Poor Polyp Extension

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Jaws

Well, I'll tell you what I have for water flow now:

I have 4 1" Seaswirls. One is plumbed to the return and is pushing about 1000 GPH. The other three are plumbed to a closed loop on an Ampmaster 3600 and are pushing about 1000 GPH through each. This is all I've had for about the last 4 months. In the last week I've added two of the Ecotech Vortechs to really try and jack the flow. They're each running at full out which is about 3000 GPH each. I would imagine this should be more than enough for a 180G tank. Since I've only been running it with this much flow for less than a week, could that be the problem or should corals start to respond to the high flow almost right away?

thats only about a 55x turn over rate and thats not taking into account head loss through the sea swirls so I would say you could make that about a 40X turn over.. I would say that is a low water flow for a SPS tank personaly so it could have somthing to do with it.. I am running about 110X turn over in my tank and I think Brad is up around the same.

Steve

[Jaws]

I took the head loss into account when I said 1000gph for the seaswirls. I've seen so many other tanks out there with thriving sps corals that have a lot less flow. I figured what I have would be enough.

[reeferaddict]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

thats only about a 55x turn over rate and thats not taking into account head loss through the sea swirls so I would say you could make that about a 40X turn over.. I would say that is a low water flow for a SPS tank personaly so it could have somthing to do with it.. I am running about 110X turn over in my tank and I think Brad is up around the same.

Steve

Delbeek, Sprung et all shoot for 40X overall... not that 110X is bad if you can manage a tank with that much flow... it all still pales in comparison to nature...

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Jaws

I figured what I have would be enough.

Ya, that should be fine...

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Jaws

I took the head loss into account when I said 1000gph for the seaswirls. I've seen so many other tanks out there with thriving sps corals that have a lot less flow. I figured what I have would be enough.

sorry that came out wrong.. I had a nice tank with 20X turnover so I am not saying you don't have enuf I guess but rather with a loer number like that you have potential for more dead spots which could be afecting the corals some how.. now if it is all the coral in the tank and not just a few then again don't worry about it.

also one thing to think about.. how hard is the jet stream from the sea swirls? could it be to much of a blast and causeing the corals to retract?

Steve

[Jaws]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

also one thing to think about.. how hard is the jet stream from the sea swirls? could it be to much of a blast and causeing the corals to retract?

Steve

I know that before I added the vortech I had to angle the flow from the seaswirl down at the rocks more in order to get more direct flow so all the turbulence wasn't just at the top. Now since adding the vortech I've gone back to a 90 degree pvc fitting for the outlets on the seaswirls and since there's so much turbulence at the top half of the tank, the currents crash into each other and force a lot of the water down on to the corals. It looks pretty good. I observed the corals last night about an hour before the MH's turned off and even though they had no where near the polyp extension I've seen on really healthy tanks, the polyps were peeking out on most of the corals so this is a good sign.