded when they get bigger. ;)

Charles

But that's only for the most heavily populated SPS dominant tanks
The last time I tried to turn my mp10s up over 75% in my 75g tank, my SPS started growing sideways away from the pumps :surprise:

It's your decision. But IMO. 5 damsels are going to create a fair amount of aggression. I had two in a 180 and they were not a friendly fish. Also hate to see a ha breakout from such a high bio load.

But back on topic.